Is there a Training-Y for USB Headsets?
November 18, 2015
Even though I’ve mentioned it several times, I still get asked fairly regularly by our reps and customers. “Is there a Training-Y for USB Headsets?”, “Is there any way to connect two USB headsets to one USB port for training purposes?” or “Is there a USB splitter we use to connect two USB headsets so both headset users can hear and be heard?”
The answer is no. It’s not a USB headset manufacturer thing, it’s a PC thing. A PC only recognizes one audio path and device. For instance, I have several USB audio devices connected to my PC however, I can only use one at a time for voice calls and for streaming audio.
For Lync/SfB calls I can select audio device I want. For audio from PC I go into my Control Panel, go to Sound and select the audio device and set as my default.
Believe me, I have tried to “trick” the system by using a multi-USB adapter but was unsuccessful.
If you are an organization that utilizes softphones and requires “buddy jacks”, “peer training”, needs to have two individuals be able to listen and talk in real time to the same call…you can’t do it with a hardwired USB headset. Again, it’s not a USB headset manufacturer issue, it’s PC thing. I believe the same is true of Mac iOS, I’ll have to confirm when I get home.
For now the only device that allows TWO headsets to connect to one USB port for training purposes is the Jabra Link 265 with two Jabra QD headsets.
To my knowledge, this is currently the only option. If anyone knows of any other way to connect TWO USB hardwired headsets into a PC so both can receive/transmit via same call, please share.
You can do this but it isn’t as simple or clean as using a splitter like the Jabra Link 265 but it is significantly cheaper. You can use a soundboard application such as VoiceMeeter to manage multiple input and output audio devices. You can set up two input channels (one for each mic on each headset) and two output channels (again, one for each headset) and then control volumes and mutes independently for each channel (you can mute output and input to/from each device independently, so potentially 4 mute options). While this is a cheap solution that eliminates wires or a pricey adapter to quick disconnect headsets, it does work well and allows full control of all audio/mic devices plugged into the PC.