Thursday, March 15, 2012

Sound card controls for VoIP patching

Here is an updated graphic with notes showing the results of my further testing of VoIP phone patching. I found it convenient to keep both sets of controls open, side-by-side, while using my headset (connected to the PC sound card (analog) jacks. Click on the graphic below for a larger view.


In general, the Recording settings (right side of graphic) control the audio going TO the distant VoIP party, on a phone call or Skype session, for example. The Playback settings (left side) control:
  • the distant party's VoIP audio going to the transmitter
  • the local operator's headset microphone audio going to the transmitter
  • the receiver audio going to the local headset and to the distant VoIP party
The sound cards in my older PCs use a "select" check-box in the Recording controls. Only one choice can be selected at a time. To enable passing both microphone and receiver audio to the distant VoIP party, I select one of the "mix" settings. The sound card on my newer PC has mute check-boxes in the Recording controls. In that case I could mute or unmute any devices, in the same manner as provided in the Playback controls.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

VoIP Patch Update

I've done off-air testing of my previously-successful VoIP phone patching using a younger PC (Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz). Here is an annotated screen shot that shows the sound card settings along with Skype audio settings. I'll use the three control panels shown during on-air operations while I verify the best configuration. Previously I have used only the Gmail Call Phone VoIP application. The younger PC has the CPU power needed to run Skype. The older Pentium 3, 600 MHz PC could manage Gmail Call Phone (Google voice) at 76 to 100% CPU utilization.

Click on the image below for a full sized view.