[BC] Doing remotes in 2007

[Goran Tomas]

--- At 4.4.2007 23:47, Dana  Puopolo wrote: ---
>Here's a great way of doing remotes (soon to be part of an article I'm wrting
>for Barry).
>
>Take a laptop. Get Sprint EVDO Internet for it. Install SKYPE on it.
>
>It turns out that Skype to Skype calls have a frequency response of about 30
>Hz - 8 kHx, low latence, and sound GREAT on air. The USB microphone allows you
>to be digital from the mike capsule all the way to the station.

Yeah, people have been doing that, but my concern is the sound 
quality... It just isn't at the level you get from a RF link or ISDN 
codec. Btw, in my experience Google Talk has slightly better sound 
quality than Skype.

I suppose Sprint EVDO is a PCMCIA/USB modem for mobile connection to 
Internet (GSM/EDGE/3G)? If that's the case, I'd prefer a bit more 
expensive solution with AudioTX Communicator software running on your 
laptop, instead of Skype/Google Talk. Latency/buffering is low and 
adjustable (in case of congested networks) and quality with the 
MP2/MP3 codec at 64/80 kbps (mono) much better! Backfeed can be in 
the same format, or different with higher bitrate (and stereo) which 
is usually what you can do as download speeds are higher than upload. 
Works good with EDGE enabled networks, though because of the low 
upload speed with EDGE it's much better on 3G HSDPA networks. The 
good thing is that even if the connections breaks, the software will 
reconnect in less than a second. The drop out is less than you get on 
some cell phone services.

What I'm surprised is that for a long time there's only one such 
software solution available on the market! No other manufacturer 
seems to think that there's a demand for such products or they could 
make money on it? And things could be much improved over AudioTx... 
Using higher efficiency codecs such as AAC(LD) and aacPlus as well as 
putting some voice codecs into the box, it could sound better and 
work on much lower speed connections as well. More robust/optimized 
transport would be a plus as well. As well as a lower price tag ;-)

If I had the time and resources....


Regards,
Goran Tomas