Can someone tell me what I need in order to receive live calls on my internet radio show. I downloaded Winamp, Skype, and will download Virtual Audio Cables. Will this suffice or am I headed in the wrong direction? If so what do I need? I would like to play music and do a talk show for one hour per week.
Receiving Live Calls
- Thread starter Free2bmeV
- Start date
LG73
New Member
Hi Free2bmeV,
Doing live calls on radio shows varies depending on how elaborate a setup you want. If you just need the callers to hear you and not the rest of your program content, then rig the system so your mic feed goes down the Skype line and you should be fine. You'll need to mix both your mic and the Skype back to feed the results into your stream encoder. The key is to make sure the incoming Skype audio from your caller doesn't get sent back down the Skype line.
A more elaborate setup where you want the caller to hear both you and other program content would be easiest to do with an external hardware mixer with the ability to create a "mix-minus" feed to send down the Skype line. You can create the special "mix-minus" feed using effects send channels or an aux output feature depending on the hardware. Some mixers designed for use as radio consoles will have built-in telecom features with mix-minus outputs already in place.
This can also be done in software with the right kind of software mixer. You design the system so the caller hears you and other program content on your show but doesn't hear a delayed version of themselves.
Skype has lag as do pretty much all digital communication systems. Cellphones and Skype automatically take care of that issue using echo-cancellation for most calls. You may have experienced occasions on a cellphone where the echo-cancellation fails and you hear a delayed version of yourself while talking which is very distracting! When sending a mixed program signal down a Skype line you are bypassing any built-in echo-cancellation so you take on the responsibility to prevent the caller hearing themselves in delay.
A Skype-in phone number is best if you want callers to access your show easily from any landline or cellphone. Direct Skype to Skype provides the best audio quality and would be a good choice for a scheduled guest on the show if they have a good quality audio setup at their end.
With the right gear and proper setup you can get very high-quality calls on-air using Skype. Be prepared to spend time setting it up and do lots of off-air testing first to make sure you have it working properly before going live on-air with it.
Hope this makes sense!
Cheers,
Philip
Doing live calls on radio shows varies depending on how elaborate a setup you want. If you just need the callers to hear you and not the rest of your program content, then rig the system so your mic feed goes down the Skype line and you should be fine. You'll need to mix both your mic and the Skype back to feed the results into your stream encoder. The key is to make sure the incoming Skype audio from your caller doesn't get sent back down the Skype line.
A more elaborate setup where you want the caller to hear both you and other program content would be easiest to do with an external hardware mixer with the ability to create a "mix-minus" feed to send down the Skype line. You can create the special "mix-minus" feed using effects send channels or an aux output feature depending on the hardware. Some mixers designed for use as radio consoles will have built-in telecom features with mix-minus outputs already in place.
This can also be done in software with the right kind of software mixer. You design the system so the caller hears you and other program content on your show but doesn't hear a delayed version of themselves.
Skype has lag as do pretty much all digital communication systems. Cellphones and Skype automatically take care of that issue using echo-cancellation for most calls. You may have experienced occasions on a cellphone where the echo-cancellation fails and you hear a delayed version of yourself while talking which is very distracting! When sending a mixed program signal down a Skype line you are bypassing any built-in echo-cancellation so you take on the responsibility to prevent the caller hearing themselves in delay.
A Skype-in phone number is best if you want callers to access your show easily from any landline or cellphone. Direct Skype to Skype provides the best audio quality and would be a good choice for a scheduled guest on the show if they have a good quality audio setup at their end.
With the right gear and proper setup you can get very high-quality calls on-air using Skype. Be prepared to spend time setting it up and do lots of off-air testing first to make sure you have it working properly before going live on-air with it.
Hope this makes sense!
Cheers,
Philip