The Skypesaurus Story
Monday, March 16, 2009 at 4:08PM 
We're still working on incorporating Skypesaurus into the work flow at TWiT Live. For those who haven't seen the beast, Colleen has combined four independent Windows PCs to run four instances of Skype into one monster beast: The Skypesaurus. Rawr!
We had to do this because Skype only allows one video-caller at a time and some of our shows have as many as four online panelists. We tried software solutions like Oovoo and iChat but they didn't give us good enough audio and video - Skype really is the king for that.
Here are the specs for each PC (with the Newegg SKU numbers and price):
- 11-234-020 Case: WINSIS|WI-01 RT $43.99
- 13-121-359 Motherboard: INTEL BOXD945GCLF2 945GC ATOM330 $79.99
- 20-145-098 RAM: 1Gx2|CORSAIR VS2GBKIT667D2 R $24.99
- 22-148-231 Hard Drive: 80G|SEAGATE 7K 8M SATA2 ST380815AS $34.99
That's about $175 per computer. Add four Acer V173B 17" LCD monitors for $107 each. and a $285 Ergotron Quad-Monitor desk stand and the total rig cost just under $1500, minus Colleen's time and miscellaneous cabling.
On shows with multiple hosts (like TWiT, MacBreak Weekly, and the Gillmor Gang) we use Skypesaurus to call as many as four participants and put their audio and video on the air. This requires some hairy routing, and those of you who have tuned in in the past couple of weeks have probably noticed an hour of sweating, crawling under the desk, and general gnashing of teeth before each show. I start by setting up the audio. Each machine's output has to be routed into our mixer, and a mix-minus has to be sent back to it (that's the full audio mix minus the audio from the particular Skype we're feeding it back to, so there's no echo). Our Mackie Onyx 1620 mixer only has four AUX busses so we have to repatch audio each time we want to use Skypesaurus. Something similar happens with video. The Tricaster Studio switcher we use only has six inputs, all of which are used by cameras now. I disconnect four of those cameras and connect the four Skype boxes each time I want to use Skypesaurus. But we've come up with a solution. Today Colleen is installing a new mixer: a $1300 Mackie Onyx 1640. It's a bit bigger but it has six AUX busses and four sub-mixer channels so we won't have to repatch audio each time we use Skypesaurus. I wish I had bought this mixer three years ago - it's a beauty. We'll keep the 1620 for roadshows, but the 1640 is going to be our day-to-day mixer. For a while.
I say "for a while" because Telos called last week after hearing about our issues with Skypesaurus audio and offered to lend us one of their new Axia IP-mixers which automatically does mix-minus to every channel! An IP mixer uses Ethernet to route audio and is fully digital. There's really no mixer at all, just two IP head units in a rack and a control surface that only looks like a mixer. All-digital production means we don't have to do the noisy digital->analog->digital conversion we're doing for all our Skype audio right now. We'll just take digital audio from the PCs and pump it directly into the Axia. Putting in this puppy is going to require major reengineering for our entire audio chain. Instead of the Firewire audio we're passing from the mixer into Audition, for instance, the Axia just sends packets to Audition which uses a custom driver to see all the channels. I think a fully digital production workflow will really improve the overall quality of all our audio, but it's a big change and might take a while. In the meantime, I'm very happy with the Onyx 1640.
I also want to stop crawling under the desk to switch the video cables, so we're going to buy an Matrix Video Router. I'm about to order a $1000 Knox Video Technologies 8x8 Matrix Switcher. This takes eight video inputs and switches them to any eight video outputs so I can just push buttons and switch-in the Skype output for a camera (and out again on the fly if I need more shots). In effect this gives us four more cameras. If there are any TV broadcast engineers who have some suggestions here I'd love to hear them. Everything is S-Video so this seems like the best way to do it but we're babes in the woods when it comes to this stuff.
So there you have it. Problem: how to get four hosts' audio and video on the air at once via Skype. Solution: Skypesaurus, a $3500 monster designed and built by the amazing Colleen. We're pretty excited about it - it's not the CNBC Octobox, but it's pretty close and for a heck of a lot less money.
Skype, Skypesaurus, TWiT Live in Blog
Reader Comments (27)
Simply awe inspiring - great work.
I've been looking for suggestions for multi-monitor mounts for a while, glad to hear the Ergotron is working well.
been watching you over the past couple of weeks, there were times it looked liked you were ready to tear your hair out, but it looks really good.
This is so great Leo.. Top gear mate... Keep it up. I am a big fan.
That's purty pimp Leo! A super beast indeed!
You've obviously noticed already, but it should be said again... Colleen is indispensable!
Gday Leo
I'm wondering the following:
1. are you using 100% green power electricity (I hope so!)
2. why not use 4 x E-box PC - would be much smaller and use less power - they're only running skype?
3. why not use 4 x virtual machines on a single box, again less power = less running costs. 1 box = less setup costs. Again, only running skype?
4. why windows and not linux? I'm a windows guy so its not a "this is better than that" question, just interested that's all.
I just wish your time zone was more Aussie-Viewer-friendly :) Tho it'll be better in a couple of weeks when Daylight Savings finishes (and yours has started now). 5am starts are better than 3am starts - especially for the later shows!
Cheers
Peter H
http://www.SeeknBuy.com.au" rel="nofollow">www.SeeknBuy.com.au
Who came up with the (incredibly awesome) name?
Its very comforting to see industry professionals using tech that i'm savvy with. That either means I'm right where I should be, or am ahead of the curve. I'm thinking its the former.
Also, watch out for that 8x8 Knox. That thing is a beast one you get the whole thing wired up. There's a 1 to 2 second blackout and/or vertical sync loss when you're routing the video so don't expect it to be using it to do cuts from one source to the next.
But other than that, nice solution for a problem I've run into many many times. Awesome job, Colleen and the TWiT crew!
Small detail I know but... are you sure about the RAM?
According to the motherboard specs, it only has one DIMM slot, not two. I found a 2GB stick that is a couple of dollars cheaper than the 2 1gb sticks you listed... I just wanted to point out the discrepancy.
Awesome build though... good work.
Colleen, of course.
We're not green, alas. But we have endeavoured to stick with low power solutions when possible. The Mini-ITX case is very low power. Our entire lighting grid uses only 250-watts. Nevertheless, we do use a lot of power to do what we do. I'd love to go all solar, but since we rent the studio I don't think that's likely.
The Ebox is a good looking solution - Colleen may not have know about them. Our Atoms were cheap, and had s-video out, which was a key part of the solution. They also offer optical audio out which we'll be using soon. We are planning to add DC power bricks to them to eliminate fan noise.
Virtual machines won't work. You need four discrete audio and video channels - that means four hardware boxes.
I wanted to make sure we had the latest version of Skype to work with. The Linux versions seem to lag the Windows versions.
Thanks for watching!
It's actually a 2x1GB stick - 2GB in a single stick.
We have a ton of bandwidth. Currently the Skypesaurus runs on our Comcast business class cable with 4Mbits up and 30 down. It's working fine, but we've ordered http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_in_the_First_Mile" rel="nofollow">IEEE 802.3ah from http://Sonic.net" rel="nofollow">Sonic.net which will give us a symmetric 10Mbps (or possibly 12mbits because we're two blocks from the CO). We'll use that for Skypesaurus starting tomorrow or the next day.
We also have a T1 for video streaming, a business class line for another Skype box (which we use for the single host shows), and ISDN for the radio show. We spend $1200/month for bandwidth and need it.
Hope it works!! That's a serious setup.
OK thanks Leo. I have seen Skypesaurus in action and I am impressed.
Loving Skypesaurus Leo. The interaction during TWiT on Sunday and Gilmore Gang (sans "the incident") on Saturday was great. I'm confident once the wrinkles are ironed out, it will add a very nice new dimension to the network. BTW, Colleen is a jewel with tons of potential. Happy to see her Full Time on the staff.
I am amazed with what can be done with relatively low cost off the shelf tech. Inspired actually! Awesome!
Geez Leo, do I need to increase my monthly TWIT contribution now? Who's going to pay for all those toys?
Colleen, your amazing. GREAT Job. Leo and gang are very lucky to have you.
i'm thinking "amazing" is a major understatement when you're talking about colleen. her creativity and innovations combined with her superlative skills just overwhelms many of the best in the community we have here. way to go colleen -- you rock!
Cheers that explains why. Quick follow-up question:
Don't any electricity companies offer 100% green electricity there? You wouldn't have to install solar, you'd just source your electricity from a "100% green" supply source. It may even be the incumbent, but at a slightly higher price. Eg here it is around $4-$7 per week extra (domestic, tho business is also available) for govt accredited 100% "greenpower", and ALL providers offer it. The retailer simply buys that portion wholesale from a green source eg wind farm, and its govt controlled and audited so they can't pull a shonky.
Cheers and thanx for taking time to reply Leo.
Leo
I have been banging my head up against the wall to do this very thing for a while now and this is the perfect solution for bringing in callers. My challenge has been the same thing you have had is the re-wiring. I am curious if you are getting any bleed through on the MixMatch because when I have a land line caller patched in via the Telos once in a while I get some cross over or has the isolation been good enough in the mixer.
Also what resolution are you running the monitors that you are sending out on the S-Video
Todd Cochrane
Geek News Central
BTW I have a Podcast Award trophy for you if you could send me an address to ship it to I will get it out to ya.
Google "Quad-Split Monitor". You should be able to find a reasonably priced box that will do that for you. Feed each of the full-screen Skype calls from each PC into the quad split box and then feed the output of that into the Tricaster as a single video source. You may need to do some Svideo-Composite flipping.
Use Svideo->Composite adapters on the video output of each PC and feed them into this:
http://www.ambery.com/pivipr.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ambery.com/pivipr.html
Then feed the output of that into the Tricaster using composite->svideo adapters.
Just listened to latest MBW talking about your new setup & boy is that impressive. Great job Coleen. Leo, good on you for giving credit where credit is due & having an environment all geared up for creative solutions.
Leo - thanks for sharing the details behind your new creation. I do have one question; what OS are you using? You detail everything but that. Please say it's Linux!
Thanks, Keith
http://twitter.com/keithbarrett" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/keithbarrett