I have plans to do a 12 hour request show to see in the new year, as part of those plans, I need to link a phone in.
The problem is that I want the station audio to route back to the caller live, so that I can play samples of tunes for them to pick. For example, playing them track 1 and asking if they want it, if not, I play a sample of track 2, and so on until I either hit 5 tracks or they pick one.
So I have my planning head on as I don't have all my equipment hooked up yet, and so far the problem I have hit is that no matter which way I think about it, the caller's audio will go back to the caller, creating a feedback loop.
So about the setup, I have skype with 3 numbers, one for the UK, the US and NZ. I could use USB audio cards to output the caller audio on the same PC, and then route the mixer audio both to the broadcast and skype, but as I said above, the caller audio feeds back.
I then thought about a hardware landline, the problem there, is getting level audio back down the line isn't very easy and even then, the caller audio would still feed back.
I then thought about using my mobile/cell phone, which has skype onboard, the problem there, it only handles audio out, unless I make my own cable.
Reading other posts above I can see that most of you guys just want to get callers on air, and are not that bothered about getting the studio audio back down the line. Plus solutions above would then require me to have the music playing from the studio speakers, again possible, and I could route just the music to the speakers without the mic or caller feeding back, BUT it wouldn't sound all that good and there is the potential for the music to be picked up by the microphone creating a few miliseconds of echo.
The solution....... Well I don't know yet, but I will post back as I get some of the equipment up and running.
.::EDIT::.
Solution 1 - (nearly got it) I just had a quick look around the equipment I have and it seems I have a potential solution. The solution involves an additional mixer on the broadcast link, so the air out on the mixer links to a secondary mixer that adds the caller to the feed, then the cue out on that seconday mixer gets put back down the call. That way the caller is heard on air and the caller hears the station but not themself. It works, but still has a few little issues, the air out from the main mixer is fed through an EQ unit before hitting the broadcast PC, the entire air feed is not routed to the studio headphones or speakers. The headphone and speaker feed comes from a seperate audio out on the mixer (booth out). The problem there is the caller is broadcast, but the DJ and their guest cannot hear them.
So the problem now is the studio feed, do I a- add the studio feed onto the air output or b- try to add in the audio from the second mixer into the studio feed.
.::END-EDIT::.
Last edited by ProProductions on December 29th, 2009, 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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