Comments on: SF Giants bring new tech out to the ballpark

Among a host of renovations, the team spends more than $1 million on a new VoIP telecommunications system, which it says will help it save $355,000 a year.

[baconstang]

Wow! Imagine saving money and getting a better experience by switching from AT&T.
Now that I have an iPod Touch, I'm looking forward to my next trip to the park.
I got 'MLB @bat 2009' just before I left town for a few weeks and was able to track the Giants (via KNBR), or any other team (A's) from Maryland.... worth the $10.

[angeloj.rossi]

Replacing an old analog switch is smart. But, when it comes to sound, nothing is quite as good as analog, unfortunately. The Gigantes may save money, but they will be sacrificing quality of sound in doing so. The additional applications supported by VoIP will more than pay for itself in no time. I understand, but the old switches sound better. Does anyone get that? Does anyone care, I mean it's just your. "communications" vehicle. Sad to see all the analog switches being swapped for VoIP switches, personally.

[3tire]

Sound better? You are talking about VOICE communications right? As in speaking? Are you looking for nuanced fidelity from a conversation?

[MadLyb]

This sounds like a vinyl vs. cd argument.

After doing several conversions to VOIP, I can easily say that digital is better...way better. Better frequency response, better dynamic range, and way better usability and flexibility.

Of course, if you use cheap solutions or don't have a properly configured and built-out network, then you are just asking for problems and the same goes for the old switches.

[kieranmullen]

It depends on the compression codec used for VOIP as there are several available. The trade off with quality is bandwidth and computing power. More advanced higher quality codecs that take up less bandwidth take up more processing power on the VOIP servers & adapters. There are higher fidelity codecs that require less processing but take up more bandwidth. However in this case I would suspect that none of this traverses over the Internet and VOIP is strictly Internal. However the article did not go into any real depth on this (eg if outside employees can make calls over the Internet through the system) or if the trunks are still being provided by ATT. Since this may be the case then there is probably plenty of bandwidth available on the internal network and hopefully they are using a higher fidelity codec,



[CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]

[jayhawk73]

I sure hope you weren't referring to the what's in the first picture as the "wall of switches" because those are simply dumb Adtran DSX panels. Looks like 56 port to be exact. There's a whole bunch of them but they sure aren't switches.

[cvaldes1831]

Wow, I'm keen on trying out some of these new features on my iPod touch, even if I don't have the MLB app. And I got tickets for a game in a couple of weeks. Woohoo!

[VancouverCanuck]

Good idea cvaldes1831 with the iPod. I can't wait to see how technology continues to improve fan access to media and the players.

<a href="http://www.allstareventtickets.com">Ryan from Vancouver</a>