Phone Hybrid

[MegaRock]

Been looking into some phone hybrids for call in shows but it seems a pretty hard thing to find.

Came across one but never heard of them and being in the UK figured maybe someone there had:

http://www.vtx.co.uk/audio/broadcasthost.htm

Or I'd be happy with any suggestions anyone else might have but I'm looking for something professional that works similar or just like the ones broadcast stations use. Price isn't an object but something within reason of course.

[urbansoulnation]

Phone patching devices

Hey mega try this link right here. Hope that helps.

[MegaRock]

Lol, it's the same thing. Crap, that thing's 500.00!

I know I was told of one that is about 250 - 350 but this one looks like it can do a pro job.

[ProFM]

Hi Rob,

I can help you with that...but as you know i'm in the Netherlands...
Take a look at www.profmsolutions.nl
although the site is partly dutch you can see some things which can be used.
PM me if you want to know more.

[urbansoulnation]

There's more than one on that page I sent. There's one listed for $270

[DjDemonD]

Okay this isnt too hard to do at all heres how.

Go out and buy/get a pay-as-you-go (or equivalent) mobile phone, they are cheap - dont buy a flashy phone any old brick will do. Ask the shop to throw in a hands free adaptor. You know a little earpiece with a mic on it type thing. (Not a big expensive car kit)

Now heres the science part.

Very carefully strip the wire near the end which plugs into the mobile phone (dont strip the wire near the earpiece or mic). Do not cut any wires just strip the insulation off and gently separate the wires within from each other.

You will have usually 3 wires (sometimes 4)

There is normally a red, a white and a briaded cable around the two (or a black wire it depends. The red and white are mic and earpiece youll have to work out which one is which by trial and error. The braided wire is the ground wire.

Using another length of audio cable with the correct plug on it (depends whether your going to connect it to your pc or preferably a free channel on a mixer) join the wires from the handsfree kit to this length of wire so that the red (from handfree) goes to the centre pole (or +ve) of your input on your mixer and the black or braided wire (on handsfree) to the ground (the outside of the plug) on the input.

Now attach to your mixer and get someone to ring you. If their voice comes out over the output you have sucessfully created yourself a very cheap dedicated telephone line and made a telephone patch in device for little or no cost. If not you probably need to use the white and black instead. Remember one pair is mic the other earpiece as long as earpiece is connected to your mixer you're in business.

To use it on your live show just tape the mic end of the phone handsfree kit next to the mic you already use for your show. Give out the number, when someone dials in you can talk to them off air before bringing up the level from the makeshift phone cable on your mixer.

If the live caller needs cutting off they can be faded down using your mixer. Its difficult to do live phone-in's using shoutcast because the buffering is about 3-7 seconds, the caller will be very disorientated if they leave your station playing in the background while they speak as they'll hear themself speaking with a large delay. So always tell the caller to turn off the stream their end or mute it before you fade them up and speak to them live.

The advantages of this method

costs are tiny

mobile phone - as much or as little as you like
phone charges - none its a pay-as-you-go phone so you dont need to top it up, unless you are going to call them
handsfree kit costs about $5 if you mess it up buy another one you cant damage the phone unless you plug the makeshift cable into something high voltage ot join the wires together or something else silly.

Its much easier to manage all audio during a radio show using an external mixer (a dj mixer will do fine) than try to use the PC. The PC should be used merely as the broadcast encoder.

[urbansoulnation]

Ha ha. A rig. I've tried something even more simpler than that if we want to go that route. A speakerphone will do a similar job DJDEMON without stripping wires all over the place.

[DjDemonD]

Yes thats true my method though when heard via a high quality mp3 stream like 128k sounds totally pro. As good I am sure as any of them $500 phone patch boxes. They are only expensive cos the manufacturers only sell 1-2 every now and again.

[MikioZen]

globephone... its a phone on the comp so all you need to do is put what you hear on.

search on google for it. you get a 1800 also i think

[ch1mpd4ddy]

how about Skype? free.

[KC8SHP]

If you visit http://www.abovethemat.com/prostars.php and listen to the second one down (The Honkytonk Man II), that was done with my newest setup...

My setup is:

- One unlimited long distance package (most important)
- Behringer Eurorack MX 802A (mic mixer)
- Behringer Eurorack UB1204FX-PRO (mic mixer)
- Speaker phone with a Radioshack Dynamic Mic
(part number 33-3018) pointed to the speaker
- an old CB external speaker pointed at the mic on the
speakerphone

I run 4 other mics of the same make for the host of the show (all in one location)... I run a splitter off of the mixer's headphone output... One wire to the speaker so that the caller hears only us and one wire running to the "Line In" on my soundcard... I also run a splitter on the "Line In" so that I can hook both mixers to it...

On the speakerphone, I disconnected the handset and use a piece of folded up paper to keep the hangup thingy hung up... This gets the handset out of the way... Most phones have the speaker under the handset...

I get great sound quality with this setup and it's rather cheap....

I purchased the mics on sale for 20.00 apiece (30.00 apiece with the gooseneck stands) from Radio Shack and the Mixers from Ebay used.... For both mixers I have about 250.00 invested with the shipping... Plus the misc. wires and splitters...

Chip