Hi,

Has anyone had this experience?  I was reporting a trial in court and they had a witness appear via Skype.  This was my first experience with Skype, so I was delighted that I didn't have to do anything!  ;-)  They brought in a professional videographer who set things up, so I just wrote the testimony like I would if the witness was on the stand.

To my utter dismay, the very INSTANT the Skype connection was established, I lost my audio in CC.  Naturally, the witness was born, raised, and went to medical school in Poland!  ARRGHHHH!  

Anyhoo, has anyone had this experience before?  I seem to remember posts on Depoman years and years ago, when Skype first came about, that it can cut out your audio, but I'm not finding anything now.  Any thoughts would be appreciate by me and the videographer, who hasn't a clue why that happened.

Best!!!!

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Did you change the time on your computer while your RT file was open?  That will kill audiosynch.   Otherwise, can't imagine what happened.  This is why I use two digital recorders as backup to my audiosynch.   Too many accents and out-of-control speakers out there to take a chance.   And obviously you have the VAOFR audio.   I even use the recorders on a video.   I just love redundancy!

Worst witness/depo contest: 

Somalian chemist . . . who interrupted ALL . . . DAY . . .

'nough said.

Just when you think you've heard/seen it all.

all I can say to that is HOLLLLLYYYYYYY CRAPPPPPPPP

Was the Skype session on the computer you were writing to?  I've had this happen using other products that stream video.  Is there any audio from your writer?

If you did change your time in your RT file, trying listening to the .wav file in a program like Audacity or Express Scribe.

If a video connection is necessary, I use a secondary computer.    

Do you guys actually get good audio quality from your writers? I have the Diamante, and I listened to the audio once just out of curiosity, and it was garbage, certainly not good enough to ever be relied upon.

My Dia does provide good audio but it all depends on the quality mic I use.  If I use a cheap mic, the quality is not as good.

I've done several Skype depos.  I put my microphone next to the computer and I've never had a problem.  Were you hooked into the videographer?

I have never had a problem with Skype making my audio shut down.  I have done several depos with Skype.

For future reference, my advice to all reporters is that if Skype is going to be used, just use it for the video portion and use a normal speakerphone for the audio.  There are lots of latency issues (lag of audio/video) when you use Skype to stream a depo.  Do you remember old speakerphones back in the day; they had a lot of 'lag" in them or response time.  Its the same with Skype nowadays.  Using the speakerphone to supplement the Skype is the best of both worlds.  If you need to record audio, your microphone should be literally on the speaker itself as long as you can control the level of the recording.  If not you should err on the side of caution and place the microphone near the speaker otherwise you will blow it out and distort the audio.

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