FOOD FOR THOUGHT Help with Conferencing on IncrediblePBX

[dennisdunbar]

After fooling around for a decade I have a real live customer asking for conferencing.
They are located in Virginia and would like up to 5 simultaneous conferences all with less than 24 users.
I was thinking I'd use the "FreeRange" service out of Ashburn, Va but the link I found in http://nerdvittles.com/?p=31290
Does not seem to be working. Is it still available?

Assumig it is, do we thing the current $30/year will it increase after a year?
Since it will be up to 5 conferebces, do people suggest I use multiple accounts?

Do people suggest I add the FreePBX management program so they can set things up themselves? ( right? )
That adds Conferencing configuration to the UCP, correct?

I would very much like any advice or guidance any of you you can offer.

Thank you very much.
Dennis Dunbar

 

[Jake]

You would need robust system. Meaning a solid server for the PBX, possible transcoding card, bandwidth and telco/SIP provider, to handle around 120 simultaneous calls in 5 different conference groups. $30 a year is a good deal to have a third party company do it for you. However, I've liked freeconferencecall.com but haven't used it at that scale. One other thing to consider is most companies already have Google Workspace AKA G Suite or Microsoft Teams. Some of those plans already include conference calling.

 

[kenn10]

For something as critical as multiple voice conferencing groups, I'd chose to host it on a more robust cloud solution such as what is offered by VULTR or Digital Ocean. Free Range Cloud is great for small to medium phone systems but conferencing systems require more resources. Before jumping into it, I'd also look at the actual cost of commercially available on-demand conference systems.

For overall cost for a DIY system, you have to look at the cost of the cloud VPS, the SIP trunking into the system, and the incoming DID's into the system. For a commercial system, I'd check out gotomeeting.com and uberconference.com, to name a couple.

You also need to consider other features besides voice conferencing that Asterisk doesn't do well like video conferencing, screen sharing, whiteboard sharing, etc. Not many people want a simple voice conference anymore but prefer multimedia access and features.

Weigh your options carefully.

 

[dennisdunbar]

Comments on the comments above:

1. The client is well aware of G-Suite etc. They have tested a bridge I build on Crown Cloud and they want that. They are also VERY happy with a limit of 24 users per conference, they do not need a 100 or even 25.

2. The client is not interested in anything other than conferencing, not interested in asterisk features white boards or any other bullshit. They just want a dial in conference.

So anyone with experience with FreeRange and the FreePBX enhanced conferencing program?

Thank you.

 

[Halea]

... They have tested a bridge I build on Crown Cloud and they want that. ...
...The client is not interested in anything other than conferencing...

When a PBX is hosted on the cloud the responsiveness of the host is "relatively" unimportant to the sound quality, because the PBX does not handle the audio stream. It establishes the channel then the real-time audio flow goes point to point between the two participants of the call. (There are situations where you may want your PBX to handle the audio flow and modern systems including FreePBX can do it. But generally speaking mainstream PBX setups don't and that alleviates a lot of hurdles on the PBX hardware)

With conferencing things are different. The PBX becomes a media bridge and plays the audio traffic controller between the different call participants. So, all audio traffic goes through the PBX and its network interfaces. So, the stress put on the host is multi-fold compared to a plain vanilla PBX. As the human ear can detect a greater than 3 millisecond delay or shift in audio, the "real-time" requirement of the communication becomes exponentially more stressful for the CPU with each additional call participant.

Since you have very little control over a virtual machine's behavior on a cloud based VPS, there is no way to guarantee the quality that you are expecting for the number of conference calls that you mentioned. You have to try and see, but there will be days with great results, others with more disappointing outcome.

There are couple of things you can do to maximize the odds to your advantage:

First, limit the acceptable audio codecs to just one; u-law or a-law (but not both) and make sure that it matches the encoding used by your origination provider. We use a-law for conferencing as it has a narrower dynamic range and it helps with keeping the Larsen effect down. (u-law tends to over-amplify the background sounds or small signals owing to its greater dynamic range. It also distorts quiet audio). In any event for best outcome do not put your PBX in a situation it needs to do audio stream transcoding.

Second, try to get all participants to a given conference to call-in on the same POTS trunk. You can achieve that by getting everybody call on the same number and having as many channels as the number of callers with your originator.

As for your second point quoted above; well, FreePBX or IncrediblePBX certainly have basic conference bridging capability.

Since your mind seems to be set on a particular cloud based setup I won't insist on the benefits of being in control of your host hardware for this kind of application. But I will only say that after running different configurations over the years, I found co-location of our own hardware in a data center the best approach for this kind of application.

Edit: Regarding the last point (being in full control of your host); it's worth mentioning that your PBX will perform considerably better on the same host machine if you switch its OS to use the low latency version of your favorite Linux kernel. You can do the same in the VM although the performance benefit will be less remarkable.

 

[Centar]

Another point is cheap hosted services come and go like the wind...running your own server is the only way to insure no interruptions or gotchyas.
You can buy used reliable servers these days for dirt cheap on Ebay and the like...

 

[hawk#1]

Another point is cheap hosted services come and go like the wind...running your own server is the only way to insure no interruptions or gotchyas.
You can buy used reliable servers these days for dirt cheap on Ebay and the like...

Don't forget that running your own server you are responsible for providing power during power outages, backup server when original server has a software or hardware failure, etc. Just remember that there is a lot more to it than dirt cheap servers on Ebay and the like.....