online radio – Graves On SOHO Technology

HDVoice In Service Of Online Radio: Part 2

In part 1 I addressed Soljon’s question about how to physically connect a G.722 capable SIP phone to a traditional audio mixer for use in an online radio project.

I understand and appreciate the intention to use a phone as the audio interface device. Phones are effectively appliances, offering excellent audio quality combined with simplicity of operation and high reliability.

This very logic leads me to use my Polycom IP650 in some unusual ways. For example, when I occasionally guest host the VUC calls I will call the ZipDX wideband conference bridge on one line, then call the Talkshoe G.711 bridge on a second line and perform an on-phone conference to connect the two bridges. Finally I engage the call recording function on the IP650 to give me an uncompressed WAV recording of the entire call.

July 17, 2010
Michael Graves
VoIP

This morning I received a very interesting question from a reader:

I am looking for an IP phone that supports G.722 and has audio inputs / outputs so I can connect it to my mixer. We are trying to connect two studios together for an online radio station. I have yet to find anything other than high end Polycom gear that has something like RCA in/out jacks. Have you by any chance come across anything?

Soljon Zool
Citizen Media Group

While not usually of concern to a small office or home office such issues are routine in broadcasting, which remains how I earn my living. Further, if you’ve read much around here you’ve probably realized that lousy audio quality on radio call-in shows is one of my pet peeves. Even online radio operators should be concerned about audio quality.

Finally, this is a novel application for HDVoice. It’s not something that I’ve done previously, so it caught my interest.