The Chat 50 personal speaker phone is a mobile audio peripheral that connects to a wide variety of devices and provides crystal-clear, hands-free audio communications.

It provides unmatched full-duplex capability, which allows users to simultaneously speak and listen without audio cutting in and out. It also provides high-quality audio playback for music, gaming and other sound files.

CHAT 50 APPLICATIONS

• Internet Telephony
  + Skype, Vonage
• Enterprise Telephones
  + Avaya, Cisco, NEC, Nortel
• VoIP Softphones
  + Avaya, Cisco, Nortel
• Cell Phones
  + Motorola, Nokia
• Web Conferencing
  + IBM/Lotus Sametime
  + Microsoft Live Meeting, WebEx
• Instant Messenger
  + AOL, Microsoft MSN, Yahoo
• Desktop Video Conferencing
  + Polycom, Sony, Tandberg
• Audio Playback
  + iPods
  + QuickTime, RealPlayer
  + Windows Media Player
• PC-Based Gaming
  + TeamSpeak

Crisp, Clear Audio

• Advanced ClearOne audio processing technologies deliver remarkably rich, full audio for business class performance
• True full duplex performance allows user to listen and speak at the same time without audio cutting in and out
  

Multiple Uses

• Laptops & PCs - connect via USB for hands-free audio for:
  > VoIP softphones
  > Instant Messaging audio chats
  > Web conferences
  > Audio playbacks
  > Online gaming with TeamSpeak
• Telephones - enjoy significant audio quality improvement over built-in speaker
• Cell phones - get full-duplex performance without a headset
• Desktop video conferencing - obtain economical full-duplex performance over built-in audio
• iPods & MP3 players - full-band frequency response delivers impressive audio
  

Hands-free Comfort

• Move around freely without being tethered to PC or telephone with headset
• Avoid discomfort to ears and fatigue caused by prolonged headset use

Convenience

• Device is slightly bigger than a pack of cards, allowing for easy travel
• Variety of accessories available to enable multiple connection options
• Great for desktop, travel, or home use

• Plug it into the USB port on your laptop or PC with the included USB cable, launch Skype, call another Skype user (or a regular land-line phone number with the Skype Out service) and enjoy hands-free, high quality, full-duplex audio without the need for a restrictive USB headset.


• While you're talking, test the full-duplex capability of the Chat 50. Full duplex means both parties can speak and also hear at the same time, something that most speakerphones do not deliver, even if they claim full duplex. Have the person on the other end of the line begin counting or saying the alphabet, and then interrupt them with a question that they'll have to hear clearly in order to respond correctly, such as "What color of socks do you have on today?" Then reverse the process (you count and the far end interrupts). The Chat 50 delivers full two-way communications, enabling natural conversations with excellent audio quality.


• How about microphone pickup? The microphone on the Chat 50 (located just below the speaker) is designed to deliver an ideal pickup range of about 120 degrees as the unit faces you. However, the pickup capability of the Chat 50 exceeded even our own expectations - it picks up in a 360-degree pattern quite nicely. Walk around the room while talking to your Skype buddy and see how well they can hear you!


• Launch iTunes, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch Jukebox, or any other media player on your PC, double-click on your favorite song, and prepare to be impressed with the full frequency response and rich sound of the Chat 50! It delivers up to 20Hz-20kHz frequency response, which is the full range of human hearing, so audio coming through the Chat 50 sounds much better than most other similar devices.


• Launch AOL Instant Messenger, or MSN Messenger, or Yahoo Chat, or any other IM software, start up an audio chat session with your IM buddy, and enjoy a hands-free conversation without the pain and bother of a headset on your ears.


• While connected to your corporate network (either directly or with a remote VPN connection), launch your VoIP softphone (such as those that come with a Cisco, Avaya, or Nortel system), and enjoy a hands-free, full duplex conversation without pressing anything against your ear!


• The next time you have a Webex, Microsoft LiveMeeting, or IBM Lotus Sametime web conferencing session where the audio is routed through your PC and through the web connection, plug in your Chat 50 and experience ClearOne's trademark audio signal processing technology.


• PC-based video conferencing through your PC using a webcam and any one of a number of web-based video conferencing applications is now a much better hands-free experience when you use the Chat 50 instead of a USB headset.


• Fire up your favorite online multi-player PC game with TeamSpeak (after work hours, of course), such as World of Warcraft, and chat with new friends all over the world as you navigate through new worlds and take out the bad guys. You'll really appreciate the Chat 50's handsfree capabilities after 6 hours of game play that normally would have required a headset on your ears the whole time.


• Now it's time to try your cell phone. You can leave the Chat 50 connected to the PC with the USB cable, since it can draw its power that way, or you can plug it into the wall with the power adapter. Then plug the 2.5mm end of the cell phone cable into your phone, the 3.5mm end of the cable into the back of the Chat 50, dial someone you'd like to impress, and enjoy the best speakerphone experience you've ever had on a cell phone!


• Test the echo cancellation technology in the Chat 50 (this assumes you are now still connected with the USB cable to your PC, and also still talking on your cell phone). Start up iTunes or any media player on your PC and start playing a song (perhaps not at full blast volume). Ask the person on the cell phone call if they can hear the music. They will tell you they cannot hear it. This is a dramatic example of ClearOne's echo cancellation technology, which makes it possible for a device with a microphone and speaker right next to each other to work well without echo going back and forth. Even though the audio from your media player is coming out through the speaker, and is picked up by the microphone (in addition to your voice in the room), the Chat 50 only sends your voice to the far side and strips out the audio coming through the speaker.


• Give the USB/analog mix feature a try! While all this is going on, start the Chat 50 application that got installed when you first put the Chat 50 CD into your PC. Go to the Advanced tab, and click on the Enable USB/analog mix check box. Suddenly, the person on the other end of the cell phone call will be able to hear the music! What's happening is that the Chat 50 is now mixing audio coming through the USB cable on the back of the device with the audio coming through the 3.5mm port. Your cell phone buddy will also still be able to talk to you, although with the music playing at the same time, it will naturally be a little more difficult to hear each other talk (just like your dad always told you…)


• This USB/analog mix feature is pretty cool - let's try another usage model and do a simple audio conference bridge. With the Chat 50 still connected to your PC, dial someone up on Skype. Then connect your cell phone to the 3.5mm jack and call someone else. In the Chat 50 software, under the Advanced tab, click on the Enable USB/analog mix check box and all three parties can talk together! Audio bridge services like this can cost a decent amount of money - now it's free and very simple with your Chat 50.


• By the way, you could add even more people to the call if you wanted - Skype allows up to 5 users to bridge their calls simultaneously; if you called someone else who had a Chat 50, and they bridged 5 Skype callers plus their cell phone… well, you can see pretty quickly it wouldn't be very tough to have a dozen or more people talking together and enjoying crystal-clear ClearOne audio.


• Check out the Chat 50 software that makes it simple to switch between devices. Because the Chat 50 connects to so many different types of devices, ClearOne wanted to ensure that customers experience the highest quality audio possible, and some devices require different settings on the Chat 50 to perform at the highest level.

  Launch the Chat 50 application, click on "Device Setup", and notice the long list of devices you can choose from. Pick a device you plan to use with your Chat 50, then select the manufacturer in the next column, and then the specific model. If you are ready to use that device now, click on "Apply to Chat". By also clicking on "Add to My Devices", that device will then be available under the "My Devices" button the next time you come into the software. Hint: for the most part, the settings changes really only apply to devices connected to the 3.5mm port. To avoid confusion, we list the PC-based applications, but they pretty much all use the same settings. So you really only need to change the settings when switching between a telephone and a cell phone, for example.

  The "Update Software" button allows you to check for any updates to the software application itself, the list of supported devices, and the firmware inside the Chat 50, and upgrades them all in a single step, making it easy for you to keep the device current.



• Time for more tunes! Connect your iPod or any MP3 player to the Chat 50 with the cable designed for this purpose (again, the Chat 50 can be powered through USB from your PC or from the power adapter - either way works), crank up the volume, and enjoy.


• We're not done yet… The Chat 50 also connects to many enterprise telephone handsets to deliver dramatically improved speakerphone capability. We've all experienced trying to use the speakerphone button on most telephones - audio pickup is less than ideal, so we have to repeat ourselves. The handset speakerphone is not full duplex, which means that if we try to interrupt the person on the other end, they can't hear us or the audio cuts out.

  The Chat 50 solves all of these problems. There are some handsets (such as many Panasonic models) that come with a 2.5mm headset jack. Using the 2.5mm-3.5mm that comes with the Chat 50 USB Plus to connect and enjoy full-duplex audio - no more shouting at the phone and straining to hear and be heard!

  ClearOne is also developing other cables that will connect directly to the headset jack on the bottom of enterprise phones (typically an RJ-9 connector). In general, these cables will provide a selector switch which will allow users to easily switch between speakerphone mode on the Chat 50 to private headset mode. Watch for announcements on availability of these cables, which will be somewhat model-specific.



• This brings up yet another way to use the Chat 50 as an audio conference bridge - connect it to your telephone, and also to your PC with Skype, and enable the USB/analog mix from the Chat 50 software. This makes for a very simple and inexpensive (or free) way to bridge multiple parties together for a conference call.


• Still more ways to use the Chat 50 - it will connect to personal conferencing devices, such as the Sony PCS-TL50. Again, the audio on these devices is typically less than ideal, and is not full duplex. By connecting the Chat 50, you can experience greatly enhanced audio on your end, and the party on the far end will hear your voice much more clearly as well.


• And more… There are undoubtedly a number of additional uses for the Chat 50 that we haven't even thought of yet! For example, a customer called into ClearOne HQ recently and asked how it would perform for speech recognition on the PC (using the Dragon software). We haven't tried it yet, but we expect to hear back from him on how well it performs. Given the exceptional microphone pickup capability of the Chat 50, we expect it will work pretty well.

Ready to use out of the box

All the components you need to quickly get up and running, including multiple adapters for U.S. & international power sources, video conferencing breakout box, plus USB, RJ-45, and RCA connection cables.

Configuration Software

Allows users to easily switch between devices; software applies optimized settings to Chat 150 for each device. Autoupdates from the web to keep software & Chat 150 up-to-date with the latest enhancements.