Help me Test Audio Chat for WWDC 2006

Written on August 05, 2006 by Chris Holland and 21 people have commented

update 08/07/2006 midnight: Tests went well so-far.

Note to prospective relayers:

i’ve worked with a couple of users to get them set-up as possible party-line relays, should the call load get too heavy for me, i can forward SIP calls to their addresses. If you’re interested in being a relay, get SJPhone configured according to these instructions, go to the SJPhone menu –> Preferences … –> call options tab, check [x] Automatically accept incoming calls. Back in the main window, make sure the “Conference” button is clicked. Then let me know your sip address via frenchy@gmail.com.

Everybody else, just read what’s below

Josh just told us about the nifty chat area he’ll have running during the WWDC Keynote.

I’m also trying to get a SIP-based audio thing going. It’s not the first time i’ve tried this … and failed. I’ve learned a little more from each attempt, and as I continue to make do with low-tech solutions, I’m hoping to learn a little more this time around … if you’ll let me.

If you care to participate, I’m going to be running tests throughout the weekend, and just leave the laptop running SJPhone, automatically accepting incoming connections, in “conference mode”, thereby providing you with a low-tech party-line

First-time prospective SIP users will likely want to learn a little bit about how cool SIP is. And follow that article’s linkage to getting set-up with your own free SIP account.

If you don’t care to geek around or being able to host SIP party-lines from your own computer, just install GizmoProject, an utterly awesome, greatly-designed, full-featured, fully SIP-capable chat program.

Once you’re SIP-happy, just plug sip:theappleblog@earthlink.net into your SIP program (either SJPhone, MindSpring, or Gizmo).

Once you’re connected to me, i don’t mind your staying for a while. I’d like to see how many simultaneous connections I can sustain ahead of the Keynote.

Please do share your experiences in comments below.

update:: This will only be an attempt at a party-line extension of the text chat, for readers to chat with other readers in real-time. It’s better to stay away from our earlier bolder ambitions of this being anything more.

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#1 David Appleyard says:
Connected and seems to be working absolutely fine
#2 Mr. Jonny Pantz says:
Called, and it just rang, never connected.
#3 hackand says:
I also connected and it seems fine. Will you be streaming the keynote audio live through this?
#4 Jason Terhorst says:
I was using Gizmo, and tried to connect. It rang and rang, but never answered.
#5 George says:
Hi Chris. I am in Canada and just connected with almost no delay. Is there any configuration required to listen in on the keynote other than to dial your SIP address? Thanks for the opportunity.
#6 Jason Terhorst says:
I ended up using the SJPhone program, using the Earthlink account strategy on your blog. It worked. I like the Gizmo interface, however. Any way to make that work?
#7 themak says:
I think I’m able to set up a relay, I’ll set up SJPPhone.
#8 Jason Terhorst says:
Are you able to run your iTunes output through the line, so that we could test audio quality? I don’t have a microphone, but I will hopefully be listening on keynote day!
#9 Chris Holland says:
Hey all i’m headed out to visit a good friend of mine at the hospital who just had a baby, woohoo! quick replies:

George: you should be good to go.

Jason: Gizmo is really built to work with gizmo accounts, i don’t think you can get around that. SJPhone is a not so-friendly-to-use but incredibly powerful vanilla SIP program you can get to work with any SIP account … including your Gizmo account hehe.

themak: good, e-mail me your SIP address to frenchy@gmail.com . What I might do is “forward” incoming calls to your SIP address if i reach a threshold I can no-longer handle.

Jason: I’ll try n look into piping some ongoing audio.

OK I really gotta run, i’m hoping more people will try to connect, see if you can chat with eachother once connected to sip:theappleblog@earthlink.net . A good thing to do is plug audio headsets into your computer’s speakers output, and just talk into your computer’s microphone if you have any. This’ll avoid feedback loops.
#10 Gareth Potter says:
Connected from Gizmo, apparently fine.
#11 Antony Wedgbury says:
you mean we’ll be able to hear steve jobs talking from the WWDC through live audio, if so thats great
#12 Antony Wedgbury says:
Great it connects straight away for me, i’ll be ther monday
#13 Gregarion says:
Hey, I think I’d also be able to have a few people connect to me to relay audio. All I need is what ports I need to open.
#14 Bradley says:
I see your listening to John Mayer… it appears to be working…
#15 Chris Holland says:
bradley: i sure was cool
#16 theamazingboo says:
Working fine for me so far. :O
#17 J.M. says:
After a few failed tries I am connected (from Switzerland) but only hear statics, some echoes and some keyboard strokes.
#18 Shrotty says:
Same in Spain, could you post the relays so we don’t all hook up to the mother ship?
#19 AmazingRando says:
Yeah, this is total ass. Nothing but random echoes and static.
#20 Shrotty says:
If I can get hooked to a working relay, I’d be more than happy to relay on.