Conference Room Feature Requests

[Alex Kasperavicius]

Hi All,

 

Here are some controls from other systems that you might consider if you're feeling inspired! :

 

User Features

• Press *1 to hear a help menu.
   
  
• Press *0 to reach an operator.
   
  
• Press *6 to mute or "un-mute" line.
   
  
• Press *4 to increase conference volume.
   
  
• Press *7 to decrease conference volume.
   
  
• Press *5 to increase your voice volume.
   
  
• Press *8 to decrease your voice volume.
  

Moderator Features

• Press *91 to hear a participant count.
   
  
• Press *92 to hear a roll call of participants.
   
  
• Press *93 to disconnect all participant lines.
   
  
• Press *94 to lock or unlock conference.
   
  
• Press *95 to dial out to participants.
   
  
• Press *96 to mute all participant lines.
   
  
• Press *97 to un-mute all participant lines.
   
  
• Press *21 to activate Subconferencing.
   
  
• Press *22 to initiate record and playback (*22 again to pause/stop the recording)
   
  
• Press *31 to turn Conference Security Code on/off.
   
  
• Press *32 to record your Conference Introduction.
   
  
• Email at conference end of all participants with caller ID, call in time, hang up time & length of stay.
  

Any thoughts, comments? I would love to see these as I could dump the system we currently have and the cost savings on conferencing alone would pay for PBXnSIP!

[mattlandis]

looks like interesting ideas.

 

I'm curious what system you have that you would like to dump?

 

matt

[Alex Kasperavicius]

looks like interesting ideas.

 

I'm curious what system you have that you would like to dump?

 

matt

 

It's some home brew system that a vendor cooked up and lives at their site. We just use it. These features seem like they would be pretty trivial to add and would really add a lot of value to the system. PBXnSIP guys? Any thoughts?

[Vodia PBX]

PBXnSIP guys? Any thoughts?

 

We had a AGC in mind, but giving the conference participant the explicit control could also be good. Though I doubt that Joe Av will ever use it, for him something automatic is easier.

 

The other point that we had in mind was a XML screen where a phone user can see who is in the conference. That would depend on the phone type but it would be supercool if the moderator can see on the screen who is in the room.

 

And the other point was calling people into the conference. The moderator could add a list of numbers that should be called into the conference when the start time has been reached.

 

And we have to think about such simple things like no conference without moderator.

[Alex Kasperavicius]

We had a AGC in mind, but giving the conference participant the explicit control could also be good. Though I doubt that Joe Av will ever use it, for him something automatic is easier.

 

The other point that we had in mind was a XML screen where a phone user can see who is in the conference. That would depend on the phone type but it would be supercool if the moderator can see on the screen who is in the room.

 

And the other point was calling people into the conference. The moderator could add a list of numbers that should be called into the conference when the start time has been reached.

 

And we have to think about such simple things like no conference without moderator.

 

Automatic Gain Control works pretty well, but in a conference there's always the person who has it on speakerphone and is typing - loudly, has someone come up to them and start talking without realizing they are on the phone, or is at home with a dog barking or is doing the dishes.

 

Most conferences are with sales people - and while I agree that Joe Average Sales guy is never going to learn features, muting is pretty key.

 

In many systems, you hear "to control your mute, press *6 at any time" or "Press *1 at any time for a list of commands you can use" right before joining. As an admin on the call, you need to be able to mute everyone when no one will fess up to being the noise maker! then anyone who needs to speak just presses *6 to unmute themself. Conferences can get pretty hairy sometimes.

 

An xml based phone thing would be cool, but if you're already creating the xml why not also create a web page on the fly for the administrator? Webex and others do this - and you can see a list of all participants, right click anyone to mute them or dump them AND you can see each person talking: when they speak their icon makes little sound waves. VERY handy!

 

When setting up an ad hoc conference, you already have the email of the user - you could send them a link to the page, make it pick-able from a list of current conferences (with PIN for admin rights) at http://<server>/conference and even make it predictable (like http://<server>/conference/<conference number> so it could be put in emails easily, etc.

 

This is what the WebEx iPhone controller looks like. In it you can see that Grace is the moderator, calling from a phone only and is muted, Jan is on a computer and currently has presentation rights, Joe is on a computer and can speak, Zoltanis on a phone only and can speak. Interesting what can be presented in a small space, eh?

 

 

 

AK

[Vodia PBX]

When setting up an ad hoc conference, you already have the email of the user - you could send them a link to the page, make it pick-able from a list of current conferences (with PIN for admin rights) at http://<server>/conference and even make it predictable (like http://<server>/conference/<conference number> so it could be put in emails easily, etc.

 

Absolutely. The PAC will be using this as well. Now think about the PAC running on your cell phone. Bingo.