Dynamic Conference Rooms

[someguysname]

Ahem,

and how about:-

"And thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to try and help, even though the solutions offered were not practical in my case"

I said that early on, sort of : " So anyway...this leaves too many things to go wrong for my taste"

But having my message moved and renamed to something I wasnt looking for sort of got all over me. Now here it is, I have the solution I was looking for, the title is wrong, it's in the add-ons section and it was done with no add-ons.... /shrug I surely hope everyone can understand my frustration and accept the apologies I managed to get out...

 

[jroper]

Is that all you wanted???

Maybe I've been around this stuff for far too long, but I did not think anyone who was using Asterisk commercially, and had spent any more than an hour with TFoT and a few minutes with Google would need to ask. I was thinking you wanted something far more robust. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

This would have sufficed:-

Right under [from-internal-custom] in extensions_custom.conf type:

exten => 8000,1,MeetMe(,scM,)

In Misc Destinations, add a new entry, and put Meetme Rooms in the top box and 8000 in the bottom box, then point your inbound route/IVR/Announcement to the Misc Destination "Meetme Rooms" Internally, just dial 8000.


We were trying to create you a system that would

• Cope with a huge number of potential users with minimal admin. (7500? Thats a lot of typing you have to do)
• Reduce the possibility of people ending up in the wrong conference, or listening in when they should not. With your method, once they have been officially invited to a conference number once, they will be able to go back to it at any time.
• Stop unscrupulous people external to your system using your conference facilities free of charge without your knowledge. Again, Once they have been officially invited to that conference once, they will be able to go back to it at any time.
• Could be accessed easily from inside and and outside your system

Offering alternatives is is usually to be encouraged - quote - "the mind is like a parachute, it does not work unless its open"

 

[someguysname]

Is that all you wanted???

Maybe I've been around this stuff for far too long, but I did not think anyone who was using Asterisk commercially, and had spent any more than an hour with TFoT and a few minutes with Google would need to ask. I was thinking you wanted something far more robust. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

This would have sufficed:-

Right under [from-internal-custom] in extensions_custom.conf type:

exten => 8000,1,MeetMe(,scM,)

In Misc Destinations, add a new entry, and put Meetme Rooms in the top box and 8000 in the bottom box, then point your inbound route/IVR/Announcement to the Misc Destination "Meetme Rooms" Internally, just dial 8000.


We were trying to create you a system that would

• Cope with a huge number of potential users with minimal admin. (7500? Thats a lot of typing you have to do)
• Reduce the possibility of people ending up in the wrong conference, or listening in when they should not. With your method, once they have been officially invited to a conference number once, they will be able to go back to it at any time.
• Stop unscrupulous people external to your system using your conference facilities free of charge without your knowledge. Again, Once they have been officially invited to that conference once, they will be able to go back to it at any time.
• Could be accessed easily from inside and and outside your system

Offering alternatives is is usually to be encouraged - quote - "the mind is like a parachute, it does not work unless its open"

Yes, thats all I wanted...it is exactly what I said, what I outlined in my "rough draft" post, and what I ended up with...how could anyone possibly think I wanted something different?

Yes 7500 people, thats how many students/staff we have...any one of which might want a conference some day for whatever reason. We have over 1,000 IP phones deployed around our campuses so we could utilize this for all kinds of things from business meetings to science project collaboration to talking about this weeks baseball scores with the community. Do 7500 people want a new conference every single day? Come on.....

I really do appreciate the alternatives, but my god man, how many times do I have to say that it isnt what I want?

I will be removing the rooms once the conferences are over so the assumption that people would be using them for no good is unfounded....

 

[wardmundy]

It's not all about you, pal. That's the part you never quite seemed to get. Did you really think we all just hung out here chomping at the bit to solve just your extra special problems?

We try to provide solutions that move the bar forward for those that are forward-thinking or at least open-minded. We now fully appreciate that you're not interested in being part of that process and prefer YOUR WAY or the highway.

By all means, knock yourself out!

 

[jroper]

So the procedure is:

1. 1 of 7500 people contact you, ask you to create a conference with a pin, and tell you how long they want the conference for and when it can be deleted.
2. You tell them the conference number and the pin
3. They send that to the conference attendees.
4. You create the conference for them in FreePBX
5. They use it
6. You go in to FreePBX at some later date and delete the conference.

 

[wardmundy]

Looks like that should keep someone pretty busy full time... but that's what bureaucrats love. Why get any real work done?

 

[jroper]

Ward,

I was thinking of knocking up a dial plan that would allow him to create conference rooms via the keypad of his phone, rather than via FreePBX, and would delete the conference when the last person left, but it would have to be dynamically created, so it would not be appreciated

 

[someguysname]

It's not all about you, pal. That's the part you never quite seemed to get. Did you really think we all just hung out here chomping at the bit to solve just your extra special problems?

We try to provide solutions that move the bar forward for those that are forward-thinking or at least open-minded. We now fully appreciate that you're not interested in being part of that process and prefer YOUR WAY or the highway.

By all means, knock yourself out!

Pardon me for thinking a thread that I started about my problem wasnt about me!

 

[someguysname]

Ward,

I was thinking of knocking up a dial plan that would allow him to create conference rooms via the keypad of his phone, rather than via FreePBX, and would delete the conference when the last person left, but it would have to be dynamically created, so it would not be appreciated

Actually that's a great idea, remarks aside (but at least you didnt call me names)...

One of the things a co-worker and I talked about over the past week is tying it into our calendar system using outlook and exchange to schedule the conference, and then fire off some scripts to create the room in asterisk. We already have the outlook calendar to web interface stuff done for scheduling special events at our campuses so it would only take a little coding on his part to build what I want.

I'm not understanding why they would have to be dynamic when created the way you suggested though?

 

[jroper]

exten => 8001,1,MeetMe(,scMD,)

From the notes on this, the above line, when combined my earlier instructions, originally based on yours, should create a conference room of your chosing by dialing the 8001

Adjust the other entry (8000) to be:
exten => 8000,1,MeetMe(,scMAx,)

So 8001 creates the conference room dynamically, with a number and pin of your chosing.

At some later date, people dial 8000 which should allow people to join the conference, you previously created, mark them (A), then delete the conference (x) when the last Marked user leaves the conference.

Joe

 

[TomS]

Just testing it

Joe,
When I dial 8001, the conference only exists until I disconnect or the last person does. I tried to dial 8001 and entered conference number 8005 with pin 1234. I join the conference at that time and when I hang up and redial 8005 it times out.

8000
exten => 8000,1,MeetMe(,scMAx,)
8001
exten => 8001,1,MeetMe(,scMD,)

Am I using it incorrectly?
Is it possible to create the conference ahead of time and send notifications to the group of users for later use?

How does Meetme3 work in these situations? I have not loaded it as yet.
Thanks
Tom

 

[tshif]

MeetMe 3 Has it - but the user interface could be an issue

Tom
We use MeetMe3 quite a bit and it works really well.

Meetings can be created in advance, and are "available" only during the window you specify when you create it. You have control over when, how many users, and quite a few settings that work like the settings in the standard conference rooms. There are a couple things missing - but its still a very good tool.

The user interface - is close to a complete basket case. Most of the axillary functions don't work - a few will event crash the asterisk box - but the good news is that these are in no way required to use MeetMe3 fully. The important ones, Create, and delete conference, and schedule for once, or recurring, work pretty much the way you want them to.

I'd say go for it and see what you think. But watch out - the installer for meetme3 doesn't always play well with the rest of the system. I avoid having to rerun it like the plague. I have put the experience out of my mind for sanity's sake, but as I recall it interacted with the master password script very poorly. I'm not sure if the issue was ever found and corrected. But even with the installer issues, its a great tool worth the trouble to get it working.

Tony

 

[jroper]

Hi Tom

There are a whole host of options with the meetme function, and they are listed in "The Future of Telephony"

It may just be a case of putting the right switches in against the extension to get the functionality you desire.

Joe

 

[AlwaysONS]

I had similar issue but with the jroper sugestion I now have a solution. I pointed one DID number to an extension that had a followme set to the dynamic conference number. Now my users dial that DID number, get prompted for a conference room number and pin number (we are using private cell numbers and any password). Works great, thanks jroper!:willy_nilly:

 

[tomsyr]

IVR to conference rooms

Someguysname, and anyone looking for a similar solution
After trying various ways to enter any conference room from the IVR, I came across this article, which is exactly what I was looking for – which is basically a user calling in to a specific IVR, get prompted for a conference number, then enter room.
freepbx.org/2007/05/27/ivrs-–-standard-abilities-tips-and-tricks
This works with 2.5.1
TomSyr