[Asterisk-Users] VM low volume - testers needed

[Brian McEntire]

Hi Richard,
I am experiencing the same problem. I'd like to test your patch. Thing, is,
I don't know which CVS it's in :)

... I checked out 1.2-beta on Tuesday (9/21) and compiled it. When I type
'show application voicemail', it does not describe the g(#) option, so I
think my version must not have it.

I am using a TDM22B card and voicemails seem very quiet if they are left
from in incoming POTS connection. When I enter voicemail by direct dialing a
local extension and leave a message from the advanced options menu, the
recorded message is much louder.

I should qualify, not only are my VMs coming in over POTS, I am actually
calling out first through the TDM22B, to Sipura, to VOIP provider, back in
via PSTN, to TDM22B, to VM. I'm amazed it works at all :) ... I'm very
impressed by Asterisk and especially it's voicemail. I would like to resolve
the low volume issue though.

If you can tell me which CVS to check out, I can try it. I'd like to stick
to the 1.2-beta branch though because I don't want to rework all my config
files.



On 9/21/05, Rich Adamson <radamson at routers.com> wrote:
>
> > On Monday 19 September 2005 12:38, Rich Adamson wrote:
> > > The g(6) adds a 6 db gain for zap calls that end up recording a
> Voicemail
> > > message.
> > ...
> >
> > > * 'g(#)' the specified amount of gain will be requested during message
> > > recording (units are whole-number decibels (dB))
> >
> > How in the hell does that make any sense? are your normal incoming calls
> > quiet too or just voicemail?
>
> Yes, see bug 2022 and 2023 for details, as well as
> http://www.routers.com/asteriskprob/asterisk-config.htm
> for a very detailed analysis of the problem.
>
> I believe one of the more serious issues amounts to: if asterisk is
> located a fair distance from the central office (-7db in my case), setting
> the rxgain and/or txgain to any level that would be considered reasonable
> for that loss (eg, rxgain=5, txgain=5), hugh amounts of echo result that
> cannot be addressed through zapata.conf echo entris, and changing
> compile options to agressive, etc, does not help. Its my believe
> (from working with several TDM users), the further one is from the CO,
> the bigger the problem. (Or, short pstn cable lengths less then about
> 4 or 5db can almost always be addressed via parameters.)
>
> The above workaround is very usable (assuming it works) when someone
> calls in via the pstn and leaves a voicemail (which is already at
> least 7db down plus their own pstn loss), and then I call in via the
> pstn to retrive the voicemail (now 14db down PLUS the original callers
> pstn loss), the audio is so faint its difficult to impossible to
> listen to.
>
> > > In my case, the asterisk box is located about 7db from the central
> > > office. As noted in bug 2023 (and 2022), calls from an outside pstn
> > > line coming into asterisk incure a 7db pstn loss (which can't be
> adjusted
> > > for with rxgain and txgain as changing those values to something
> > > reasonable generates echo). Retrieving that VM message from an outside
> > > location creates another 7db loss (now -14db down in total), making it
> > > very difficult (if not impossible) to hear the message. (And, yes I've
> > > gone through all the recommendations with wav vs gsm files, etc.)
> >
> > I am not sure I understand why the txgain/rxgain isn't fixing it without
> > adding unacceptable echo... this all seems very odd... I mean for a test
> > you should be able to dial an echo() application and have extremely
> quiet
> > echoed audio... is this the case?
>
> As an ex-telco transmission engineer, believe me I've done my homework
> and some very solid testing with expensive well-calibrated test equipment.
> As I've mentioned to Kevin, its almost like the TigerJet pci controller
> on the TDM card is reversing bits six and seven (or something very odd
> like that). Digium apparently now has a pci engineering type looking
> at the issues, which I'm told is using a pci logic analyzer, etc.
>
> > > The work around "only" kicks in if the call comes from a zap channel
> > > and ends up in voicemail, adding a 6db gain to that recorded message.
> > > No other channel types are impacted by this new parameter.
> >
> > This is a HELL of a band-aid.
>
> If you actually follow the logic that was originally stated in 2023,
> this gain setting "is" highly useful for those systems that are
> further away from the CO (as mentioned above). For those closer to
> the CO, it has zero value.
>
> Rich
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation sponsored by Easynews.com <http://Easynews.com>--
>
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20050923/a9dc6032/attachment.htm