Hi everybody. I realise that this is dredging up an old thread but, as a High School teacher who was charged with looking into a comms
system with wireless capability for minimum cost, this forum has been really helpful in pointing me in the right direction so I thought I'd write up my experiences on developing a VOIP comms
system.
Our music department has a couple of iPod Touches (sp?!) which we planned to use as part of the
system since it meant not needing to buy any additional equipment. We also have a reasonably stable WiFi
network, and our IT techs were able to set aside a particular part of the
network dedicated to the VOIP comms
system. I don't know how they've done it, but apparently it's something to do with prioritising the IP addresses of the hardware we use for comms. I then looked at three key options - Skype, Ventrilo and TeamSpeak as all of them have mobile versions that run on an iPod.
Firstly I ruled out Skype because of the necessity to have an internet connection to initiate the
call (although once it's established it works on a peer-to-peer basis on a LAN). I'm based in Egypt, and although our LAN is stable the internet isn't completely reliable so I couldn't guarantee to connect every time.
I then ruled out Ventrilo because although it's a great piece of software that runs completely over a LAN, you need to pay for the iPod app.
Consequently I settled on TeamSpeak. We run a TeamSpeak 2 server on one machine on our
network and access it using the client software on other laptops and iPods on the same
network. TeamSpeak 2 Server rather helpfully tells you what your local IP
address is, so it's easy to share with the people who need to log on to the server.
If you plan to use iPods to connect to the server, it's important to run TeamSpeak 2 Server. The free iPod app is called PhoneSpeex but only works with TeamSpeak 2 - NOT the newer TeamSpeak 3. It acts as a
conventional TeamSpeak 2 client on your iPod Touch/iPhone, allowing you to use your iPod like a wireless
beltpack over WiFi. You just need a standard Apple earphone/mic combo and you're away. PhoneSpeex allows you to use the
system either as Push-To-Talk or in sound activated mode, whereby you set a minimum
microphone level above which your
microphone is transmitted. Below that
level it is cut off. This is helpful to avoid constant background noise.
We successfully run 5 clients as standard (
Stage Manager and Assistant
Stage Manager on iPods, and then Lights, Sound, and Musical Director on laptops). When we first tested the
system we got up to 13 one day without any problems. I'm sure we could push it to even more, but we honestly haven't found the need to (yet!). We haven't needed all our
deck hands to have comms yet, but if we do then I'd look into setting a sub-room on the server so that they can communicate between each other and receive instruction from the SM, but not interfere with others.
I'm sure you're interested in the problems we've encountered, so here they are. Firstly the
system relies on the integrity of the
network. We're lucky to have a (reasonably) stable
system, but I realise we're fortunate in that and if the
network falls over for any reason we're stuck. Secondly, TeamSpeak has a delay of about 300-500ms, but we haven't found that to be too detrimental to running a show. However, some people may find it a challenge. Thirdly, PhoneSpeex on iPod has occasionally 'lost' the
microphone connection which means restarting the software. This has (fortunately) only happened once when running a show, and was sorted in less than 30 seconds, but again it's something to be aware of.
Overall, it's not a 'pretty' solution and I'm sure there are people out there who can't think of anything worse, but for us it's certainly better than not having any comms.