Google Voice & Video - Network Activity

The Windows Resource Monitor provides expanded details of CPU, memory, disk and network activity. A link to the Resource Monitor appears on the bottom of the Windows 7, 8 and 10 Performance tab of the Task Manager. This older article describes briefly the features and displays of the first 4 tabs of the Resource Monitor.

During this morning's conversation on 3740 kHz I joined a Google Hangouts session with W4BXI and explored the Resource Monitor a bit more than I had previously. I looked at the Network Activity tab to see the usage of the Google Talk plug-in that provides voice and video for Google Hangouts. Below are 3 partial screen shots showing the levels of network activity for both voice and video.

This first view shows network activity with a table of processes on the left. (Click on the image for a larger view.) Separate columns show send, receive and total Bytes/sec. For the voice activity in progress you see the average receive rate of 6,856 Bytes/sec. By clicking the check box to the left of googletalkplugin.exe its activity is highlighted in orange on the graph to the right. The receive activity corresponds to 8 x 6,856 = 54,848 bits/sec or 54.848 kb/s, which is very low on the 1 Mb/sec full scale graph.

This view shows the greatly increased average send rate of 61,170 Bytes/sec when I started sending live webcam video. The average rate corresponds to 489,360 bits/sec or almost 1/2 Mb/s. The graph on the right shows the variation in data rate as I was moving the camera around.

This view shows the data rate dropping on the graph when I stopped sending video. Due to the averaging time for the data on the left side, the send rate had not yet settled back to its voice-only rate.



I hope you will think of the Resource Monitor program the next time you are wondering about what is going on in your Windows computer.

- John

Google Hangouts: Video + Phone

A recent update to the Hangouts app removed or lost the ability to add phone users to a video (computer-to-computer) hangout. Many Hangout users complained about this change, and a forum posting provided  a way to run the older Hangout app to regain the phone calling feature.

Here is a summary of the process:

1. In your web browser address (URL) box, type g.co/hangouts.

 

2. Add users by:

• email invite
• call a phone (use keypad icon)
• share hangout link (e.g. via chat session)

3. Enter a phone number (or a contact name)

 At any time after starting the Hangout using g.co/hangouts, computer or phone users can be added by clicking the "people+" icon to get the window shown in step 2 above.

Recursive VoIP Phone Patch

This morning W4BXI was testing his VoIP phone patch arrangements using a Google Hangout. As the radio propagation gradually faded on 3740 kHz to my location, due to rising sun, he added me to the patch on my cell phone. Later he added W4UOA via his cell phone. Carl wondered if there was a way for us to test the use of a separate Google Hangout between the two of us and bridge it to the Hangout that John originally established. By calling his cell phone from the second Hangout, Carl was then able to bridge the two voice calls on his phone and enable us to talk and listen via our PCs while patched to the W4BXI station.
The sketch here shows the arrangement, with separate colors and line styles to distinguish the components. (Click on it for a full size view.) This "lash-up" worked very well for us! It is not intended for routine use, of course.

Naturally, the first choice for patching with a Google Hangout is to connect the person via his or her Google ID on the Hangout, for best audio quality (and video). A connection to a cell phone or landline phone is the second choice.

Update:  A new web app for Hangouts is now available.
Just point your browser to: https://hangouts.google.com

Virtual Audio Cables

With the Flex-3000 in house, I wanted to set up to use some digital modes. The instructions led me to the Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) program to make the digital audio connections between the digital mode software (e.g. DigiPan, JT65) and the PowerSDR program that runs the Flex.  The basic features of VAC are described in the program's help file and are illustrated in the following figure from that source.

 VAC provides a one-way "pipe" to interconnect digital audio streams between programs on a single Windows PC. The figure shows multiple applications that play or generate audio, connected to a single virtual cable that can then connect to multiple applications that accept audio input. To test the ability to combine multiple sources, I set up the arrangement shown below. In the VLC media player and the PowerSDR program I selected the same virtual cable for their outputs. At the Skype program I selected the virtual cable for its input. In a test call using Skype, the audio streams of both sources were audible. The audio level for each source must be set in its respective program.  

The ability to combine multiple audio streams and to transport the result to multiple programs may provide some possibilities for implementing audio patches for remote callers to access a radio transceiver.  Using two virtual cables I connected the Flex-3000 to Skype or to a Google Hangout for bidirectional audio and made some test calls to verify transmission. Below is a figure showing the test arrangement.

This arrangement provides sufficient audio paths for a single remote operator to talk through and listen to the transceiver.  

As usual, the challenge with a third-party patch is to find a place where the local station microphone can connect to the transmit audio and to the distant caller. Possibilities include:

• Station microphone connected to the transceiver in the normal manner, working in harmony with the audio on VAC1 (if they are not mutually exclusive)
• Microphone connected via some audio program to the VAC1 for transmit
• Microphone connected via some audio program to the VAC2 for talking to the remote device user

Transmit audio monitoring, built into the transceiver, enables the station operator to hear the audio transmitted by the distant caller.

In the absence of audio stream bridging within the Windows PC, a second Skype or Google Hangout session can be connected via conference call with the session that provides the transceiver patch.

Further testing is needed to determine what programs and devices are  available to implement the full patching capabilities.

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.