Hiding “speaker gallery” in Skype For Business

UPDATE: i have confirmed that this issue occurs on a single router/modem combination only. when using skype on other networks with other routers, i do not have the error.

original post:

i also have this problem, and have had it for years. for me, the robotic voice occurs after exactly 53 minutes and 17 seconds, every time. it occurs on multiple machines on mac osx with skype 2.8. i recently switched to a laptop, and it is now occurring after 20 minutes. my workaround has always been to put the call on hold. after a short (2 second) pause, the robotic/garbled voice goes away for another 53 minutes. other reporters of this issue have claimed that creating a new profile solves the problem. see:

http://community.skype.com/t5/Call-quality-INACTIVE/Sound-gets-distorted-after-25-to-30-minutes-of-call/td-p/128136

i have not tried creating a new profile, nor updating to the latest version of skype.

the robo-voice problem appears to be a bug in either skype or router or modem firmware, and is definitely not a caused by poor bandwidth, OS bugs, or hardware failure.

here's another reporter that solved the issue with a router firmware upgrade: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1727854

I could not find the value for ESC key to put in the DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes, too. I think that the method of using following AutoHotKey serves as a reference.

Disable Escape key in Office Communicator 2007 https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/f59f12e4-3073-444d-8084-31766cab4756/disable-escape-key-in-office-communicator-2007?forum=ocsclients

The script code:

; stop the stupid ESC closing behavour of the IM windows
#IfWinActive ahk_class LyncConversationWindowClass
Escape::return
#IfWinActive