Thoughts on Wireless USB Sharing Station for Open Air Mic?

[RickyD333]

So I am getting ready to deploy some more mics in my house. Right now I am using the Acoustic Magic microphone in my living room and it works brilliantly. I want to put another one in my bedroom and I have been trying to figure out how I might get it to communicate to Vox that is on my pc in my office downstairs. I came across this little device, the IOGEAR Wireless 4-Port USB Sharing Station GUWIP204, and wanted to run it by some people and see what they thought (or if anyone has some other suggestions).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058DN1Q4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2L7W8PVKKJFK6&coliid=I2ZJPDWTVYIYDK

The Acoustic Magic Microphone I have runs off of a USB and this little wireless USB transmitter has four different ports, which could be nice for other uses that I have not yet thought of. It seems like to me this will send my voice commands to Vox, because it does say you can attach a speaker to it. Which also brings up another quick question. I was looking at getting some SONOS speakers so I can hear TTS around my house. Does anyone know of any other speaker that would work as well, and maybe are slightly more affordable?

[Haddood]

I think the issue you will face is that each USB mic will be separate device ... and you will need a middle ware to mix them (some good free options are available) ... the trade off ... VC will not know from where the command is coming  ...
other approach running multiple VC one dedicated to each mic ...

[jitterjames]

I have been waiting for years for someone to come out with a wireless USB extender like this.  I was hoping to see something at a slightly lower price point but I guess this price is not too surprising.

It looks like it works with many USB devices, but not all of them, so I guess you won't know for sure until you try it with your array mic.  Hopefully it will fall into a class of USB microphones that use similar drivers.  I would say your odds are pretty good that it will work, but hopefully you can return it or sell it if it doesn't, or maybe you'd like to have it anyway for other USB devices you have.

As Haddood mentions you'll face some challenges (which can mostly be overcome) if you are trying to use multiple USB mics on the same computer, whether you are using an extender or not.  But maybe you just want to be able to move your mic to a new location that is far from you PC... 

[RickyD333]

Yeah, I'm really hoping my mic works with it. I did find this nifty little tutorial for hooking up multiple mics to a single computer:

So with that little program installed, hopefully I'll have this all working nicely.

And yeah I wish the price for the USB extender was a little lower, but oh well. To save on some money I was going to get the MXL AC404 USB Conference Microphone for the more confined areas of my home (such as my office and gym room). Then connect it to the USB extender. http://www.amazon.com/MXL-AC404-USB-Conference-Microphone/dp/B001TGTDFM

Can't wait to have this finally all come together! Been dreaming of this since I was a little kid.

[Kalle]

Let us know if it works with USB microphones, I'm also interested in such a device.
You will find a lot of posts in our forum about the program which you suggest (Vitrtual Audio Cable) and it is a really helpful tool.

[Haddood]

Voice Meeter is pretty good and is free

[RickyD333]

I just purchased this USB sharing station and it should be here Wednesday. I'm hoping that I'll have the time to set it all up and test it out that day (because you know, I have other important stuff I'm going to be doing that day too. Like, seeing Jurassic World.)

I'm checking out Voice Meeter right now. Anything free is nice!

[Kalle]

Is not the VB-Audio cable software from the same manufacturer (also free) the better option?


http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/index.htm

[RickyD333]

Well it doesn't look like it works with a microphone. Works great with a hard drive I plugged into it, though. I contacted customer support and I received a reply back almost immediately, and they said some devices have to be directly plugged into a PC. I'm guessing that's the case with microphones.

So I guess I have to come up with an alternate plan. Any suggestions? I was originally thinking of connecting a raspberry pi with Vox installed on it.

[jitterjames]

How do you intend to install VoxCommando onto a Raspberry Pi?

[PegLegTV]

It sounds like you would like to go wireless, but I thought this might be an option if your willing to run some wire

due to the fact that usb 2.0 is limited to about 15ft and usb 3.0 is limited to about 9ft then you could use usb over cat6 like this one
http://www.amazon.com/CAT-5E-CAT-6-Extender-Power-Adapter/dp/B0026RKUBY (this is just the first one I found, do some research I don't know if this is a good one),

being that you are using it for a microphone you should be fine with cat5 or cat5e cable and a cat5 to usb 2.0 as most microphones that I have looked at only use usb 2.0

I haven't used any of these personally but I did some research on them as I'm getting ready to setup a patch panel in my basement and plan on moving all of my electronics to the basement as well (main pc, living room receiver...) but after some measuring I'll be able to run USB cords with out the need for these adapters

hope this helps

[RickyD333]

It sounds like you would like to go wireless, but I thought this might be an option if your willing to run some wire

due to the fact that usb 2.0 is limited to about 15ft and usb 3.0 is limited to about 9ft then you could use usb over cat6 like this one
http://www.amazon.com/CAT-5E-CAT-6-Extender-Power-Adapter/dp/B0026RKUBY (this is just the first one I found, do some research I don't know if this is a good one),

being that you are using it for a microphone you should be fine with cat5 or cat5e cable and a cat5 to usb 2.0 as most microphones that I have looked at only use usb 2.0

I haven't used any of these personally but I did some research on them as I'm getting ready to setup a patch panel in my basement and plan on moving all of my electronics to the basement as well (main pc, living room receiver...) but after some measuring I'll be able to run USB cords with out the need for these adapters

hope this helps

Hmmm, I'm going to look into this further. Running cable is hard enough, but in my house it would be a little more difficult. Probably would want a different option. 

How do you intend to install VoxCommando onto a Raspberry Pi?

Well you can install any OS on a Raspberry Pi. You can already get Windows 10 pre-installed on it. So once I get it up and running I would just download Vox onto it.

[Haddood]

Other options, include:
Android device with voxwav... I am not sure you can leave this on all time
Wireless (high end mics)... The issue is price, but eBay can mitigate this
Another  PC running second VC

Personally after lots of research I decided to go with wired solution, and multi conferencing mixer for the following:
1. Noise cancellation, echo cancellation, gates ...etc.
2. I am able to know where voice command originated ... Hence, commands like lights on will work based on which room I am
3. One PC and on VC is easier to maintain
4. I got the mixer dirt cheap on eBay + a very good deal on 4 boundary mics (whole thing for 80$)

[jitterjames]

Well you can install any OS on a Raspberry Pi. You can already get Windows 10 pre-installed on it. So once I get it up and running I would just download Vox onto it.

I'll believe that (maybe), when I see it!

I don't think the Pi can actually run a real Windows OS with desktop apps etc. Even if you could run VC on a Pi I would not expect it to be very responsive.

[RickyD333]

You know, you're right. I hadn't realized it was a chopped down version of Windows on raspberry pi. Hmmmm.