TSP - Automatic Gain Control Issues

[calmichael]

There have been previous posts from installers regarding<br>customer complaints about message distortion occurring<br>when certain callers (some cellular) are recorded to loud.<br>Replies generally tell us to modify the registry and<br>decrease gain for recording.<br><br>Other than playing with the registry levels, is there any<br>other solution to this issue? The registry solution has<br>resulted in one of our customers having to go so far with<br>the settings, as normal recordings are recorded to softly<br>to be heard correctly to get rid of the distortion issue. <br><br>Will this be addressed in Unity 2.4.6 xyz or when 3.0 is<br>released publically?<br><br>Are there other solutions to this issue other than wait<br>and see?<br><br>One client likes to tease, well the uOne system didn't do<br>that. . . (grin)<br><br>--- ----- ---<br><br>

[#2]

yeah, I'm used to the "uOne could do this" stuff... In this case, however, that's not true. They did not have AGC capabilities since they use the same basic WAV driver we do. Lines that came in from the outside world hot still got clipped etc... The default prompt set that ships with Unity 2.4.x is leveled for Dialogic which is a good 20 dB louder than the levels most of the IP phone equipment records at... hence making the problem much more noticible.

We're currently working to put AGC capabilities on our side of the fence, but there's lots of work left to be done.

There are several other things you can (should) look at other than hacking the registry to adjust playback and record levels... most notably installing the quieter prompt set would be a start. Here's a link to an audio level troubleshooting tip recently posted by TAC that should help out:

http://www-tac.cisco.com/Support_Library/Software/Unity/AudioDecision.htm



Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

[calmichael]

Again, thanks for the quick replies!

But, the url you mentioned, does not seem to work from the
outside world (like wwwin.cisco.com). Is this site able to
be accessed from the outside world?

Also, how would "quieter" prompts help for callers leaving
messages - this would be a record versus playback function.
This is the primary issue we are running into. Unless you
are saying that the issue is not how loud the call is being
recorded - and that the problem actually lies in playback.

Dunno get - please explain.

--- ----- ---

[#4]

I'll bark at someone to get that link exposed... it was supposed to be available to outside folks (you have to jump through a few hoops with various folks to make that happen, we probably didn't dot an "i" somewhere).

Currently the system ships by default reducing the playback of all files to help compensate for the fact that the prompts are too loud... this is the playback of ALL wav files... prompts, greetings and messages. There's no way to adjust on the fly based on source since the WAV driver has no clue what's going on.

The record volume is adjusted up to try and compensate which can cause clipping and distortion of the calls are coming in too hot since the WAV driver does not have any AGC to adjust on the fly.

So... by putting on quiet prompts you can reduce the playback reduction and the record boost such that the adjustments happening on the fly are closer to 0 (i.e. closer to no change) which makes things much easier to tweak and will reduce clipping on records etc...


Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

[calmichael]

Then I guess the next question would be, where can the
"quiet" prompts be acquired from?

I think someone mentioned earlier that TAC gave them a
location for download. . .

[#6]

Unfortunately the quiet prompts are only available on an internal TAC web site that's not available outside, even to folks that log into CCO. We're working on getting them on the same download page as the 2.4.6 build 126 patch, the TSP and release notes are at. It should be within the week. I'll post a message out here when they're available.

If you're feeling lucky you can try the link anyway:

http://www-vdtl.cisco.com/rtp-evoice/unitysw.htm

In the meantime you'll need to get someone with access to download them to you or burn you a CD. The G729a quiet prompts are actually small enough to email around (little less than 8 meg). The 711 set is just to large for that, however...


Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)