BackBone Network - Backbone Talk SIP Phone System for Internet Broadcasting

[andrewzarian]

IAIB member Jeff Adams interviewed BackBone Network CTO George Capalbo about an interesting service they are offering for radio and internet radio stations.

What I understood from the demo is that this service is a SIP based call in system. It would be something like Blog Talk Radio but better quality.

The only pricing i found was 1500 min/text for 150 dollars a month. the phone calls are using the Opus codec at 48kHZ.

Some facts about the service

Listener Interactivity – The life-blood of talk radio is the listener who calls into your show. Give your audience riveting conversation by talking with them, not at them. Allow callers to provide feedback — on the air.
Broadcast

Quality Tie-Lines – Available for those special remote guests who should sound like they’re in the studio with you. Use these lines for your field reporters on mobile devices, and conference them together.

No Extra Equipment – Everything is right on your Mac and in the cloud. No bulky studio phone switches, no expensive multi-line handsets and no phone lines to run. Just plug in a headset, and you’re on the air talking to callers.
Familiar Controls – Feel comfortable with on-screen controls you recognize, including Dial, Ring, Connect, Hold, Conference, Busy All and Drop. Configurable number of callers, up to 10 simultaneous.

Call Screener – The separate Call Screener module is available for use on another Mac. It allows Producers and Talent to manage callers while maintaining constant communications with each other on their Macs.

Remote Screener – Leave your call screener at home and save on travel. Share your screener among shows from different cities. The phone system in the cloud permits screener and talent to function a world apart.

http://backboneradio.com/

[mcphillips]

The website says that you have to have a Mac. If that's correct, I'll have to pass. The telephone module (the most interesting part to me) is called Backbone Talk. It's optional, which means it's additional cost.

[jamesdelfresco]

wow this might be what many of us have been looking for when it comes to taking phone calls on our shows. Blog Talk Radio is pretty low quality and if you are broadcasting during peak hours your phone calls are not good at all.

Few things. Why mac only? Most radio stations are PC based.

How much is it if you only want the phone system and non of the other stuff.

Maybe someone form the company can come on the board and comment.

[pgk2]

All, I'd like to introduce myself, I am Paul Kamp with Backbone Networks.

Let me see if I can answer some of your questions:

The service and associated pricing. We provide a telephone number, Screener and Talent/DJ software for your Macintosh, 1500/minutes and/or texts per month for $150 per month. The phone number can take calls and texts. A text counts as a minute.

The product is only supported on Macintoshes today. It is a Java application that has been fully tested on Java 7 on the Mac. We have run it on Windows machines but it would require a lot more testing in order to release it. If we find enough interest and sufficient beta testers we would undertake that effort.

To learn a bit more about the product here is a link to the product page. And if you are interested in how it operates the documentation and a couple of associated videos are available on this page.

If you have any questions you can also send me an email at pgk2@backbone.com.

[PaulSaunders]

Here is some more information on the product. Found it on their site.
http://backboneradio.com/backbone-talk-release-lp/