Silverlight and VOIP

Posted by Corey on February 4, 2009 at 10:25 am.

Much like 3D is more like 2.5D so is VOIP through Silverlight. TringMe has set up a compelling Silverlight prototype showing how to make a call using Silverlight. They’re using Flash to handle the voice and audio, with Silverlight to passing the number, the call action, and hang up action. It looks like Silverlight is calling the Flash object through a JavaScript layer. This use of JavaScipt reminds me of the YouTube in Silverlight prototype. The video controls were done in Silverlight, the video was Flash, and the interaction between them used the YouTube JavaScript library.

Until Silverlight has native mic and webcam support, this will have to do. Here’s the demo (click the image).

Thanks to my PHP buddy, Robert Swarthout, for telling me about this.

Silverlight’s first VOIP application

This TringMe prototype is not the first time VOIP has been done through a Silverlight interface. Cynergy used Skype com objects to accomplish this. Check out Mike Wolf’s post for more deatails; very cool stuff. (My favorite quote from Mike is: “Just because one platform doesn’t have feature A, you don’t have to drop it entirely.”)

12 Responses to “Silverlight and VOIP”

John Says:
February 4th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

Hi, thanks for the SL-VOIP info. Maybe SL 3.0 will give us Mic/Cam support without Flash.Where can I find info about the ” YouTube in Silverlight prototype”?Thanks

Dew Drop - February 5, 2009 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew (Pingback) Says:
February 5th, 2009 at 8:47 am

[...] Silverlight and VOIP (Corey Schuman) [...]

Corey Says:
February 5th, 2009 at 8:55 am

Hey John, thanks for the comment. Blitz labs did the “Play YouTube FLV Videos with Silverlight 2.0“. It doesn’t look like their prototype is up and working; however the concept is sound. Call YouTube’s JavaScript from Silverlight, put SL in Windowless mode, and place a swf on top.

Dave Wolf Says:
February 7th, 2009 at 8:11 pm

There is no question the idea of
making a phone call out of a Silverlight application is extremely
interesting and presents a very important piece of thought leadership
in the RIA space. However this is not the first time this was done at
all.
This same approach was used by Cynergy nearly a year ago when they
won the National Microsoft Phizzpop Challenge. You can see their live
phone call to Senator Obama’s office at SXSW a year ago here
http://www.truveo.com/PhizzPop-Cynergy-presents-Ben/id/288230381149978300
Cynergy then demonstrated the same approach, again calling Senator
Obama’s office live from the UXWeek conference over the summer.
http://vimeo.com/2833183
The general approach was blogged by Skype as well
http://share.skype.com/sites/us/2008/09/ben_franklin_namesake_goes_phi.html
In the name of fairness, openness and honesty it is worth adjusting
the claims that this is the first time ever this has been accomplished,
and to give reference and claims to those who have laid the foundation
for this kind of thought leadership.
Dave Wolf
Vice President
Cynergy

Corey Says:
February 9th, 2009 at 9:35 am

Hey Dave,

Thanks for posting the comment, I haven’t seen this implementation of Silverlight VOIP. Cynergy should be credited with the first implementation of making a call through Silverlight. Cynergy certainly is a leader in the Silverlight space with products like Ben and of course Line Rdier (http://linerider.com/).

As far as the TringMe prototype, I really like that they used Flash. Using Flash enables you to be sure the user has the technology.

Again, thanks for the comment. Though leadership is what is and what’s going to make Silverlight a very competive technology.

-Corey

Paul Kirshner Says:
October 24th, 2009 at 8:24 pm

The articles here are great. Thanks for having them. I love reading blogs about Voice over IP! It’s such an exciting technology. I don’t comment on many sites but had to on yours. Thanks again – great site!

Imran Malik Says:
April 6th, 2010 at 7:22 am

Impressive piece of information, let me elaborate more on VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol has been around since many years. But due to lack of sufficient and affordable bandwidth it was not possible to carry carrier grade voice over Internet Protocol. But since the arrival of low cost internet bandwidth and new speech codecs such as G.729, G.723 which utilizes very low payload to carry carrier class voice it has recently been possible to leverage the true benefits of VoIP. G.723 codec utilizes only 6 Kbps (Kilo Bytes/sec) which is capable of maintaining a constant stream of data between peers and deliver carrier grade voice quality. Lets put this way if you have 8 Mbps internet connection, by using G.723 codec you can run upto 100 telephone lines with crystal clear and carrier grade voice quality. I am also a user of VoIP and have setup a small PBX at home. Since I have discovered VoIP I have never used traditional PSTN service. Dear readers, if you have not yet tried VoIP I suggest that you try VoIP technology and I bet you will never want to use the traditional PSTN phone service ever again. VoIP has far more superior features to offer which traditional PSTN sadly cannot offer. Also It has recently been possile to carry Video alongwith VoIP by using low payload video codecs. I cannot resist to tell you that by using T.38 passthrough and disabling VAD VoIP can carry FAX transmission, but beaware FAX T.38 passthrough will only work when using wide band protocols such as G.711, a-Law and u-Law. By using ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) which converts VoIP signals into traditional PSTN you can also using Dial-up modems to connect to various dialup services. I wont go in to the details what VoIP can offer, to cut my story short VoIP is a must to have product for every business and individual. How VoIP WorksWhen we make a VoIP call, a communication channel is established between caller and called party over IP (Internet Protocol) which runs on top of computer data networks. A telephony conversation that takes place over VoIP are converted into binary data packets streams in real time and transmitted over data network, when these data packets arrive at the destination these are again converted into standard telephony conversation. This whole process of voice conversion into data, transmission and data conversion into back voice conversation takes place within less than few milliseconds. That is how a VoIP is call is transmitted over data networks. I hope that now you understand basics of how a VoIP call takes place.What are speech codec’s and what role codec plays in VoIP?Speech codec play a vital role in VoIP and codec determines the quality and cost of the call. Let me explain you what exactly VoIP codec’s are and how they work. You may have heard about data compression, or probably you have heard about air compressor which compresses a volume of air in enclosed container, VoIP codec’s are no different than a air compressor. Speech codec’s compresses voice into data packets and decompresses it upon arrival at destination. Some VoIP codec’s can compress huge amount of voice while maintaining QoS which means use this type of codec will cost less because it will consume just a fraction of data network. Some codec’s are just not capable of encoding huge amount of voice they simply consume huge amount of data networks bandwidth hence the cost goes up.Following is a list of VoIP codec’s along with how much data network bandwidth they consume.* AMR Codec* BroadVoice Codec 16Kbps narrowband, and 32Kbps wideband* GIPS Family – 13.3 Kbps and up* GSM – 13 Kbps (full rate), 20ms frame size* iLBC – 15Kbps,20ms frame size: 13.3 Kbps, 30ms frame size* ITU G.711 – 64 Kbps, sample-based Also known as alaw/ulaw* ITU G.722 – 48/56/64 Kbps ADPCM 7Khz audio bandwidth* ITU G.722.1 – 24/32 Kbps 7Khz audio bandwidth (based on Polycom’s SIREN codec)* ITU G.722.1C – 32 Kbps, a Polycom extension, 14Khz audio bandwidth* ITU G.722.2 – 6.6Kbps to 23.85Kbps. Also known as AMR-WB. CELP 7Khz audio bandwidth* ITU G.723.1 – 5.3/6.3 Kbps, 30ms frame size* ITU G.726 – 16/24/32/40 Kbps* ITU G.728 – 16 Kbps* ITU G.729 – 8 Kbps, 10ms frame size* Speex – 2.15 to 44.2 Kbps* LPC10 – 2.5 Kbps* DoD CELP – 4.8 Kbps Switch to VoIP Today and you will never want to use traditional PSTN ever again.Thanks-Imran

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