Posted at 5:52 p.m. PST Sunday, December 7, 1997
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Dual-Use Microphone Headset Allows User to Switch from Phone to Computer
By Jeffrey Kummer, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minn.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News
Dec. 8--Until recently, I was doing the microphone mambo. When talking on
the telephone, I used one headset mike. For multimedia-enhanced computer
work, I switched to another headset that plugged into the back of my PC.
As I frantically whipped off my computer mike to take calls using my phone
headset (or, worse, tried to answer the phone with the wrong headset), I
prayed that someone would invent a dual-purpose device.
Someone had, it turns out. I've been testing a swell headset/switchbox
combo from New Hampshire-based VXI Corp. (www.vxicorp.com), a leading
equipment supplier for call centers and users of computer-telephony and
speech-recognition products.
VXI's $76 Parrot CTS-10 headset plugs into the $116 Parrot GSA-60V
switchbox, a small desktop device with a volume control, a phone-mute
button and separate cords for a phone and a computer.
This allows me to use a single mike for a multitude of tasks -- taking and
making phone calls, checking voice mail, running a multimedia CD-ROM,
viewing an Internet streaming-video program, using voice-recognition
software, listening to an audio CD, etc.
The one-ear CTS-10 headset is light and comfortable -- I can wear it for
hours at a time -- yet it provides sophisticated "noise canceling"
capabilities to block extraneous noise when I'm using voice-activated
software.
I've encountered a few glitches. Maximum volume levels vary slightly from
one Parrot mike/switchbox combo to another, and none is high enough to
completely satisfy me. Though phone conversations come through loud and
clear when my computer is turned off, they become fainter when I boot the
PC.
CTS-10 users who encounter this problem should try VXI's two-ear CTS-20
headset ($92), according to the company. (This isn't an option for me
because I'm deaf in one ear.)
I also find a dual-use headset to be occasionally confusing. If an Internet
e-mail message arrives while I'm talking on the phone, for instance, a "you
have mail" chime drowns out the conversation and gives me a start.
But these are minor gripes compared to the cord tangles and other
annoyances I endured when using separate headsets.
VXI has an extensive line of Parrot headsets, including computer-only
models that plug directly into a PC's audio in/out ports. One such headset
is bundled with every Dragon Systems voice-recognition software product,
including the recently updated DragonDictate and the acclaimed
NaturallySpeaking.
VXI has plenty of competition in the headset market. Minneapolis-based
Telex Computer Audio Group (www.telex.com) sells a line of Nomad-NC
noise-canceling computer headsets, and even a ProStar/PC Wireless System
for cord-free dictation.
The Nomad mikes have been approved by IBM for use with the company's
voice-recognition software products, including ViaVoice and Simply
Speaking, according to Telex.
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