Airing Skpe provided programs

[Brian Bowers]

Is anyone out there airing any Skpe audio, while sending phone calls back to the Skpe program/person? Right off the top of my head, this sounds like a mix-minus nightmare, but you know how radio station Sales Departments are.

 

[bradgoehl]

I have not done this but if you have an air console with at least 3 outputs it should not be difficult. Just set it up with a decent sound card installed in the PC and in the same way you would do any other phone system.

 

[Kelly A]

I have not done this but if you have an air console with at least 3 outputs it should not be difficult. Just set it up with a decent sound card installed in the PC and in the same way you would do any other phone system.

We do guest shots via Skype over our TV network(s) all the time. We have a talk channel (output) set up on our ClearCom intercom system that feeds the computer soundcard input we use for Skype calls. (We have three Mac Mini's set up purely for on the air Skype calls) This allows our Lines Coordinators and Audio Guy to talk down the line to the Skype guest, then we mix in a mix-minus feed into that particular ClearCom channel for a Skype caller send, just like a phone call. The mix-minus is created using one of the aux busses out of the console, but most newer radio consoles have some sort of mix-minus buss which automatically creates a mix-minus for remote sends or phone caller sends on a particular fader or pre-select.

 

[Brian Bowers]

I suppose this is in addition to the Skype guest utilizing some type of mixer to mix in studio audio (including phone calls) with himself/herself. It sounds like this has the potential to be a latency nightmare. Is it possible when airing phone calls, for those same calls to be delayed when feeding that audio to the Skype talent? I'm wondering why whenever I see a Skype person on TV, I never see any earphone monitoring (unless it's all wireless, so the TV viewers can't see it).

 

[Kelly A]

I suppose this is in addition to the Skype guest utilizing some type of mixer to mix in studio audio (including phone calls) with himself/herself. It sounds like this has the potential to be a latency nightmare. Is it possible when airing phone calls, for those same calls to be delayed when feeding that audio to the Skype talent? I'm wondering why whenever I see a Skype person on TV, I never see any earphone monitoring (unless it's all wireless, so the TV viewers can't see it).

We test our guest Skype connections in advance. Because we're putting them on TV-air, we want to make sure the lighting is okay, connection is okay, background is acceptable for air, etc. We also prep the guest by requiring them to wear a headset or headphones during the interview because of the audio return latency, plus we don't want the cues from the control room or host, echoing back seconds later. BTW, we don't send them return video for IFB, just audio via our mix-minus through the intercom. Once you get it all set up and calibrated, it works quite well. Depending on what's going on in the news, we could have 6-8 Skype guests a day.

 

[Unregistered]

I set up a Skype system for a friend who does 2-ways with a number of stations. All I did was configure it as you would a Tieline or phone feed (just send the proper mix-minus - I did that using a simple Behringer mixer). Works great.

BTW, Skype is pretty good at ducking, so he's never had feedback issues when using his desktop speakers (but he does use a mic plugged into the Behringer to send audio). Latency is surprisingly low owing to having good bandwidth on both ends.

This might be of help to get the client side of things set up: http://web.archive.org/web/20120703...2011/11/six-tips-for-using-skype-on-the-radio

 

[Brian Bowers]

The info is much appreciated. Thanks.