Static heard on all Google Voice calls on OBi202
LotharX:
Quote from: drgeoff on March 12, 2017, 04:11:22 pm
@LotharX
1. The Obi records incoming distant audio at a take-off point in the processing chain before the phone connection. That means the phone you use has minimal effect. It is only any sound picked up by its microphone and added in to the mix that affects the recording.
2. Do you find any significant difference between the scratchiness when listening to a recording compared to the live version through the phone? Concentrate on the scratchiness because the tonal balance may be quite different between the speakers or headphones and your phone(s).
That's an excellent question, drgeoff.
I just listened to an OBi recording of a conversation that I had with my father this morning (a private call, so I'd rather not post it here). It sounds significantly scratchy, but is at least understandable.
As you were getting at though, it's hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison comparing the sound coming out of my laptop computer's speakers, versus what I heard on the cordless handset. It's probably a lot more scratchy on the cordless. It's sort of as if the scratchiness is present in the transmission from the OBi202 to my phone, but it gets amplified by my cordless handset and therefore sounds more apparent on the latter. That follows something I've noted earlier in this thread--I can hear the scratchiness on corded handsets, but it's much more apparent on cordless handsets.
I'll try to make a point of recording the next significantly scratchy call that I'm on with a live person, and do the comparison again.
Back to the OBiman recording that I posted here earlier though... I understand that his voice is apparently not good quality in the first place (per LTN1's test), but the recording nonentheless sounds just like what I am hearing on a typical scratchy live-person call. It's like listening to a vinyl record album (for those of us old enough to remember what those sound like) that's been damaged by rubbing the vinyl with sandpaper.
So I'm wondering if whatever phenomenon is responsible for OBiman's voice sounding like that (compression artifacts, or whatever) just happens to be the same as what's causing the problem on my own phone calls.
At this point, I'm perhaps willing to give up on my Panasonic and AT&T cordless phones and go buy an expensive IP phone (either to use with the OBi202 if it's compatible, or with its own VoIP adapter), to see if that works better, but I'd probably have to order one online, so that will make it difficult to return if it doesn't work out. I'd rather exhaust all other options first. I don't know anything about whether IP phones can work with Google Voice, if anybody can educate me.
SteveInWA:
Again: calling ***1 or ***0 (or some other IVR) is not a valid test. Those are low-bandwidth, synthetically-assembled voices. There's going to be significant distortion. You need to talk with a real, live human being.
Also, be aware: by design, the OBi (and most other ATAs) inject a small amount of hiss into the receiver, known as "comfort noise". Research found that, when a call is completely silent, people think the call has been disconnected, or the other party can't hear them, so the noise is intentionally added. On top of that, the ATA optionally sends a fraction of your side of the call (whatever it picks up from your voice and the room) back into your earpiece. This is known as "sidetone". Again, this is to solve a human factor issue: when you speak face-to-face with someone, your brain is hearing your own voice, too. If you don't hear it, you tend to talk too loud. These two things may not be what you are hearing, but they need to be considered when analyzing the overall audio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_noise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidetone
Bottom line: if you are sure that you hear the same crappy sound quality on Callcentric as on Google Voice, when a live human being is talking to you, the only thing you can do is to experiment lowering the ChannelTxGain value (the amplification level of the sound being sent to your telephone's earpiece) in combination with the volume setting on the phone itself. If this doesn't solve the problem, then either you have a defective OBi, or your own hearing finds the sound objectionable, and there's no fix (other than to get a hearing test, and/or try to get the OBi exchanged).
RE: IP phones: you wouldn't plug an IP phone into an OBi ATA. An IP phone takes the place of an ATA. For example, you could buy a OBi 1022, 1032 or 1062 IP phone, and configure it with your Google Voice or Callcentric (or other SIP provider) accounts. All the OBi IP phones have the same, very high quality audio components.
SteveInWA:
Quote from: LTN1 on March 12, 2017, 02:15:44 pm
I downloaded your audio file, listened to it--then dialed the **9 to listen to the same exact OBi prompt. I can confirm that what I heard on your audio file was pretty close to what I heard in doing the **9 test on my own OBi202.
The OBi prompt sounded like it was poorly recorded with some background line noise. The voice was OK...but it was over that background noise--somewhat like speaker phone background noise.
The echo test itself, did not have the background noise.
I then took my Uniden Dect 6 (1.9 Ghz of course) and made a call to 800-555-1212. The automated operator was clear but now I was listening for background noise when she didn't speak--and can confirm there is some line noise that could be heard if you listened carefully enough. I then went to an AT&T Dect 6 cordless and found it similar to the Uniden.
Afterwards, I used a Uniden 2.4 GHz cordless and found a bit more line noise when there was silence--but of course, only because I was focused on looking for the "noise."
I also tried a Uniden 5.8 GHz cordless, and it was similar to the Dect 6 phones...maybe a tad better.
I also used a cheap backup pure landline analog phone and when looking to hear noise during the silence, I also found line noise--worse than the cordless.
The clearest connections were from my corded IP Fortinet phone ($350 phone) (almost seems like it had line noise suppression between voices) and from my Verizon Dect 6 cordless phone connected directly to a landline--but of course, I could still find minute traces of background/line noise during the silence if I intently looked for it.
I also found that depending on the phone number I called (assuming the calls were routed through different CLECs), certain connections were clearer and certain had more line noise.
My tentative conclusions thus far are that some CLEC connections are clearer than others--and that is an additional layer of impact on the type of phone you are using--even if you are using the best phone possible. So a person may be calling from your area where the CLEC is using a less than premium line connection--which could impact your call quality. That same call, from another CLEC, in an area that uses a more premium line connection, could sound much better.
I just had some time on Sunday to test these issues...but my testing is from a layman's (non tech professional) perspective. Someone like SteveInWA, a real tech professional, could clarify these things much better, besides correcting my misuse of these terms.
Great testing work. 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz cordless phones have been obsolete for years. If any are still for sale, they'd most likely be old stock/discontinued products. In particular, 2.4GHz phones are very susceptible to dropouts and severe distortion from microwave ovens, WiFi and other uses of that band, and 5.8GHz are too, to a lesser extent. That's one reason DECT has its own, dedicated frequency range.
drgeoff:
Attached recording made as follows:
Olympus LS3 recorder with Sony ECM-TL02 microphone between my ear and earpiece in handset of Gigaset S445 DECT handset and base station. (Original European DECT system.) Recorder set to 44.1 kHz sampling, 16 bit PCM mono, manual level control and low cut filter off.
DECT base connected to phone port of OBi110. OBi110 registered as an extension on my Asterisk PBX. Called my Callcentric number using GV trunk on Asterisk. Callcentric trunk on Asterisk brought the call back across the Atlantic to Asterisk which forwarded it to Lenny as a remote SIP extension.
LTN1:
Quote from: drgeoff on March 13, 2017, 12:48:17 pm
Attached recording made as follows:
Olympus LS3 recorder with Sony ECM-TL02 microphone between my ear and earpiece in handset of Gigaset S445 DECT handset and base station. (Original European DECT system.) Recorder set to 44.1 kHz sampling, 16 bit PCM mono, manual level control and low cut filter off.
DECT base connected to phone port of OBi110. OBi110 registered as an extension on my Asterisk PBX. Called my Callcentric number using GV trunk on Asterisk. Callcentric trunk on Asterisk brought the call back across the Atlantic to Asterisk which forwarded it to Lenny as a remote SIP extension.
I didn't hear any audible problems, except the person speaking appeared kind of nervous. Was that a real call or a fictional one? Also, who did the voice belong to?
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