been banning mobile for most of my private life, and been using Wire for a couple of weeks now. It's much superior for audio/video quality than Skype. Also lean enough to run on a 5 year old phone.
Compared to Signal / WhatsApp gives me e2e encryption and I can run it also as a Desktop app on Linux (so I can still message my family/kids without having a phone switched on)
I saw "request a demo" so presumably it's not free and that's a problem. Also Discord works in most browsers so the person they are interviewing doesn't need to download anything
I've been listening to enough poor-quality phone/Skype podcast interviews, and figured that someone should build an interview tool that will setup a real time conference, exactly like Skype, but also record the audio in high quality at all remotes and then transfer the recordings afterwards and mix them together with correct timing, so it sounds like all parties are in the same studio. Perhaps even do some magic to mix out the latency, even though there would be some weirdness to work around when participants speak over each other and go "sorry, go ahead".
This is a common way to record remote interviews (since the mid-1900s, I think), and is called a "multi-ender" (or "double-ender").[1]
They're straightforward to do manually. All parties participate in a recorded "1-2-3-clap" at the beginning and end of the call, and the claps are later used for sync.
There are also many "assisted" solutions, including Cast[2], Cleanfeed[3], Ringr[4], and Zencastr[5]. Some folks find them useful, but the additional dependency also means more things that can go wrong. Anybody using them has learned (or will learn) that they must record the live/VoIP portion of the call as well, as backup.
What doesn't, and what I'd pay nontrivial (but not vMix Call) money for, is a tool that separated out individual audio and video streams into separate NDI streams for video mixing and composition.
Second this. We use Zoom internally all the time. When a client's Skype/Lync system fails to work, we send out a Zoom link and everyone is like "Whoa!" every time....
Zoom popped up really quickly and has a lot of adoption already. I honestly don't understand how this space is so competitive given the underlying tech and UX haven't changed much.
After trying every product I could get my hands on, I'm currently using Riot/Matrix for this purpose. All the same I'm still not really satisfied with latency/quality/reliability. Why is this not a solved problem? We've had videoconferencing since at least 1968[0].
Unfortunately, to date, Matrix[1] suffers from a shortage of quality client apps. Riot.im[2][3], while the most advanced among others[4], is far from being convenient. Electron-based desktop client is subpar in terms of UX and performance, whereas the Android client is a disaster for the battery. However, I do hope Matrix will overcome these issues and take it's place as an underlying protocol for the Jabber/XMPP(/IRC) use-cases.
It is a solved problem nowadays thanks to the technology behind Jitsi Meet being open and easy to use, but it will take a while until it becomes used in all such products.
This sort of "assisted multi-ender" solution is a good alternative to a pure VoIP call, and elsewhere in the thread I posted links to more of this kind of remote recording solution.
The main problem with them is that they put more of an onus on the interviewee, which often isn't an option with high-value guests.
'zbuf spams that around a lot, but frankly the audio from it is not appreciably different from Discord and the inability to use it in a DAW makes it, to me, an unserious tool.
Murmur and Mumble[0]. I have murmur running on a little VM and can handle thousands of gamers. It's not has happy clicky as discord, but it provides end to end voice encryption with great sound quality. You could run it on a RasPi provided you have the bandwidth. Be sure to use their 1.3.0 snapshot. Major improvements on user management, echo cancellation, game overlays, positional audio, etc.
We stopped using Skype recently for conference calls when they issued a software update that broke merging calls. I guess they just don't care anymore now that Microsoft owns them, they're more concerned with it looking pretty.
Just use Linphone and SIP; it allows to set the quality, the codec, the bandwidth, the resolution for both audio and video, while it's a native build, not electron.
SIP is a disaster. There are so many issues with configuration, firewall traversal, and general user experience that saying end users should be using it is just disconnected from reality. Skype nailed it for a reason—because all the dumb SIP stuff you need to deal with just to get it going is too much. You need to be able to install an app and just go. Especially with interviews and any time you’re dealing with people outside of you controlled little environment.
SIP is successful in the telecom space because it still requires specialized knowledge and dedicated teams of people to run it, and preserving that might be the reason it’s still such a pain.
The quality of your call is totally unrelated to SIP. SIP isn't the transport, it has no CODECs, you're most likely thinking of (s)rtp. SIP will negotiate the CODEC to use, but that's all.
Wish Google would do a web version of Duo. My family has moved to using it for our family video calls at Sunday dinner and works well even with low bandwidth.
If discord doesn't like your browser it asks for your phone number before it will let you use it, even as a guest login. It is not acceptable for you to require your business partners and potential employees to share their personal data with a third party company you have no formal partnership with in order to contact you. Please do not use discord for professional purposes.
Either use something that asks nothing of your guest, such as appear.in, or host your own service where at least you control the data. Jitsi or Lync might be palatable to your IT department.
[+] [-] nirv|8 years ago|reply
It's crypto-audited[2], open-sourced[3], has native mobile clients[4], Swiss based[5], and pretty well known[6].
[1] https://wire.com
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/10/messaging-app-wire-now-has...
[3] https://medium.com/@wireapp/wire-server-code-now-100-open-so...
[4] https://github.com/wireapp
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_Swiss
[6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12148596
[+] [-] DyslexicAtheist|8 years ago|reply
Compared to Signal / WhatsApp gives me e2e encryption and I can run it also as a Desktop app on Linux (so I can still message my family/kids without having a phone switched on)
[+] [-] tdb7893|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keithnz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mseebach|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CharlesW|8 years ago|reply
They're straightforward to do manually. All parties participate in a recorded "1-2-3-clap" at the beginning and end of the call, and the claps are later used for sync.
There are also many "assisted" solutions, including Cast[2], Cleanfeed[3], Ringr[4], and Zencastr[5]. Some folks find them useful, but the additional dependency also means more things that can go wrong. Anybody using them has learned (or will learn) that they must record the live/VoIP portion of the call as well, as backup.
[1] Wikipedia calls this a "phone-sync" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone-sync), which is not a term I've ever heard people actually use.
[2] https://tryca.st/ [3] http://cleanfeed.net/ [4] https://www.ringr.com/ [5] https://zencastr.com/
[+] [-] user5994461|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eropple|8 years ago|reply
What doesn't, and what I'd pay nontrivial (but not vMix Call) money for, is a tool that separated out individual audio and video streams into separate NDI streams for video mixing and composition.
[+] [-] spraak|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] modoc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matdehaast|8 years ago|reply
Occasionally I deal with clients who insist on Skype and it will consistently give me headaches... I can't wait till it dies!
[+] [-] tootie|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Y_Y|8 years ago|reply
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
[+] [-] nirv|8 years ago|reply
[1] https://matrix.org/
[2] https://riot.im/
[3] https://github.com/vector-im
[4] https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html
[+] [-] kuschku|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 5_minutes|8 years ago|reply
I’m actively looking for a replacement for the company.
[+] [-] chrismorgan|8 years ago|reply
I haven’t used it, but came across it in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15890816. I haven’t used Discord either.
I’m interested in actually informed opinions on the matter!
[+] [-] CharlesW|8 years ago|reply
The main problem with them is that they put more of an onus on the interviewee, which often isn't an option with high-value guests.
[+] [-] eropple|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joelrunyon|8 years ago|reply
Does anyone know something that does that
[+] [-] bastawhiz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmoriarty|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LinuxBender|8 years ago|reply
I and many gamers have been quite happy with it.
[0] https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Main_Page
[+] [-] user5994461|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yakk0|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thebiglebrewski|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmlnr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orev|8 years ago|reply
SIP is successful in the telecom space because it still requires specialized knowledge and dedicated teams of people to run it, and preserving that might be the reason it’s still such a pain.
[+] [-] Godel_unicode|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arca_vorago|8 years ago|reply
I refuse to use Skype, discord, or any other proprietary black box system for something so important.
[+] [-] detaro|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacksmith21006|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sir_Substance|8 years ago|reply
Either use something that asks nothing of your guest, such as appear.in, or host your own service where at least you control the data. Jitsi or Lync might be palatable to your IT department.
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] philipov|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gravypod|8 years ago|reply
From what I understand before they rolled it out to everyone the system worked perfectly so it's just an issue of them scaling their backend.
No idea why they don't just use WebRTC for video&audio though.
[+] [-] yakk0|8 years ago|reply