Michael Gray's dashboard

Is there a way to listen to a show on my iPhone without calling in to it? Basically, I just want to listen to the audio stream without having to call in to the show. Is that possible? I've downloaded the TalkShoe iPhone client, but it appears that you have to call in to listen. I don't want to call in - I just want to listen to the stream. Many thanks for your ideas! -Michael

Hello!

I am very disappointed to say that my show did not broadcast tonight at 5 PM PST (8 PM EST) because the host console wouldn't work. Here are the details. The show is "Open Air with Cheri Huber", and the call ID is 15406. I'm on a MacBook OSX 10.5.7, with Safari 4.0.2. I had the same software set up last week (as far as I know) and the show broadcast no problem last week.

Here are the challenges I had:

(1) When I first tried to fire up the "TalkShoe Pro" client, it just seemed to hang. But then I tried again, and it got stuck on the "Authenticating" step. Then I tried again and got in, and it worked for about 10 minutes, with me talking to one caller. Then, when I tried to bring another caller on the air, it wouldn't respond and it didn't hear me either. I couldn't mute or unmute anyone. I tried several times to restart the "TalkShoe Pro" client, but it wouldn't get past the "Authenticating" step. It seems like the issue is with the TalkShoe server - at least as far as I can tell.

(2) I then tried to use the TalkShoe web client, but I got an error message saying that the TalkShoe.com server was unavailable.

(3) I called Tech Support but just got voicemail :( Darn.

The telltale sign for me that there are problems with the TalkShoe system is that people do not stay unmuted in the host console when I unmute them. Instead, the system just re-mutes after a few seconds. That's when I know I'm in trouble. Also, no one can seem to hear me (and the TalkShoe system doesn't seem to be receiving the audio signal from my phone).

Did anyone else experience this problem tonight? Is there something else I should have done or tried? Is the TalkShoe system (or some part of it) down or non-functional?

Thanks for any insights or support you have. Thank you to TalkShoe for a great product and service.

-Michael

Dear TalkShoe friends,

I have written in about this topic before, but I am still experiencing the problem (just this past Tuesday). Maybe some of you have ideas or explanations that I have not heard yet.

I have been hearing a "You have 2 minutes left" message on various occasions throughout my experience with TalkShoe over the past 11 months. It usually happens near the end of my hour-long show. Sometimes this results in me or a caller being cut off, and sometimes it does not. I've had various theories about why this message occurs:

1. At first I thought it was because the TalkShoe system had "timed me out". This didn't make sense though because I was only 50 or 60 minutes in, and I had set up my call for 120 minutes. Also - I have since learned that the TalkShoe system doesn't kick anybody off until 24 hours have elapsed (no matter how long the show was scheduled for).

2. Later on, I thought that perhaps this was because our callers were using phone cards, and the warning that I was hearing over the air from TalkShoe was actually coming from their phone card company as the caller ran out of minutes. This was what I believed until recently.

3. Recently I heard from a caller that she was cut off after hearing the "2 minutes left" message even though she was not using a phone card. So the phone card theory does not hold water in her case.

So... my question is: if TalkShoe doesn't have a "2 minutes left" message, and the caller is not creating a "2 minutes left" message (because of an expiring phone card), then WHERE IS THIS MESSAGE COMING FROM? I'm scratching my head... I have no idea. Is there any chance that this could be coming from the voice bridge software? I'm trying to imagine any other places that audio input could come from.

Any thought, ideas, comments you have are welcome.

Thanks!

-Michael

I have been hearing a "You have 2 minutes left" message on various occasions throughout my experience with TalkShoe over the past 10 months. Sometimes this results in me or a caller being cut off, and sometimes it does not. I've had various theories about why they occur:

1. At first I thought it was because the TalkShoe system had "timed me out". This didn't make sense though because I was only 50 or 60 minutes in, and I had set up my call for 120 minutes.

2. Later on, I thought that perhaps this was because our callers were using phone cards, and the warning that I was hearing over the air from TalkShoe was actually coming from their phone card company. This was what I believed until recently.

3. Recently I've heard from a caller that she was cut off even though there were no issues with her phone - i.e., she was not using a phone card or, if she was, she had more than enough minutes left.

So... my question is: does the TalkShoe system somehow limit the amount of time that callers can be on the system? If so, can this time limit be increased or dropped all together? In some cases, it seems like people were cut off after being on the system for about 60 minutes. For our show, we often have more callers than we can fit in during our 60 minutes. So people end up calling in early and being on hold for a significant period of time (i.e., more than 60 minutes).

Any thought, ideas, comments you have are welcome.

Thanks!

I've been having some challenges recently with my VOIP call through which I play music to TalkShoe. I'm on a Mac (OSX 10.5.5). I play my music in iTunes, use Soundflower to route it within my Mac, and then use GizmoProject to VOIP into TalkShoe. This has worked well for about 30 shows, and then suddenly I was getting very bad echoes. To try to understand what has been causing the echoes, I've been exploring all aspects of this set-up, all preference settings, etc. When I tested the system last night, I had this experience. I called in via my POTS line for my voice input. And then I called in via Gizmo/VOIP for my music input. I played my music input in iTunes, but the audio wasn't coming through TalkShoe. THEN, when I added my voice, the music would start coming through!! I would stop talking and the music would stop. I would begin speaking again and the music would start coming through again. Very interesting!! There was no change in iTunes - it just kept playing the audio. Does anybody know what would cause that? I'm wondering if some aspect of the system is muting the music because it doesn't reach a high enough level... But the music seemed reasonably loud when it did come through. After about 10-15 minutes or so, the system seemed to stabilize in some way, and the music came through reliably (without my voice input). But it did not work initially. Any thoughts/comments are appreciated.

Hi All! I wrote in earlier about the challenges of an echo problem that seemed to be being caused by my VOIP call. I had an idea for a new solution that TalkShoe might be able to assist with. The challenge is that I play audio on my computer that I send to TalkShoe via a VOIP connection. But the VOIP is a bit unreliable since it needs to travel from my computer over the Internet to TalkShoe in a timely fashion. I've had challenges with really bad echoes as a result. I'm wondering if it would be possible to store audio somewhere on TalkShoe servers and then play it on demand from my host console. Then I wouldn't have to worry about the unreliability of my VOIP connection. What do you think? You could give each host a quota (100 MB?) and then give them a way to upload the files and play them from the host console. Oh, and by the way, I need it by Tuesday!! :) (if possible)

Dear TalkShoe,

I'm having a challenge with echo and I'm wondering if someone has any ideas. We've done about 30 weekly shoes on TalkShoe now. It's a call-in show and I'm able to add and drop callers easily - no problem. I host it from a MacBook (OSX 10.5.4) and I pipe audio from iTunes to TalkShoe via GizmoProject (a VOIP call). I use a program called SoundFlower to route the audio within my Mac from iTunes to GizmoProject. For the first 28 shows, this audio feed from iTunes to TalkShoe worked fine. But beginning 2 weeks ago, I got an awful echo on my voice when I began the show - so we had to cancel it. The same thing happened this past week - awful echo. However, when I hung up the VOIP call (GizmoProject), THE ECHO WENT AWAY!!! Yay. So I'm thrilled about losing the echo. But not so thrilled about losing my ability to pipe in music. Does anyone have any ideas about how to address this? Your response is most appreciated. I'm thinking that the echo is caused by this VOIP call, but I'm not positive.

Thanks,

Michael