Using Skype with VidBlaster

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Contents

Introduction

If you’re webcasting with VidBlaster and wish to include remote participants, using Skype is one possible solution. In its basic form, Skype is usually used for two-way personal communication via the internet, with the option for video as well as audio transmission. This article will explain how these streams can be tied in with the simultaneous use of VidBlaster in a webcasting environment. There are also some guidelines for the use of Skype for broadcasting on the Skype Support webpages.

CPU & broadband loading

The first considerations when using Skype & VidBlaster together are the extra loads on the PC’s CPU and the broadband uplink connection. In effect you will be running two webstreaming applications simultaneously, which will increase the load on your CPU. You can check your CPU usage both in VidBlaster and via the Windows Task Manager (Performance) display, and see the difference when starting a Skype session alongside VidBlaster..

You will also be transmitting an extra video stream, to the remote participant via Skype, as well as the main webcast stream. Whilst the Skype stream will probably be at a lower bit-rate than the main webcast, it might still make a significant difference to the total upload bit-rate requirements. Most broadband connections are asymmetric, in that the upload speed is lower than the “headline” download speed. A “15 Mb/s” broadband connection (on the download side) might only give 1 Mb/s or less on the upload. You can check your actual connection speeds with a tool like that at Speedtest.net. Note that the figures displayed are average values, and that the actual speeds can fluctuate. You should therefore always allow a margin between your chosen webcast bit-rate and nominal upload speed of your broadband connection. And if running Skype as well, be aware that its outgoing video stream, which might be around 500Kb/s, is going to add to the total upload bit-rate.


Handling the incoming & outgoing Skype streams

Assuming your VidBlaster set-up is not going to be challenged by the CPU and broadband connection requirements of Skype, the next considerations to deal with are the four data streams, comprising the outgoing audio & video, and the incoming audio and video. In a normal Skype session, the outgoing video & audio would typically come from a webcam, and the incoming video & audio would be displayed on the PC screen and be heard via the PC speakers. Clearly, the relationship between these Skype streams and what’s happening in VidBlaster is a bit more complicated. The next sections will look at each of these streams in turn, and how to deal with them.

The methods described cover the general engineering principles that are involved in handling remote links in TV studios and Outside Broadcasts. The requirements for self-op VJs, who are operating the controls whilst presenting to camera, may be slightly different, but it may help to start with a more general overview.

The incoming Skype video stream

This is probably the easiest one to handle, by using the Screen Capture option within a Camera-I module. You will need to arrange the layout of your computer screen so that VidBlaster does not overlap with Skype’s video display window. Set the Camera-I input device to Screen Capture, then right-click, Capture > Select Area (4:3 or 16:9, as appropriate) and click & drag to draw a box over the Skype video display window. The incoming video will then be available to use as a camera source within VidBlaster.

There's a video on YouTube showing how to use Screen Capture in a type-I Camera module, which can be viewed here (skip forward to ~ 3mins 30secs)

The incoming Skype audio stream

As mentioned in the Audio Overview, VidBlaster is intended to be used with a hardware audio mixer in all but the most simple scenarios, and if you wish to be fully in control of the audio from a remote participant via Skype, you will definitely need one. By default, the incoming audio stream will play through the PC speakers (ie the default audio device Line Out). Typically this Line Out signal is taken to the external audio mixer to be combined with any live sound (from one or more local microphones), and the mixed output fed back into a Line In on the PC which acts as the source for VidBlaster’s Audio Module. However, the Player modules also default to playing through the PC Line Out, so with these default settings you will have no independent control on the mixer over the relative levels of the Player and incoming Skype audio. It will also give you a potential problem when it comes to generating the outgoing Skype return audio feed, which we’ll come to later.

SkypeAudioSpeakersSettings.png

A better solution is to set the Skype audio to play via a dedicated output, by having an extra PC sound device (internal soundcard or external USB device). In the Skype software Tools menu, under Options, General, Audio Settings, the “Speakers” can be set to any available audio device. Changing the setting to the Speakers (Line Out) of a different device allows the Player audio and the Skype audio to be connected to two separate channels of the mixer, giving a much greater degree of control. In particular, you may want to mute the incoming Skype audio when not featuring the remote participant, and having their audio feed also become “live” whenever the Player audio is faded up could lead to some embarrassing interjections.

The outgoing Skype video stream

In an ideal world you would probably want to have full control of what video is sent down the line from VidBlaster to the remote participant. However, sometimes a simple fixed video feed will suffice. There are a number of options, of varying complexity, which should cover most requirements.

Note: - New Virtual Video Device (VVD) available in version 2.19+

This article was written before the development of a new VVD which first appeared in the V2.19 Beta release. It provides new capabilities and overcomes previous issues when used with Skype v5.x. Once it is finalised, this whole section will be revised, although it is still worth reading in its current form, but with the following caveats:-

  • The "slow frame rate in Skype v5.x" has been cured in the new VVD, so no workarounds are needed for that issue.
  • The new VVD is accessed via a Video Out module, meaning that it is no longer limited to only outputting the stream from the Program module. It can use the feed from the Preview bus, or that from any single module, giving much greater flexibility.

One popular option is to use the VidBlaster Program video as the outgoing feed. This can be achieved by using the Virtual Video Device (VVD) as the output of the Streamer module, and then selecting VidBlaster as the webcam device in Skype’s Video Settings (from the Skype Tools menu, under Options, General, Video Settings). Using the VVD as the output from the Streamer module means you won’t necessarily be able to use the other streaming settings, unless you have the Broadcast edition and can add multiple Streamer modules, but you can use the stand-alone Adobe FMLE application to also take the VVD output and handle the main webcast streaming.

The advantage of using the VidBlaster program output via the VVD is that the remote participants get to see everything in the webcast, including the studio participants and any video inserts. One possible disadvantage is that they also get to see themselves whenever their stream is “live”, which can sometimes be a distraction. Of course if they’re featuring in a live webcast there’s probably nothing to stop then viewing the main webcast itself, which in one way could solve the problem of generating an outgoing Skype stream at all, particularly is upload bandwidth is limited.

Slow frame-rate problem using the VVD with Skype v5.x There appears to be an issue in using the (original) VidBlaster VVD with version five of the Skype software, in that the frame-rate appearing in Skype from the VVD is very slow - just a few frames per second (but now fixed by using the new VVD in v2.19+). One workaround was to use an additional freeware software "pipe" called SplitCam. This can be used to take the VidBlaster VVD as its input source, in turn creating its own VVD which can be used as the video source in Skype. Using this method allows an excellent frame-rate to be achieved when sending video to Skype via the VVD. However, using SplitCam is not a perfect solution for several reasons, including (a) It adds to the load on the CPU, (b) It appears to disable playback of MP4 files in VidBlaster (under Win7 64), (c) It only works at certain fixed pixel resolutions, many of which do not overlap with VidBlaster, although this is not a big problem if it's only handling the return feed for Skype.

If you wish to use an earlier version of the Skype software prior to v5.x, there's quite a few versions available for download from the Old Apps web site.

Outgoing video options

Another way of providing the return feed is to actually use a dedicated camera, for which purpose a basic webcam would suffice. An advantage of this is that the remote participants never get to see themselves, but are in constant visual communication with the studio. A variation of this would be to split the video feed from one of the studio cameras and connect it to two video capture devices, one feeding VidBlaster and the other one used by Skype. A simple USB vid-cap device would suffice for the Skype feed, although there are some issues with getting them set up as video sources in Skype – see box below. Taking this theme one step further, a Video Out module in VidBlaster could be used to generate an independently selectable video feed (eg from the Switcher’s Preview bus) through the output of a Blackmagic video card, connected back to a video capture device that is used as the source for Skype. In the future this may be possible in software, by VidBlaster generating multiple VVDs that can be assigned to different sources, but for now it requires extra hardware. (This is starting to happen with the introduction of the new VVD in the v2.19 beta, which becomes an output option in the Video Out module.)

USB video capture devices as a source for Skype. Whilst doing research for this article, it became clear that there was a problem with Skype initialising USB video capture devices, apparently because the “standard” USB video driver is written to include support for a Tuner as the default input, which of course is not present in a video-only capture device. As such, Skype gives up before connecting to the device, and has no controls for selecting the Composite or S-Video capture inputs – which is what it needs to do – presumably because such controls are not needed for USB web-cams in which there are no alternative inputs. The problem does not seem to exist for Blackmagic or Viewcast capture cards, probably because their drivers to not include an option for a non-existent Tuner. However, all is not lost when using USB modules. It is possible to run other software like VirtualDub which can access the controls of Direct Show USB capture devices at the same time as Skype is running, allowing the Input source to be correctly set so that Skype can access the device.

The outgoing Skype audio stream

Just like the outgoing video, generating the outgoing audio is more complicated than dealing with the incoming audio. In particular, you may wish to avoid sending the incoming audio back down the line to the remote site. Whilst they need to hear the audio from the studio, in order to respond accordingly, the remote participants may find it very distracting trying to talk whilst hearing their own sound coming back, but with a delay. In fact it’s so distracting that the ability to talk normally whilst listening to your own delayed speech is sometimes used as a test for deafness!

Mixer Aux Send controls
If you’ve seen (or owned) an audio mixer and wondered when you’d use some of the rows of knobs on each channel strip (or even what they all do), you’ll now discover the significance of Auxiliary Sends. The Aux Send controls on a mixer are used when there’s a need to generate a mixed output that is different from the main output. In this instance, we want to generate a return audio feed that only contains some of the components of the main webcast output, possibly in different proportions than in the main mix. There are two ways that each Aux Send control can obtain its signal from the respective channel, and they are Pre-fader & Post-fader. A Post-fader signal is taken from a point after the main channel fader which also controls the level going to the main output. This means that if a channel is faded out in the main mix, then no signal will be sent to the Aux output either. A Pre-fader signal is taken from before the channel fader. This means that even if the channel is faded out in the main mix, its signal can still be sent to the Aux output. In many mixers the Aux Sends are hard wired either as Pre-fader or Post-fader. In some mixers with multiple Aux Send busses, some might be Pre-fader, some Post-fader, and some switchable. As such, the controls may be labelled with different names such as FX Send, Echo Send, Foldback, or PA, but essentially they are all Aux mix busses. The mixer instruction manual or spec sheet will tell you how each Aux Send bus is configured.

To use an Aux Send output as the return audio feed for Skype, fade up only the Aux Send controls from the channels containing sound that you want your remote participant to hear. This may well be everything except their own sound - the incoming Skype audio stream. This is why it is useful to have the Skype software set to play the incoming audio through a dedicated audio output, so that it comes into the mixer isolated onto a single channel and can be eliminated from the return audio mix. An audio mix such as this is often referred to as a “Mix Minus”, in that it contains all the sources that are in the main mix, except one.

In general, Post-fader Aux Sends are the most suitable for creating the return audio, but there is an instance where a Pre-fader feed can be preferable. If the webcast has a main presenter/interviewer, using a Pre-fader feed of their mic as the Aux Send allows them to talk to the remote site at all times, even when their mic is not faded up as part of the main webcast. This might also be useful if there is a producer or studio manager whose job it is to keep the remote site informed as to when they’ll be live and count them in at the appropriate moment. The “Producer’s mic” would never be faded up on the main output, but could be permanently included in the aux mix. You can probably begin to see that in a complex show there could be a need for multiple different auxiliary audio mixes, and why there are mixing desks with multiple rows of Aux Send knobs.

The Aux send mixer output needs to be routed to Skype, to be used as the return feed. Since the main output from the mixer is already being fed to the PC, there needs to be a second audio input device to handle the Skype return audio. In discussing the incoming Skype audio, it was suggested that an additional dedicated audio output is required in order to send a clean feed to the mixer, and since a dedicated audio input is required for the return feed, an obvious solution is to add a second soundcard to the PC. An exception to this may be if the mixer has a built 2-way USB audio interface that can be used for VidBlaster’s Player audio output and Audio module input, in which case the PC’s analogue audio in/out can be used for these Skype feeds. In the Skype software Tools menu, under Options, General, Audio Settings, set the “Microphone” device to the Line In that’s got the connection from the Aux Send output on the mixer. It is probably also preferable to disable the "Automatic adjustment" tick-box, as the smart adjustment is not always as clever as it's intended to be.

SkypeAudioMicSettings.PNG

Summary

To have the best control over handling a Skype connection with a remote site, you will need:-

There's more information about audio mixers and using them with Skype in this Practical Guide to Using Audio Mixers.

Shortcuts & compromises

Of course not everyone can meet all these requirements, particularly when they’re starting out, and it is possible to use Skpye with a less sophisticated configuration, as long as you’re aware that anything less will introduce some level of compromise and limitations over the amount of control you have.

One of the simplest setups is to use a dedicated webcam for the outgoing Skype audio/video, as you would if using Skype in the “normal” way. The incoming audio would play through the default PC audio device, along with VidBlaster’s Player module audio, and would be included in the main output via whatever method you currently use to handle the Player audio – usually an external mixer, but not necessarily a very advanced one. The downside of this setup is that there’s no independent control over the levels from the Player modules and the incoming Skype audio, which will always be live whenever the Player audio is faded up, and vice-versa. There’s also very limited control over the content of the outgoing Skype audio & video return feeds.

On the audio side, if your mixer doesn't have any Aux Send controls, another way of creating the return audio feed might be to use a second mixer. Two small mixers might take less space than a single, more comprehensive unit and, although not as versatile, be a cheaper option. If you've only got a few audio feeds into your main mixer, then it may be possible to use splitter cables (or splitter boxes for the mics) and connect the ones required for the Skype feed to a second mixer (like the baby UB502, or similar). The output of this mixer would then become the source for the Skype "Microphone", rather than the Aux Send output of a single bigger mixer.

Running Skype on a second PC

Although the techniques described above assume that Skype will be running on the same PC as VidBlaster, that's not the only way in which Skype can be used, and there can be advantages to using a second machine (PC or Mac) for handling Skype.

  1. It reduces the CPU load on the VidBlaster PC which would otherwise be encoding both the broadcast and the Skype feed, not to mention the extra screen space & resources used by running both applications and screen-grabbing Skype.
  2. Where a second operator is available, it allows them to work independently on setting up the link with each Skype caller before putting them on-air, without conflicting with the continued operation of VidBlaster.

Broadly speaking, the sound side of things will be the same as when working with Skype on the same PC, except that the physical cable connections to and from your audio mixer (and you really do need a mixer for this scenario) will go to the second PC's Line In & Out sockets.

On the video side, you will need to treat the second PC as a video source and use one of these methods for converting computer output into a video source, and then run the Skype software full-screen. Depending on what type of video signal you convert the output into, you will need a matching capture card on the VidBlaster PC in order to take the input feed via a Camera module. Some cropping may be required in the Camera module if the Skype image doesn't fill the screen. To get the outgoing return video feed into the Skype PC, use the methods described above in the Outgoing video options section, but with the webcam or video capture device installed on the second PC.

Skype and widescreen video

Whereas Google+ Hangouts positively embraces 16:9 widescreen video, almost to the exclusion of the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio, Skype v5.x seems firmly rooted in the world of 4:3 video, unless you have certain HD widescreen webcams and a high bandwidth internet connection. Even if you do (and I don’t, so I can’t confirm or deny this behaviour) the word on the street is that Skype will run your camera in a non-letterboxed 4:3 mode (ie. with the sides cropped off the widescreen 16:9 image) for a few minutes to determine that there’s sufficient bandwidth (~4Mb/s) before switching over to a widescreen 1280x720 HD mode. So what can you do if you want to work in widescreen and can’t get Skype to perform in widescreen with your setup? Let’s look how this affects the incoming and outgoing Skype streams in VidBlaster.

For the outgoing stream, where this is simply the return video feed to the remote participant, the quality and format of the image may not be critical. The new VidBlaster VVD (in v2.19+) will provide a virual webcam feed which works well as an input to Skype in terms of smooth motion, but with the proviso that widescreen resolutions from VidBlaster are letter-boxed within a 4:3 frame in Skype. Where there is a need to share streaming bandwidth with the main programme output, preventing Skype from running in a high-bitrate widescreen mode may actually be a benefit too.

If it’s desirable for the incoming video stream to be used in a widescreen production, there’s a couple of extra options that don’t involve running Skype in widescreen mode.

Cropping 4:3 video to 16:9

If the remote participant is sending square-pixel 4:3 video, it’s possible to crop the incoming stream within the Camera module. When using Screen Capture, choose Select Area 16:9 from the Capture menu, and draw a 16:9 selection box within the incoming 4:3 Skype display window. This will reduce the transmitted resolution, since 25% of the incoming image is discarded, but this is exactly what Google+ Hangouts does to most 4:3 video capture sources when “converting” them to widescreen.

Using anamorphic video transmission

You could consider adopting the method used by broadcast TV, and work with anamorphic video for the Skype link. As long as Skype gets an input in which the overall pixel size conforms to a commonly used 4:3 ratio or thereabouts, such as 640x480, 720x480, 720x576, etc, it doesn’t seem to care what aspect ratio those individual pixels represent. This method isn’t going to work for webcams, because they only tend to generate square-pixel output, so can’t produce anamorphic video, but more professional cameras can. If, for example, the remote participant has a DV/DVCAM camera that can work in true 16:9 mode, get them to connect it via 1394/firewire or an analogue capture card, select the camera in Skype, and they should see an anamorphic (ie. horizontally squashed) image in the Skype > Options > Video preview window. At the receiving end, in Vidblaster, use Screen Capture in the Camera module to capture the incoming Skype stream as if was 4:3 video, and then set the Camera module’s Aspect Ratio to wide (1.78) to re-conform the anamorphic video back to its native widescreen form. This will make full use of whatever bandwidth is available for your Skype connection, in terms of picture quality, if you are unable to operate Skype in full HD mode.

If using this method to send video out of VidBlaster via Skype, it would be necessary to generate an anamorphic video signal from a widescreen profile by using the Video Out from a Blackmagic card, and then connecting that to the input of another capture device - possibly on a different computer, but it could be on the same one – which would then be selected as the video input to Skype.

Using multi-image Video Effects in VidBlaster

Whilst using a Skype link-up in VidBlaster, there are different ways to present the content. At the simplest level you can simply cut between the full-screen shots of the local & remote participants. Alternatively, a split-screen or picture-in-picture (PIP) Video Effect may be used to include both in the same shot.

HYSCapture2b.png

In the example above, featuring hypothetical web show "Have Your Say", we've used Player modules rather than Camera modules to illustrate the principles of using a single video effect to produce the composite image of two participants (local & remote) combined with a graphic image. Normally the Player 1 & 2 would be replaced by Cameras, and a Player module would only be required to load the graphic, in this case a JPG image produced in Photoshop at exactly the same pixel dimensions as the master video resolution in the VidBlaster profile (in this case, widescreen PAL SD 1024x576). In the Video Effect module, the chosen effect is set to "Split, Side by Side", the two video sources provide the two Picture-in-Picture images and the graphic is selected as the background by right-clicking on the module and setting the Background source to the Player (Player 4 in this example). Note that the "Split, Side by Side" effect places the two PIP images side-by-side with a fixed half-sized scaling, and the graphic will always appear behind them, no matter whether it contains any transparency or not.

HYSCapture3b.png

In our second example we've used a graphic overlay which appears in front of the split-screen PIP effect, allowing the addition of text and other elements which overlap the video sources, like the borders around the PIP windows. This requires both an additional Video Effect module, and that the graphic image contains the appropriate transparency information. Once again, this image was prepared in Photoshop, but this time saved as a PNG file to retain the transparency that was created in Photoshop. The effects workflow in VidBlaster is similar but slightly different to the first example, although it starts by having the two camera sources (Players in this example) combined in a Video Effect set to "Split, Side by Side" (Video Effect 1). The graphic overlay is opened in an Overlay Module and a second Video Effect (shown here as Video Effect 3) is set to Source Overlay mode. The left hand source (the background) is set to take the output from the first Video Effect (1) and the right-hand source selects the Overlay which is the graphic with transparency. A similar effect could be obtained setting the second effect to ChromaKey mode and using a graphic image which did not contain transparency, but used areas of solid contrasting colour (eg green), but this is wasteful on CPU resources compared to pre-calculating the transparency information and including it in the graphics file.

PIP Overlay Graphics - creation notes. Although this is not a graphics tutorial (which might appear elsewhere at a later date), here's how to ensure that the transparency appears in the correct place. The starting point in the example above was to create a simple full-screen white graphic image and load it into a VB Player module. Then that Player with the white image was used as the background source in the "Split, Side by Side" Video Effect, with no sources (or black video) selected for the PIP inputs. The resulting black & white image was grabbed by a Still Store module, saved to disk and loaded into Photoshop as the background layer, to be used as a reference when adding the other elements. In particular it was copied and pasted into the Quick Mask channel so that it became a "selection" which was then saved as the transparency mask for the newly created background layer (the graduated blue/purple part of our example graphic). Additional layers, like the text and borders, could be checked for positioning against the reference layer, which was then turned off when the finished graphic was being saved as a PNG file.
See also - Creating overlays

HYSCapture7.PNG

Here's a third example of how to combine the two video sources into a single composite. This time the border graphics have been created as full-screen overlays, in two variants, one with the Skpe logo and one with the STUDIO tag. Each overlay is combined with a video source using a Video Effect module in Source Overlay mode, arranged above in horizontal rows (eg Player 1 + Overlay 1 + Video Effect 1). Video Effect 4 is combining the background graphic in Player 5 with "Split, side by side" versions of the outputs from Video Effects 1 & 2. One advantage of using this method over the previous one is that the Overlay modules can be used to add "lower third" name tags on the fly, although currently it's not possible to fade them in or out.

There's a YouTube video by Brian Brushwood in which he shows how he uses split-screen effects in Vidblaster for his Skype link-ups, which can be viewed here.

Notes on shot composition

However the shots are used, either with straight cuts or multi-image picture-in picture, the conversation will look more natural if the movie convention of “eye-lines” is followed. In other words, if one person is facing in one direction and looking to one side of camera, then the person they’re talking to should appear to be looking in the opposite direction, as if the two people were facing each other – the natural position for people holding a face-to-face conversation. If they’re both looking in the same direction it will look un-natural because one person will appear to be facing away from the other, and if they’re both looking dead straight ahead it will look a bit like a police identity parade and not particularly friendly either. However, it doesn’t require much of a shift in the eye-lines to obtain the desired effect, and anything approaching a side-on profile shot would be going too far. All that’s required is to position the Skype video window one side of the screen and have the camera placed on the other side of the screen. If the remote participant is using a web-cam clipped to the top of their screen, it should be possible to ask them to move it to one side and then position the Skype window to the other side, in order to get them to look slightly left or right and compliment the shot back at the studio which will be set up in the opposite way.


Other operational considerations

Setting up a remote link-up via Skype is not a trivial undertaking. Whenever possible, it is best to make a test call to the remote site before the webcast in order to establish communication and check that all the various feeds are working, that the audio levels are good both for the main mix and for the participants to hear each other. One danger, if speakers are being used for either of the participants to hear each other, is that this sound from one end will be picked up by the microphone at the other end and, at worst, produce a howl-round feedback loop or, less serious but still undesirable, a repeat echo due to the transmission delay. The best solution here is to have the participants wearing headphones or the sort of in-vision earpieces that you see TV presenters wearing (for this very reason!). If there is no option but to use speakers, then care should be taken to keep the speaker volume as low as possible, and to have the microphone positioned as close as possible to the subject who's talking, and not right next to the speakers. If a webcam clipped to the computer display is being used, with it's built-in mic, then the speakers should be moved forward and be directed towards the subject and away from the mic, plus being kept at a low volume. Some experimentation may be required...

Due to the potential problems of setting up a live link, and the time that it can take to optimise the connection, it is not something that is recommended for self-op VJ webcasters, unless they can play a pre-recorded video whilst they attend to getting the next Skype caller set up. In a webcast that's taking live callers, it's best to have at least one off-camera operator who can take the Skype call, check the settings and establish good two-way communication before putting them "on-air". For this to work smoothly, it must be possible for the technical operator to be able to talk to the Skype caller without being "on air" themselves, which requires the use of a pre-fade Aux Send output (or post-fade, but with the channel taken off the main output). Also, they must be able to hear the incoming audio from the caller without that being "on-air" either, and check the level, which typically requires a PFL function or another pre-fade Aux Send output sent to the operator's headphones.

If taking live callers during a webcast, it’s probably a good idea to have a list of instructions and tips for setting up their end of the Skyke call, in the form of a simple web page. This can be publicized before the webcast and referred to by the host during the show, who can also reiterate some of the main points verbally at appropriate moments, well before taking any callers. This should help avoid some of the worst problems and minimise the set-up time needed to establish the call and make final tweaks to the sound levels, shot composition, etc.


User stories

What it's like to be a Skype caller. In the course of researching this article, I called in to a live webcast, using Skype and a basic USB webcam, to see what it's like from the caller's perspective. The initial attempt did not go well, probably due to a combination of listening on speakers which were positioned on a shelf behind the camera (and therefore too close to the mic in the webcam), and having the "Automatic adjustment" enabled in Skype's audio settings. As a result, I couldn't hear any incoming audio apart from the occasional word or two before Skype automatically muted the speaker output. I think they could hear me, but they dropped the call anyway. After I moved the speaker much closer to me and lowered the volume, I called again, was able to hear a bit more and, after disabling the "Automatic adjustment" settings, quite a lot more, and we settled down into quite a reasonable conversation. It probably would have helped had they warned prospective callers to use headphones or in-ear monitoring rather than listen on speakers, but I don't think they did.

However, the key thing here is that I have a fair bit of technical knowledge and had an idea of what I might need to do to improve the situation. Had I not have done, I don't think I would have received sufficient assistance from the other end to have known what to do next, because I couldn't hear enough of what they were saying. I think a good solution here would be to have a caption (or series of captions) with instructions that could be displayed to the remote participant with a check list of things they could try to get the connection working properly. I can't think of a simple way to do that, as yet, but I do think it might have helped!

The show in question was one of the live webcasts from StudioTech.tv, in which Mark Johnson in the UK and Vance Willis in the USA (linked by Skype) co-present live shows covering "all things video and web related". Their current weekly show is on Fridays starting around 7pm UK, 2pm Eastern USA, with a full set of archives and other related videos available on the StudioTech.tv site.

- Martin Kay, Dec 2011 - updated May 2012

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