Hard-wired phone lines are almost an anachronism for all but serious businesses, government, and other formal institutions. POTS (plain old telephone systems) services are not going away, but for most individual consumers, and certainly 3rd-world countries, phone communications have jumped directly to mobile. Even much of the internet/computing/social media/web search business is moving to mobile.
In voiceover land, we’ve seen the greatest shift in that direction with the degradation and demise of ISDN over recent years. ISDN was the ultimate in old POTS tech: paired-copper wiring that required a special install, a separate account, and a fancy price-tag.
When a client wanted to direct a voiceover session from afar, or even listen in, say… 10 years ago…it was common for many in the VO industry to have (for example) a JK Audio box wired into their landline at home, and jiggered to interface with their audiochain so the client or the talent could initiate a phone call for what came to be known as a “phone patch”. ISDN could but not always be counted on to help with a phone patch.
But with ISDN and land-lines taking a back burner, many in our business are turning to some pretty creative digital solutions for “patching” in the client for a live session.
ConnectionOpen, Bodalgo, ipDTL, and other IP-based services (esp. cell phones) have been quick to offer features that easily fill that niche. Today’s blog is not meant to diminish those fine enterprises in any way, but I’m focusing on SKYPE for today in response to my agent Erik Sheppard’s request that I do so. A regular client of mine through his agency always wants to hear and sometimes direct my reads, and I always just use Skype for that. Erik said he wished some of his other clients would use Skype, but for some reason, were stymied by how to do that.
Why do I use SKYPE? It’s cheap, reliable, good quality, and (biggest of all) it works!!!
Erik and I decided to schedule a quick learning session in Q&A format — actually using SKYPE to do the video connection — on the topic of configuring a SKYPE phone patch for everyday use.
Wanna sit in? You can. It’s free. Below is the obligatory promotional graphic and URL link for watching the live session Tuesday 2pm Eastern (or the recording at a later date). Hope you’ll join in!
See ya there!
CourVO
(disclaimer, I’m older and grew a beard since this pic was taken) : 😉
