On Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:55:44 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Fri, 15 Jul 2016 12:24:14 -0400, Ed Huntress wrote:

On Fri, 15 Jul 2016 10:54:13 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:40:47 -0400, Ed Huntress wrote:

Here's one for the digital experts: I do a lot of interviews in which
the other party is on a cell phone, and I think I've noticed a
difference over time in how they work.

If the call is conducted at a busy time of day, and there are clear
signs of bandwidth becoming limited, it used to be that there would be
a corresponding number of dropouts in the conversation. Lately (and I
call mostly the Chicago and Los Angeles areas) I've detected something
different: it sounds like they're just reducing the audio bitrate. It
starts to sound like it's coming from a cheap microphone.

Does anyone know?

I don't, but cruddy audio + dropouts is worse than just cruddy audio, so
there'd certainly be pressure on the equipment manufacturers to make the
change.

Yeah, well, the cruddy audio is something I've just noticed over the
past year. The dropouts have been going on for years.

Chicago, particularly, seems to have bandwidth problems on both
landlines and cell systems. I try to time my calls for early morning. If
I do, the audio is perfectly clear.

It's gotten to be a problem for my transcribing service. Not knowing our
jargon, they have a really hard time with it when it gets muddy.

Hmm. Skype?

Not good. As a last resort, I'll ask the other guy to get on a
landline and to call me.

Record locally and email?

It's not a thing for which I can impose on other people too much, but
that's an interesting thought.

--
Ed Huntress