When silence sounds too, well, silent

摘要

When Bob Longhini was evaluating VoIP gear, an unexpected problem came up that turned out to be nothing. Actually it turned out to be too much nothing. The trouble was that silence on the VoIP line when someone stopped talking was so stark, so dead, so absolute, that people at the other end found it unnerving, compelling them to ask,"Are you still there?" The solution was to turn on comfort noise, technology that delicately blends selected sound frequencies at just the right volume to create the impression that the phone line is still alive and to satisfy the need to know that someone is listening.