HeadsetsPlus.com, located in Northern California, is one of the Internet’s reliable suppliers of telephone headsets, conference phones and headset accessories online. Owner Julie Hill announced yesterday that they have just launched a new e-commerce website to celebrate their 20 year anniversary in business. The HeadsetsPlus.com brand launched in 1995 in order to provide professional grade telephone headsets to offices and the general public. At the time no one could foresee the technological advancements in telephone headsets and conference phone systems.
Modern communication headsets provide the equivalent functionality of a telephone handset but with hands-free operation. A headset includes a microphone boom, speaker(s) and ear buds. They are available in single-earpiece and double-earpiece designs. Single-earpiece headsets are known as monaural headsets, double-earpiece headsets are known as binaural and may support stereo sound or use the same audio channel for both ear-pieces.
The microphone boom of headsets may carry an external microphone or they may have a voicetube type. External microphone designs have the microphone housed in the front end of the microphone arm. Voicetube designs are also called internal microphone design, and have the microphone housed near the ear-piece, with a tube carrying sound to the microphone.
Noise-canceling microphone headsets use a bi-directional microphone. A bi-directional microphone’s receptive field has two angles only, so it’s receptive field is limited to only the front and the direct opposite back of the microphone. This design is the best method for picking up sound only from a close proximity of the user, while not picking up most surrounding noises. Omni-directional microphones pick up the complete 360-degree field, which may include extraneous noise.
Standard headsets with a headband worn over the head are known as over-the-head headsets. Headsets with neck bands going over the back of the user’s neck are known as backwear-headsets or behind-the-neck headsets. Headsets worn over the ear with a soft ear-hook are known as over-the-ear headsets or earloop headsets. Convertible headsets are designed so that users can change the wearing method by re-assembling various parts.
At this time, wireless headsets are quickly becoming standard for all business and consumer communications. There are a number of wireless products on the market today, and they usually differ according to application and power-management.
Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) is one of the most common standards for wireless (cordless) telephones. Developers who use the same product across different countries have now launched wireless headsets in DECT which uses 1.9Ghz RF as opposed to the 2.4GHz. Almost all countries in the world have the 1.9 GHz band open for wireless communications. So as different countries have regulations for the bandwidth used in DECT, most have pre-set this band for wireless audio transmissions so that headsets using this RF band are sellable in most markets.
Bluetooth technology is now also widely used for short-range voice transmission. While it can be and is used for data transmission, the short range (due to using low power to reduce battery drain) is a limiting factor. A very common application is a hands-free Bluetooth earpiece for a phone which may be in a user’s pocket.
How does a consumer know which headset to buy? The design of the new HeadsetsPlus.com website features wireless and corded headsets from Plantronics and Jabra (GN Netcom), and phone conference systems from Konftel and Polycom. The website does also provide the two things that most for consumers need most, clear product photos with concise information.
As telephone headset technology evolves, the new website for HeadsetsPlus.com is a step forward for consumer availability for telephone headsets online. Check it out at: https://www.headsetsplus.com
-HSP