RESEARCH NOTE / EVALUATION WR Author(s): Ira M. Weinstein, Saar Litman BT MeetMe with Dolby Voice Hands-On Testing of this Differentiated Audio Conferencing Service July 21, 2014 Distribution Note: The non-exclusive, public distribution of this subscription-only research note has been sponsored by Dolby Laboratories. Background At the 2014 Enterprise Connect show in Orlando, several Wainhouse Research (WR) analysts were treated to a demo of the BT MeetMe with Dolby Voice audio conferencing service. This service is the result of an exclusive partnership between BT and Dolby (the creators of numerous high quality audio and video technologies including Dolby Surround Sound and Dolby TrueHD). Soon after Enterprise Connect, BT provided WR with a handful of demo accounts on the new service. Since then, WR has hosted a number of conference calls on the new service, and the results of this informal testing were extremely strong. The strength of the test results prompted WR s test team to conduct formal testing on this service, the results of which are highlighted within this note. Introduction BT MeetMe with Dolby Voice (referred to as MeetMe within this document) is a meet-me audio bridging service that allows meeting participants to connect over the phone (via standard PSTN), from their PCs using a browser plug-in, or from their mobile devices using a dedicated BT MeetMe application. Once a user s account has been created on MeetMe, the user receives a welcome email including the following information: - A link (URL) to use to join an audio meeting - A link (URL) to start / host an audio meeting - The user s participant passcode - The user s chairperson passcode - US toll-free and international direct phone numbers for dialing in by phone - A link (URL) to access a list of additional dial-in numbers for other countries - Links to additional information including a user guide, information about how to save meeting details in an email signature, how to install the Dolby Voice browser plug-in, and more. - US and UK phone numbers for the BT help desk Wainhouse Research 2014 Page 1 of 7
Over the years, WR has used a wide range of paid and free audio conferencing services. And, while each service has its own look and feel, we have found it difficult at times to differentiate between many of the offerings. This note focuses on one particular aspect of the BT MeetMe service that we believe to be an interesting differentiator the addition of Dolby Voice. Understanding Dolby Voice Leveraging its expertise in acoustics and surround sound, Dolby Voice is Dolby s attempt at simulating a face-to-face meeting room experience over audio conferencing. To deliver this experience, Dolby is using a number of different features and functions including: Wide-Band Audio the system uses a wide-band audio codec to provide near true-to-life audio quality. Automatic Gain Control (AGC) this feature ensure that all participants in the call are heard at the same volume. 1 Noise Cancelation the inclusion of Dolby s advanced noise cancelation algorithms reduce background noise and allows the meeting participants to be heard clearly even while speaking from within a noisy environment. 1 Spatial Audio this feature provides a degree of voice separation to the audio conference call. Basically, Dolby is combining the stereo audio capabilities of most computers and mobile devices with some behind-the-scenes processing to virtually position each remote participant in a different place in relation to the user. The result is that a user with the appropriate equipment and connection will feel as each meeting participant is in a different part of the room (see the graphic to the right). This experience resembles the surround sound experience provided via the use of multiple speakers. Note that other than doing their best to describe the experience and offering trials, Dolby and BT have supplied little technical information about the secret sauce behind the Spatial Audio feature. Hands-On Testing To test BT MeetMe with Dolby Voice, the WR test team conducted a number of test and production audio calls involving phone only (PSTN), PC, and mobile device participants. PC (Web Browser) Participants To participate in a MeetMe meeting from a PC, the user must first install a plug-in within his browser; a painless process that involves clicking a link in the email invite and allowing the installation of the Dolby Voice plug-in. The plug-in is compatible with the most common browsers including Internet Explorer 8+, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Thus assuming the user is permitted to install browser plug-ins, MeetMe should be easily accessible to almost all PC or Mac users. 1 While we appreciate the benefit of these features in this application, one could argue that adjusting each person s audio volume to a consistent level (using AGC) and the use of noise cancellation do not reflect real life. Wainhouse Research 2014 Page 2 of 7
After installing the plug-in, users simply click on the join a meeting or start a meeting URL to use MeetMe. After clicking on the proper URL, the user is directed to the landing page shown below. For convenience, the system pre-populates some of the fields on the page (e.g. meeting passcode). The user can also opt to store his name and email on the computer so that the entire page is pre-populated the next time he uses MeetMe. After completing the fields and clicking continue, the user automatically enters the meeting and is directed to the meeting management page shown below. The features available on this page depend on whether the user entered the chairperson or participant meeting passcode. All participants have access to some features including the ability to see who is connected to the call, who is talking, view incoming and outgoing audio levels, and mute their microphones. The meeting chairperson has access to additional features including the ability to record the meeting, lock the meeting, mute participants, and invite others to join. Wainhouse Research 2014 Page 3 of 7
WR successfully tested the ability to join and start MeetMe calls from Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. In all cases, the system worked as expected. As a side note, using a web browser to participate in an audio conference is a mixed blessing while a browser is especially convenient for casual users, WR found it is too easy to be disconnected from the conference by unintentionally closing the browser (after completing the viewing of another web page for example). A permanently installed client would be welcome. Testing Note - during our testing, we observed that the microphone input level meter was frequently peaked at the maximum level. This remained so even after we significantly lowered the microphone input volume via the PC control panel. Mobile (ios, Android) Device Participants Although users can connect to MeetMe meetings by making a standard phone call from their cell phone, mobile users must install the BT MeetMe application (available on the Apple App Store and within Google Play) to gain access to MeetMe s advanced features. Testing Note the welcome email does not include information about the mobile applications. To learn about the mobile apps, users must search for the app from their devices or review the user guide for more information. WR suggests including links to the mobile apps within the welcome email. The MeetMe ios and Android apps look basically the same (see screenshot at right) and offer the same functionality. After installing each application, we had to provide our name and email address. Once completed, we simply entered the meeting passcode (chairperson or participant) to join the call. Users on mobile devices have three ways to connect to MeetMe calls: 1) Using a standard cell phone call 2) Using the BT MeetMe app while connected over Wi-Fi 3) Using the BT MeetMe app while connected over cellular data plan (e.g. 3G, 4G, LTE, etc.) The first method (standard phone call) provides basic connectivity to the call, but the user will not enjoy certain advanced features including wideband and spatial audio. For this reason, when possible, mobile users should connect via the BT MeetMe app. This, however, will use a significant amount of data. We were pleased to see that the app includes the ability to disable the use of 3G / 4G data for calls and thus connect via the app only when Wi-Fi is available. This protects users from exceeding the limits on their mobile data plan. Call experience At the very least, BT MeetMe with Dolby Voice offers a solid audio conferencing experience that is on-par or better than competing offerings. In some situations, however, the resulting experience is above and beyond that currently available from other providers. When WR first tested MeetMe, we were able to appreciate some of the features including the noise cancellation and AGC. However, the spatial audio benefit eluded our test team. We simply didn t enjoy the same differentiated experience we had during the demo at Enterprise Connect. Wainhouse Research 2014 Page 4 of 7
We then realized that the problem was that our local equipment (headsets, USB conference phones, etc.) was not compatible with the Dolby experience. Specifically, in order to enjoy many of the Dolby Voice benefits, and most notably the spatial audio, we needed to use stereo headsets and high quality microphones. The table below highlights the equipment in use by the WR test team on a daily basis. As listed in the table, many of our default devices are simply not well suited for this application. Device Issues Plantronics SAVI 700 This top-of-the-line professional wireless headset is monaural (one ear only). As a result, this headset does not support the spatial audio feature. In addition, the outgoing microphone audio from this headset is compressed and processed before being sent over wireless to the base unit. This impacts the overall quality of the outgoing sound. Logitech Wireless Headset Dual H820e This cost-effective, business-grade wireless headset is binaural mono meaning that it provides audio to both ears, but the audio is only mono. As with the SAVI 700, the outgoing microphone audio from this headset is compressed and processed, resulting in compromised outgoing audio quality. Plantronics C435 The functionality of this stereo wired headset depends on the mode in which it is used. - When used to listen to music, the headset provides high quality stereo audio. - When used for PC audio (audio conferencing, video conferencing, etc.), the headset switches to binaural mono. As a result, this headset does not support the spatial audio feature. In addition, the outgoing microphone audio from this headset is processed to add noise reduction and AGC features, which appeared to conflict with the back-end processing being performed by the MeetMe server. ClearOne Chat50 This USB personal speaker phone is used every day for PC-based audio and video conferencing. However, this device has only one speaker and therefore cannot support stereo. In addition, this device incorporate echo cancellation which again appeared to conflict with the processing of the MeetMe server. Given that all of our daily use audio devices were either mono or used processed audio, the WR test team shifted to alternate devices for the next phase of the testing. We eventually determined that the ideal audio devices to use for the testing were as follows: - iphone or Android using a wired stereo headset (e.g. the stock iphone white earbuds) - PC with a professional wired microphone (not processed) and a wired stereo headset - PC with a high quality gaming headset Wainhouse Research 2014 Page 5 of 7
With the new devices connected to our mobile devices and PCs, we repeated our testing. With this new setup, the audio quality during the test calls was very high. The noise reduction and automatic gain control worked very well. Even the audio from phone-only (PSTN) participants sounded better now that our testers were using the proper headsets. This is a testament to Dolby s back-end audio processing. The most notable change, however, was that we could now appreciate the spatial audio feature. As advertised, users with stereo-capable headsets perceived that each of the other meeting participants were actually in a different locations within his room. Conclusion Make no mistake --- BT MeetMe with Dolby Audio offers an exceptional experience. The quality of the audio bridging function is strong, and the browser and mobile user interfaces are well designed and easy to use. In addition, the Spatial Audio feature provides BT with much needed differentiation compared to the plethora of other audio conferencing providers. Overall, based on our testing, we give this service a thumbs-up. The above notwithstanding, the spatial audio experience challenges some long-standing audio conferencing paradigms. For those of us who have accumulated thousands of hours of audio meetings, our brains are calibrated to receive conferencing audio in mono and without any spatial positioning remote participants sound like they are in your ear (or ears with dual mono headsets), and not sitting in the room with you. The Spatial Audio experience deviates from these norms. One WR analyst compared the initial use of spatial audio to the first time a user experiences 3D television or 60 fps video. Initially all of these capabilities seem strange, but these feelings quickly fade until at some point the user comes to accept, appreciate, and even expect the new experience. In addition, the creation of spatial presence (meaning a person is virtually located in a part of your room) also results in spatial absence (meaning that some of the virtual locations in your room feel empty). The net is that by positioning each participant in a specific virtual location, the technology is eliminating their audio from other parts of the space. The result is the feeling that each remote participant is speaking from only a very small part of the virtual room; an experience that some may find disconcerting. Furthermore, during the testing we observed that as a result of the auditory orientation reflex, some users have a tendency to turn their heads toward the speaker. This works well in a real meeting room, but fails in the spatial audio world as turning your head means that all of the meeting participants turn with you. As with any experiential comment, the above may or may not apply to all users. For example, digital natives / millennials (who represent ~ 25% of the workforce today 2 ) may appreciate the spatial audio experience more (or more quickly) than digital immigrants. Given the option between a standard experience and a spatial audio experience, and assuming all other factors were equal (cost, accessibility, etc.), the WR analysts involved in this testing would opt for a spatial audio experience. Finally, in a world where differentiation tends to focus around pricing and the user interface, it s refreshing to see some differentiation in the audio experience itself. 2 Source: http://badgeville.com/2013/12/18/infographic-the-rise-of-the-millennials Wainhouse Research 2014 Page 6 of 7
About Wainhouse Research: WR provides strategic guidance and insight on products and services for collaboration and conferencing applications within Unified Communications. Our global client base includes established and new technology suppliers and service providers, as well as enterprise users of voice, video, streaming, and web collaboration solutions. The company provides market research and consulting, produces conferences on technology trends and customer experiences, publishes a free weekly newsletter, and speaks at client and industry events. More about WR. Wainhouse Research 2014 Page 7 of 7