Why have we not seen a decent Skype Competitor

**andrewzarian** · 10-29-2012, 08:25 AM

I was asked this question over the weekend and really couldnt come up with an answer. currently Skype is the best way to do Video/Audio for guests and cohosts but its not perfect. Im wondering if someone can give some insight on why we have seen anyone come up with good alternative to skype.

**erictimmer** · 10-30-2012, 09:28 PM

Adam Curry and JCD have been experimenting with Mumble in place of Skype. There were a couple of issues with setup early on but it sounds good and appears to be working well now. I haven't tried it except when gaming but it could be a good option to check out and do some testing.

http://mumble.sourceforge.net

**Donovan** · 10-31-2012, 07:11 AM

I've used Mumble for over 6 months to bring in my co-hosts. It works much better than Skype for audio, but if you're needing video, it doesn't have that component. Short of using Google Hangouts or some other 3rd party solution, I don't see a replacement for Skype when you need audio and video - for the moment, anyway.

**andrewzarian** · 10-31-2012, 05:30 PM

Do you guys think that the new Opus Codec is going to change the quality of skype?

**Donovan** · 10-31-2012, 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by andrewzarian

Do you guys think that the new Opus Codec is going to change the quality of skype?

Yep. It can only make it better. My youngest son has been playing around with the codec and says the quality in comparison at lower bitrates is definitely an improvement.

**brianmonroe** · 10-31-2012, 06:29 PM

I think that the answer is actually quite simple. To do high quality audio and video over the Internet is quite complex and not cheep to develop. When you are dealing with the Internet you are dealing with data links that have no guarantee that they will be working from one moment to the next so therefore you have to have some quite sophisticated software that can deal with unpredictable links that we have on the Internet. Not only for peer to peer but for group chat too. Then you have to run some sort of server farm for directory services too along with have a good solution to bypass most firewalls. The software will need to work with various end user computers (sound cards, capture cards and webcams) and devices (iPads, iPhones and other devices) Assuming all of that can be done then you have to consider to hire enough developers to write the software and keep it up to date and bug free.

For products like Skype where it is used by millions of people this is sort of proposition is not that big of a deal. However, when you are talking about doing the same thing for a much smaller user community, it can get quite difficult. Not only that but the needs of many Interent Broadcasters (IB'rs) are quite unique and much more demanding. Unlike your typical Skype user who is using just a built in webcam and audio card. Many Internet Broadcasters have invested either a little or a lot of money on various equipment that has to be part of their workflow to produce their shows. Even though there are some IB'rs that could afford to pay extra either on a monthly, annual or one time charge. Many may just not have the funds to cover the true cost of this software.