How do you call?

Are you still answering a phone with a cord at home or is your cellular your primary means of communications?  We live in the age of the virtual phone.  You can live anywhere in the country and have any area code for your phone number with just a few clicks of the mouse.  In our office we have a mix of everything, my house almost as much.

We use a couple of standard VoIP lines to give us some flexibility in our calls and on our toll free numbers.  We have 4 Skype(tm) numbers connected to a Vosky server, and finally a real copper wired phone line as a back up.  We haven't used it in a year.




My favorite way to talk to people is over Skype(tm).  With the correct set  up, you can have very clear and easy to understand conversations without yelling at each other and you can add video if you like.  My neice likes to "call" from my brothers laptop then run around showing me things with the camera.  It really is pretty cool sometimes.  The laptop works fine for hotel rooms and any where on the road.  You can use a headset if you want a semi-private conversation.  You can do much better for your home or office.

For business, I prefer to be at my desk when I talk to people.  It doesn't matter if I am at work or home,  I really don't like cradling a phone in my neck even if it is cordless.  Bluetooth is ok, but sometimes I feel like I can't give the people my full attention walking around my house anyway, so why are we even talking?  With the set up that I have at both desks, it is very easy to talk to anyone, give them the attention they need and have quick access to all of our files.

Setting up Skype(tm) at home to sound like a pro is easier than you think.  Most laptops have a built in webcam now that is ok and the anti echo feature in skype isn't to bad even in a hotel room.  The probably work better than your cell phone.  For the office don't cheap out and get a system then will run as well as many high dollar conference systems.

You will need at least a dual core computer and I suggest 2GB of ram.  The skype download is free just by going to www.skype.com.  There is even a pretty good Mac version.  You have the option of gettiing a virtual phone number like I did for $60 a year, and unlimited long distance in the US and Canada for $2.95 a month.  I did all of that.

A really good microphone to get is the Blue Snowball.  It ranges from $99 to $199 depending on where you buy it.  the Snowball makes your desk look like a cool retro studio and the sound pickup and noice cancellation are excellent.  If you want a cleaner look like a video conference room there are a couple of good boundary microphones for $59 - $299 from several brands that also use a USB port.

A boundary microphone is one that is designed to sit flat on the desk surface and take up very litte space.  Most are under one inch tall.  The advantage is no talking in the toilet type echo sound and the computer doesn't have to process your sound so much to eliminate the echo.  The Blue Snowball has some brains internally to do the same thing, all using USB power.

The next piece to spluge on for your office or home is the camera.  There are several great cameras for $99 to $499.  The Apple(tm)  camera for the mac looks surprisingly like the pro grade computer camera from Polycom(tm).  I use the Logitech(tm) pro series and they work great.  Every computer in our offices has one.

Last but not least is the lighting in your home or office.  Keep in mind that video conference software only sends the dots on the screen that change.  The more stable you can make your office environment the better the picture and sound quality will be.  A ceiling fan spinning in the background wastes a bunch of bandwidth sending the moving fan images.  Miniblinds are another bandwidth hog.  If the shadows of the miniblinds are visible or the mini blinds themselves are visible in the back ground, every cloud passing by starts sucking up bandwidth as all the shadows change.

Ideally your room should be an interior room or at least don't have any windows behind you.  If your office is like mine, then the last splurge is a light to go behind your computer monitor and light up your face so you don't look like "Shadowman".  Turn a light like the one above so it faces up along the wall in front of you and gives a nice indirect light for the camera.

That is really it, a computer, free software, a micorphone, camera and a $20 desk lamp and you are ready to video chat like a pro.  So go ahead, put the phone down, you won't need it any more.