[cma-l] Community radio and Skype

[Two Lochs Radio]

Bruce

Yes, we have done this with no bother at all - it just works! It makes a
good half-way house where you want a reasonable voice quality interview
but haven't got ISDN available. The speech quality is much much better
than phone, though of course not on a par with ISDN links.

Main problem is that time delays are a little worse than ISDN and slightly
variable, which causes a few more false starts or tripping over each other
in conversation, and occasionally you get little Skype artefacts where it
catches up on timing and you get a little 'boing' or 'fizz' in the sound.
But with a reasonably fast PC and good connection these are minimal, and I
have found these can generally be edited out easily in post prod.

Because we run a software ISDN codec on the studio PC anyway, I was lucky
enough not to have to do any extra wiring whatever to use Skype for a proper
through-the-telco recording when I needed it in a hurry one day, and it just
worked perfectly. Got it installed and working in ten minutes. Using it
through a telco channel means there is a proper clean feed to the other end,
without which the person at the other end wouldn't have a hope of holding a
conversation as they will hear their own voice coming back at them with a
substantial delay. And in fact because of the way Skype works, which is
basically simplex, it would probably simply keep muting anyway, resulting in
continuous coming and going of the audio.

But you can easily work around this if you need to do it without a telco
channel, and you probably already have everything hooked up to do this
already as an experument. You just use a headset with mic into the computer
as most Skype users do anyway, and just take a parallel feed of the sound
out of the computer into the desk for the remote end.At the same time you
use a regular studio mic to take a feed of the local end (so you speaker is
using two mics - one sending to Skype, one to the desk). Just mix both
channels on the desk for recording and away you go.

Of course it helps enormously if the person at the other end is already
familiar with Skype, and it all works much better if they have a good
quality combined USB headset and mic (Trust do an excellent value one for
about £20 (the HS-4100), and an even higher quality one (HS-4200), which has
a neat trick that you can unplug the mic and plug in one of your choice if
required). Definitely go for a USB one if possible, but as with all such
devices, avoid installing the manufacturer's drivers - just let it use the
built in Windows audio drivers for best reliability.

If the other end is using a laptop's built in mic, a cheapy plugin, or one
of the devices that is like a phone handset with a phone quality mic in it,
then sometimes the results may be no better than a phone call. I would
definitely avoid a built in laptop mic - too many extraneous noises, not
least from the interviewee absent mindedly brushing against it, or even
worse, trying to use the keyboard while talking! Of course, if there is a
studio at the other end similarly plugged up, the quality is as good as it
can get through Skype's codec.

As with all interviews, studio or phone, I would recommend recording local
end to one channel (eg left) and remote end to the other (eg right) this
hugely simplifies any necessary editing, especially if one has talked over
the other orcoughed while the other is talking. At the end of the day you
can mix it down to a slightly more normal stereo spacing by doing a chanel
mix of, say 70% of each side mixed with 30% from the opposite side (I find
that works).

Alex
Two Lochs Radio

PS also works for Skype conference calls, so you can organize a cheapy
discussion with participants anywhere in the world, but best not to have
anyone participating on the studio feed computer, just use it to tap into
the conference.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bruce" <bruce at celticmusicradio.net>
To: <cma-l at commedia.org.uk>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 11:42 PM
Subject: [cma-l] Community radio and Skype


>
> Hi,
>
> Has anyone ever successfully connected a PC running Skype to their
> radio desk? With a standard phone, It's straightforward - just buy
> a TBU and plug it all together. I'm tempted to lash up something
> similar for Skype, taking a PFL signal from the desk mic into the
> pc audio-in, and routing the audio-out back to a spare channel -
> or maybe even using a proper telco channel on the desk - but before
> I start, has anyone ever tried this?
>