Chapter 10: The Conference Box

Note: Conferencing is an optional feature and requires an additional hardware purchase.

What is a conference box?

A Conference Box allows you to set up your voice system to be a "chat" line, which means that two or more callers calling in to your system can speak with each other. Please be aware that not all voice boards support "chat" or "conferencing" functions. If you are unsure about the capabilities of your hardware, contact technical support for further information.

Within a Conference Box you set the conferencing options that control how your system will handle callers wishing to join in an interactive conversation. You can control such things as the amount of time callers can remain in a conference, and the Destination box callers will be sent to when their conference time has expired.

Conference Box Overview

A Conference Box allows you to record a hold message that will be played to callers waiting to join a conference. If no hold message is recorded then the MUSIC.VOI system prompt will be the default prompt heard by callers.

If you record a greeting for a Conference Box, the first prompt heard by callers entering the box will be the greeting, which will be immediately followed by menu options (press 1 to join, press 8 to exit). However, if no greeting has been recorded for the Conference Box callers will join the conference immediately without hearing any menu options. In both cases, callers already in the conference will hear the  NEW_USER.VOI and JOINCONF.VOI prompts when someone new joins the conference. If the person entering the conference has previously been validated via an Access Box then their Mail Box name will be played in place of the NEW_USER.VOI prompt.

Preventing Lines from Conferencing

A situation may arise when using Conference Boxes in which you do not want certain lines to conference with other lines. Say, for example, that you have males calling in on lines 1 and 2, and females calling in on lines 3 and 4. You probably would not want lines 1 and 2 to conference, and you can prevent these lines from joining the same conference by adding the following line to your STPLUS.INI file:

LineExclude1 = 1,2

Furthermore, if we would like to prevent females on lines 3 and 4 from joining the same conference we could add the following:

LineExclude2 = 3,4

With these modifications made to the STPLUS.INI file, if line 1 attempts to conference with line 2, line 1 will be automatically routed to the "max_in_conf_goto" destination.

Important: If no greeting was recorded for the conference box, the caller attempting to join with an excluded line will not hear a "conference full" message.

By not recording a greeting for Conference Boxes you can string multiple Conference Boxes together in very useful ways. Consider the following scenario as a reason for NOT recording a greeting for your Conference Boxes (immediate join mode). If a caller is bumped from a Conference Box and the max_in_conf_goto field routes the caller to another Conference Box, the system will automatically attempt to add the caller to this new conference. A chain of Conference Boxes can be constructed using the max_in_conf_goto field to join them together. Because the caller does not hear any messages while entering and exiting each Conference Box, your chain of Conference Boxes appears to be only one conference. Callers will be routed from Conference Box to Conference Box until they reach one that's not full or one that doesn't contain a line they are excluded from joining.

Consider this: What happens when you have a chain of Conference Boxes, and a caller in a box near the end of your chain goes on hold because the caller they were conferenced with hangs up? Since new callers enter at the beginning of the chain of Conference Boxes, the caller on hold may have to wait for a long time for another caller to join their conference (until all earlier Conference Boxes are full or cannot be entered by a particular caller due to line exclusions). It could also be the case that several callers end up on hold in different Conference Boxes at the same time.

To get around this problem of Conference Boxes not effectively being utilized, you can make the following change to your STPLUS.INI file:

Fill Conference = yes

With this change, Conference Boxes that are partially filled will be completely filled before callers will be placed in an empty Conference Box. Unfortunately, callers can only take advantage of this "auto-surfing" feature when first entering the chain of Conference Boxes unless the conference keys (e.g. "*" or "#") are set up to allow callers to manually transfer to the next available conference. If no other conferences are available while a caller is manually surfing the caller will go on hold in the next empty Conference Box in the chain.

 

Box Number

If you do not select a box number when creating a new box, the system will generate a number of its own when a new box is created. When you create a new box you can select any number or range of numbers for you new box(es) between 0 and 999,999,999 as long as those numbers are not used by existing boxes on your system. If you try to create a box with the same number as an existing box you will get the error message that states that the box number you have chosen is a duplicate, invalid, or out of range. You may need to review existing box numbers by using the Box Finder Icon (Magnifying Glass) to find all box numbers in use on your system.

Box Name

In this field enter a descriptive name that will help you locate this box in the future. You can search on information contained in this field using the Box Finder screen. The box name will also be displayed in the Status Line of the Chat Status display window so that you can easily follow each caller's progress through the system.

Client

Each box belongs to a Client that you have defined using a Client Box. If you are the only system supervisor on your system you will be the only Client, and by default you are Client 0. Each Client has a password which allows the Client to remotely access and modify all of the boxes which it controls. If you wish to assign a box to a different Client, double-click on the Client Number field and the Client Finder screen will appear. This window will display a list of the Clients currently defined on your system. Double-click the Client you would like to assign to this box. The password for the Client will allow remote access to rerecord the box greeting, for example.

Hold Message

When a caller is sent to a Conference Box, the system will attempt to connect the caller to one or more other callers already in the Conference Box. If no one else is in the particular Conference Box the caller will hear whatever you have recorded using the Hold Message button for the box. If no hold message has been recorded, the system will play the MUSICHOLD.VOI system prompt by default, which is located by selecting the Prompts command from the MAINTAIN menu.

The hold recording (or default recording if no hold message has been recorded) will repeat until another caller enters the Conference Box, or the Maximum Hold Time allowable is reached and the caller is sent out of the Conference Box.

For instructions on how to record, see "Recording Names, Greetings, Messages and Prompts" in Chapter 3.

Upon Key Goto

In this field you can enter a key option for callers who have entered the current Conference Box. When you record your greeting for a Conference Box keep in mind that you need to make callers aware of their touch-tone key options. One of these options will typically give the caller a way to exit the Conference Box. The first option might be, "Press the star key if you wish to leave the conference and hang up".

Upon Key Goto

In this second Upon Key Goto field you can enter a second option for callers. This option might be something like, "Press the pound key to leave the conference and return to the main menu".

All Other Keys Goto

This option allows you to control the actions of callers on your system. If a caller presses a key that is not one of the two available options you can route the caller to an error message, or you might route them back to the main menu to make another selection.

Max in Conference

In this field enter the maximum number of callers you wish to allow to join in this conference at any one time. System supervisors typically set this to a maximum of 4 or 5 callers for practical reasons. If you have an 8-line system you probably wouldn't want all lines tied up in a single conference call. Also, it becomes difficult for callers to understand each other if there are too many callers trying to all talk at once. Depending upon your system, you may even want to have Conference Boxes set up which only accept a maximum of 2 callers for more intimate chats. The maximum time that a caller is allowed to remain in a Conference is controlled by Privileges.

If Full Goto

In this field enter the number of the box you wish callers to be routed to if the maximum number of callers are already in a conference. This could be another Conference Box, for example.

Max Hold Time

Check this option if you would like to set a maximum time in seconds that callers can remain on hold waiting for a conference. If this time is reached before another caller enters the conference, the caller will be sent to the box number you indicate in the Goto field next to the Max Hold Time field. (Maximum time in a conference is controlled by Privileges.)

Upon Exit Goto

After a caller has spent the maximum allowable time, the caller will be routed to the box number you indicate in this field. If you are not sure where you would like to route callers, double-click on this field to bring up the Box Finder screen, which will display all previously defined boxes on your system.

Name Message

Select this button to record a name for this box. This is a name that the system will use when referring to this Conference Box. It is best to use descriptive names that help you remember the purpose of each box.

For instructions on how to record, see "Recording Names, Greetings, Messages and Prompts" in Chapter 3.

Greeting

Select this button to record the greeting to be associated with this Conference Box. This message should explain that the caller has entered a conference and inform the caller about what to expect. It should also inform the caller of any key options you have defined in the On Key Goto fields.

For instructions on how to record, see "Recording Names, Greetings, Messages and Prompts" in Chapter 3.