...well, sort of.
Hey folks, I've been talking things over with able, and sometime in the next couple of weeks I'm going to start testing out my "voice chat" idea for Pacers games.
As a few of you know, my master's capstone project at IU is to develop a voice-based system where we could chat with each other during games. This essentially would be an alternative to the game threads and irc chat systems we're using now.
So, at this point, I'm basically looking for volunteers who want to help me test out the voice-based game chat concept. We can't just jump into this "willy-nilly," as there many technical issues (as well as school/paperwork issues) that will need to be worked out, but I'm hoping that after a handful of tests we'll have a good idea of just how this will work.
If you want to volunteer, here's what you'll need:
* A PC with solid internet access (broadband preferred - no satellite or flaky dial-up connections).
Pretty straightforward.
* A sound card
If you can listen to music on your computer, you're probably fine. Most likely you'll need to have a speaker output and microphone input.
* a PC headset (headphones + microphone) for voice chat
The higher the quality, the better it will work in testing (not just for you, but for everybody else as well). Of course, I'm a poor college student, so I can't buy headsets for you guys, and since you're volunteering, I can't really expect everybody to use high-quality state-of-the-art equipment. Best Buy and Wal-Mart have headsets starting at about 18 dollars that are usuable but pretty low-quality. My guess is that for around $30 you can find something you'd be much happier with.
* a TV where you can watch the game (MAYBE)
Basically, there are two types of people that I envision getting some use out of this system: 1) people watching on TV, and 2) people who can't watch the game live but would appreciate a play-by-play update from fans. I have no problem with people in the second category using the system, but it will be hard for me to test its effectiveness unless most of the participants are able to watch while chatting.
(So, let me know when you volunteer whether or not you'll have live TV access).
* a way to be in front of your TV while using the headset.
What I mean by this is that, after the first preliminary test or two of the system, we want people to be chatting while they're watching the game on TV. So, obviously, you either need to have your computer in the same room as your TV, and/or you'll need an extension cord so that the headphones reach to your couch or wherever you'll be sitting. (You can get male-to-female headphone cables at places like Radio Shack for $5-$10 apiece).
An alternative option is to buy a wireless PC headset, but these are generally very expensive, are hard to find and are of varying quality.
* software.
Able and I haven't figured out which VOIP software package we're going to use for initial testing, but chances are pretty good that you're going to have to download and install something (and make sure it works) in order to get the voice chat working properly.
----------------------------------------------------
As mentioned earlier, we're going to have to do a couple of test runs before this system will be truly usable (and there will likely be many overall tests and many overall tweaks). A few of the issues involved:
* Time lags (satellite vs. cable etc.) - not everone will necessarily be watching the same thing at the same time. To get around theis, we may end up needing different "rooms" for users depending on what TV feed they're watching (trust me, you don't want to hear a bunch of people cheering about a play that you won't see for another 15 seconds!)
* Audio quality - ever used the headsets on Xbox live? They're pretty crappy. We're going to have to play around with the system to get the right bandwidth/quality ratios, see which brands of headsets are ideal, etc. and see what we can do to minimaize background noise etc. so that people can hear each other as well as possible.
* "Room" size - we'll have to play around to see what the ideal number of users per audio channel is. I'm think 5-10, but it maky turn out that even 10 is too many (with everybody talking at once, conversations will be tough)
* Moderation - this may not be too much of an issue during testing, but if this ever goes "live," there will definitely be trolls, and people who argue and get out of hand or genrally make the experience bad for others. So some sort of moderator system will probably need to be worked out.
-----------------------------------------------------
Despite the technical challenges involved, I'm pretty excited by this. I gave up on game threads and chat a while ago but I could see how voice chat could be a real blast.
As mentioned earlier, it will be a couple of weeks before an official testing plan is in place. Able and I still have to work out the initial technical issues (by the way THANKS ABLE!! ), and I have to get approval from IU do do testing and recording etc. so that the data is publishable.
But please keep this in mind. If anyone wants to volunteer, or has any questions or suggestions, post it here!
Thanks!
*
Hey folks, I've been talking things over with able, and sometime in the next couple of weeks I'm going to start testing out my "voice chat" idea for Pacers games.
As a few of you know, my master's capstone project at IU is to develop a voice-based system where we could chat with each other during games. This essentially would be an alternative to the game threads and irc chat systems we're using now.
So, at this point, I'm basically looking for volunteers who want to help me test out the voice-based game chat concept. We can't just jump into this "willy-nilly," as there many technical issues (as well as school/paperwork issues) that will need to be worked out, but I'm hoping that after a handful of tests we'll have a good idea of just how this will work.
If you want to volunteer, here's what you'll need:
* A PC with solid internet access (broadband preferred - no satellite or flaky dial-up connections).
Pretty straightforward.
* A sound card
If you can listen to music on your computer, you're probably fine. Most likely you'll need to have a speaker output and microphone input.
* a PC headset (headphones + microphone) for voice chat
The higher the quality, the better it will work in testing (not just for you, but for everybody else as well). Of course, I'm a poor college student, so I can't buy headsets for you guys, and since you're volunteering, I can't really expect everybody to use high-quality state-of-the-art equipment. Best Buy and Wal-Mart have headsets starting at about 18 dollars that are usuable but pretty low-quality. My guess is that for around $30 you can find something you'd be much happier with.
* a TV where you can watch the game (MAYBE)
Basically, there are two types of people that I envision getting some use out of this system: 1) people watching on TV, and 2) people who can't watch the game live but would appreciate a play-by-play update from fans. I have no problem with people in the second category using the system, but it will be hard for me to test its effectiveness unless most of the participants are able to watch while chatting.
(So, let me know when you volunteer whether or not you'll have live TV access).
* a way to be in front of your TV while using the headset.
What I mean by this is that, after the first preliminary test or two of the system, we want people to be chatting while they're watching the game on TV. So, obviously, you either need to have your computer in the same room as your TV, and/or you'll need an extension cord so that the headphones reach to your couch or wherever you'll be sitting. (You can get male-to-female headphone cables at places like Radio Shack for $5-$10 apiece).
An alternative option is to buy a wireless PC headset, but these are generally very expensive, are hard to find and are of varying quality.
* software.
Able and I haven't figured out which VOIP software package we're going to use for initial testing, but chances are pretty good that you're going to have to download and install something (and make sure it works) in order to get the voice chat working properly.
----------------------------------------------------
As mentioned earlier, we're going to have to do a couple of test runs before this system will be truly usable (and there will likely be many overall tests and many overall tweaks). A few of the issues involved:
* Time lags (satellite vs. cable etc.) - not everone will necessarily be watching the same thing at the same time. To get around theis, we may end up needing different "rooms" for users depending on what TV feed they're watching (trust me, you don't want to hear a bunch of people cheering about a play that you won't see for another 15 seconds!)
* Audio quality - ever used the headsets on Xbox live? They're pretty crappy. We're going to have to play around with the system to get the right bandwidth/quality ratios, see which brands of headsets are ideal, etc. and see what we can do to minimaize background noise etc. so that people can hear each other as well as possible.
* "Room" size - we'll have to play around to see what the ideal number of users per audio channel is. I'm think 5-10, but it maky turn out that even 10 is too many (with everybody talking at once, conversations will be tough)
* Moderation - this may not be too much of an issue during testing, but if this ever goes "live," there will definitely be trolls, and people who argue and get out of hand or genrally make the experience bad for others. So some sort of moderator system will probably need to be worked out.
-----------------------------------------------------
Despite the technical challenges involved, I'm pretty excited by this. I gave up on game threads and chat a while ago but I could see how voice chat could be a real blast.
As mentioned earlier, it will be a couple of weeks before an official testing plan is in place. Able and I still have to work out the initial technical issues (by the way THANKS ABLE!! ), and I have to get approval from IU do do testing and recording etc. so that the data is publishable.
But please keep this in mind. If anyone wants to volunteer, or has any questions or suggestions, post it here!
Thanks!
*
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