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Audio conference service

N.B.: The audio conference service has greatly changed starting from firmware version 4.7.12, which introduces "dial-out" mode and a web panel for supervising and monitoring an audio conference room in real time, displaying the status of the participants and execute management actions such as expelling or inviting participants, disabling audio input for one or more participants, etc.

The audio conference service provided by KalliopePBX lets you configure multiple rooms with different settings. These rooms can be independently managed and monitored by individual PBX users (including those without admin privileges).

For each conference room, you can enable "dial-in" and/or "dial-out" access.

With "dial-in" access, participants access the service by calling a give number and join the conference room after inserting an access PIN (sent through DTMF tones).

Conference rooms can be accessed in different modes:

• access with interactive room selection: the audio conference service is associated to a code in the numbering plan (802 by default); when a user calls this code from an extension, an automated message will play prompting them to insert the number of the room to which they wish to connect. Based on the configuration of the room in question, they may then be prompted to insert an access PIN.
• direct access to a specific room: the user makes a call to the selection associated to the service followed by the room number (e.g. 8021234, where 802 is the service code and 1234 is the room number). Based on the configuration of the room in question, they may then be prompted to insert an access PIN.

In both these cases, you can allow rooms to be accessed by external callers as well by directing DID on inbound lines or forwards (in the numbering plan, through IVR menus, or from other telephone entities) towards the "Audio Conference Service" and selecting "Ask for room number" or one of the existing rooms.

With "dial-out" access, the PBX will call the configured participants when the room is opened from the GUI.

A room can be configured to have both "dial-in" and "dial-out" participants; a web panel allows the room manager to monitor the status of the room and its participants, with the option to execute management actions such as muting and unmuting one or more participants, expelling a participants from the room, or closing the room (consequently expelling all participants).

Room configuration

Conference rooms are configured in two phases. In the first phase the room is defined by assigning it an identity (i.e. a room number) and settings certain accessory parameters. The second phase concerns the operational settings. In this phase you can set the access mode of the room (dial-in and/or dial-out), set the behavior when a new participant joins the room (e.g. whether of not to require an access PIN) or configure a list of internal or external contacts that the PBX should call when a room with dial-out access is opened.

Creating and configuring an audio conference room

This service can be configured in the "PBX applications" -> "Audio conference service" page. the panel shows the list of existing rooms with their main attributes. To add a new room or edit and existing one you will need to acquire a lock.

To edit an existing room, click on the pencil icon; to add a new one click on "Add new room" above the list of rooms. In both cases a new page will open, in which you will need to set the following parameters:

General settings

• Enabled: click the checkbox to enable or disable to room. If a room is disabled it cannot bu used, but its configuration will remain.
• Number: the primary ID of the room. Must be numeric. It is used by the system to identify the room, for rooms with dial-in access this is the number that participants must dial when prompted by the automated message or immediately following the service code.
• Name: the name assigned to the room. It does not have an operational use; it is used in selection menus when configuring forwards to the room.

Dial-out settings

These settings are needed if you wish the room to have dial-out access. If the room only has dial-in access, these parameters do not need to be set.

The two parameters are identity and outbound routing class and are used by the PBX when calling external numbers. The outbound routing class is used to determine the routing of the call, while the identity is used to set the calling number.

Users enabled to edit the operational settings

This is a list of users who, independently of the permissions given by their role, can edit the operational settings of the room. These settings include the access PIN, the wait music played when only one participant is present, dial-in and dial-out settings. These privileges to not include monitoring and piloting in real time, which can be assigned to different users.

Operational configuration

Once a room has been created you can edit its operational settings by selecting the "Room operational configuration" tab, which lists the existing rooms with a summary of their main operational parameters.

Each room can be "closed" or "open". The operational settings of a room can only be edited (by clicking on the pencil icon at the end of the row) when the room is closed. A room can be opened in two modes, manual and automatic.

In manual mode, a room is opened by an enabled user (see below) by clicking on the corresponding button beside the edit button. Automatic mode is only available for rooms with dial-in access, and happens when any extension joins the room.

The operational configuration page is divided into various sections; the first contains the general settings, which are:

• Language: the language of the various audio prompts (e.g. the PIN request or the message played when a new user joins the room).
• Admin PIN: the PIN required to enter the room as an admin; note that there may be multiple admins in a single room. if the corresponding flag is enabled, when all admins have left the room all participants will be automatically expelled.
• PIN: the access PIN required to enter the room as a standard participant.
• Announcements enabled: if this flag is enabled, users who enter the room will be required to say their name so that their arrival and departure can be announced to the other participants.
• Expel users when the last admin leaves the room: if this flag is enabled, all participants will be automatically expelled once every admin has left the room.
• Enable mixing optimization: optimize performance and audio quality by not transmitting audio from silent participants (Silence Suppression, or Talker Optimization) through the use of VAD (Voice Activity Detection). If enabled, background noise will be reduced, but some brief clipping may occur when a user begins talking, as typical with VAD, since the PBX will need to determine that the audio has exceeded a certain intensity threshold before the user is considered active. Mixing optimization does not significantly impact system performance since any gains from having to decode and mix fewer audio streams are balanced out by the load required by VAD, while the greater part of the performance is due to codifying the resulting audio stream for all participants, which is independent of the number of active participants.
• Wait music file: you can set the room to play wait music when only one participant is present; click on "Choose file" to select the audio file you wish to use.

The Dial-in section only contains the checkbox to enable the service. If the service is disabled, users will not be able to access the room by calling the audio conference service; they will only be able to access the room if called by the system in dial-out mode.

The Dial-out section contains the following parameters:

• Enable Dial-out: the flag that enables dial-out mode. In order to enable dial-out access for external participants, you will need to set the identity and routing class in the room configuration page.
• Maximum number of attempted calls per participant: the max number of times the system will attempt to call each participants; the calls may fail for various reasons (the user may be busy or unreachable, or reject the call). If the invite policy for the user is set to "automatic with repetition" the system will attempt to call again until the max number is reached.
• Enable audio file playback for complete/incomplete room and corresponding file selection buttons: with dial-out access, you can set an audio file to play different audio files depending on whether the room is "complete" or "incomplete" based on the presence of all participants marked as "required". This feature is useful for rooms without supervision to let participants know if someone is missing.

Next is the list of dial-out users who will be called by the PBX following the set policy.

Click on the + icon to add a new participant; a new row will appear in which you can specify the participant, choosing between "Extension" or "External". In the former case, the "Contact" field will be a list of the extensions in the PBX; in the latter, you will have to insert the number of the participant, preceded by the external line commitment prefix. In this case, you can also set the name of the participant, which will be displayed in the in the room management/supervision page. For each participant, you can set one of three invite policies: automatic with or without repetition, or manual. See the section on the management/supervision page below for details.

With the automatic invite policy, the room will automatically call the participants the moment the room manager, after opening the room, activates the invite mechanism. The calls are made in parallel; for external participants, it is necessary to ascertain that the call was answered by a person and not an automated system (courtesy messages or voicemail) so the recipient of the call will need to accept the invite by dialing "1". If the tone is received, the PBX will include the participant in the conference, otherwise it will act as if the call had not been answered and end it after a timeout.

If a call fails, the status of the participant will be set to "out of the room" if the invite policy is set to "automatic without repetition", and if they are marked as "required" the incomplete room audio file will play if enabled. If the invite policy is set to "automatic with repetition, the system will attempt further calls until reaching the set maximum. Participants with a manual invite policy will only be called if the action is selected for each individual participant. If the call fails, further attempts will only be made manually.

The final section of the panel lets you add users authorized to operate and manage the room in addition to those authorized to configure the room (because of their role - for which write permissions are necessary - or because specified in the room configuration page).

N.B.: if dial-in access is enabled, extensions associated to users enabled to manage the room can enter the room in can enter the room as administrators without enterin the PIN.

Users authorized to manage the room will see, if the room is closed, the "Open room" button (play icon) to manually open the room and, if the room is open, the "View room" button (magnifying glass icon) to access the supervision and management panel.

Room supervision and management

Each conference room can be, at any given moment, "closed", "open", or "open and active". The change from one state to another tcan be automatic or manual.

As previously stated, a room can be opened manually or automatically. In manual mode, one of the enabled users can explicitly pen the room by clicking on the play icon. If a room has dial-in access, it will be automatically opened whenever an extensions accesses it. In both cases the status icon in the configuration page will become a magnifying glass and the operational settings can no longer be edited; in order to make edits, the room will need to be closed first. A room is "open and active" (or simply "active") if dial-out access is active for users with an automatic invite policy.

The user can click on the "View status and manage room" button to access the supervision and management panel, which is divided into three sections.

The first section ("Room information") contains the name and number of the room as well as its status, which can be open or active; in the former case the room is open but the automatic invites are not being sent, while in the latter case the PBX is making calls to the set users. Next tot he status there is an X button that lets the user close the room and expel all participants.

The second section ("Dial-out") shows the settings and operation buttons for dial-out mode.

The "automatic Dial-out" flag shows whether the automatic invite function is active or inactive; you can activate it by clicking the play icon; if it is active, you can deactivate it and expel all participants by clicking the stop icon.

Next is the status indicator, which shows whether the room is complete or incomplete. If even one of the required participants is missing (unless they are "suspended" - see below) then the room is considered incomplete. An audio file can be played in he background depending on this state.

The lower part of the panel contains the list of conference room participants alongside the corresponding information and actions:

• Name: the identity of the extension of the name assigned when adding the participant to the room.
• Selection: extension of external number.
• Call policy: the policy used when inserting the participant to the room. With dial-out access, this can be manual or automatic with of without repetition. Dial-in participants are also included under manual mode.
• Required: participants with this flag are considered necessary when evaluating the completeness status of the room. Disabled for dial-in participants.
• Dynamic: determines whether a participant is static (dial-out participant defined in the room operational configuration) of only present in a temporary capacity (either as a dial-in participant or dynamically added through the "Add dial-out participant" button in the dial-out section). When the room is closed, all temporary participants will be deleted and when the room is next opened automatically only static participants will be called; if the room is opened due to a dial-in participant joining, that user will be present in dynamic mode.
• Direction: determines whether the participant is dial-out or dial-in. Dial-in participants will remain included in the list if they end the conversation, are removed from the GUI, or the room is stopped without being closed. You can click on the phone icon uner the "Actions" column to have the room call the user, effectively turning them into a dynamic dial-out participant with manual invite.
• Status: each participant can be:
  • Out of the room: the user is not participating in the conference; this is the default status when the room is open but not active.
  • In the room: the user is participating in the conference.
  • Invited: KallipePBX is calling the participant to invite them. If the call fails the room will keep calling them if the policy is set to repetition or set the user as "out of the room". If the user answers and accepts the invitation, the user will be set to "in the room".
  • Suspended: the user is temporarily excluded from the room. They will not receive invites and they will not be considered required.

The available actions for each user depend on their status.

• If the user is "out of the room" and has a manual call policy, the room invite service is not active, or the maximum number of call attempts has been reached, the "Invite" (phone icon) and "Suspend" (stop icon) will be available. The former will call the user to the room (with repetitions if configured) and the latter will suspend them.
• If the user is "suspended", the "invite" action will be available.
• If the user is "in the room", the "Hang up" action will be available, which will end the call for the user and suspend the automatic invite policy if set.

A "Mute" action is also available for single or all participants in the room. To mute a single participant, click on the microphone icon under the "Actions" column. To mute everyone in the room use the "Disable all microphones" and "Enable all microphones" buttons present above the list of users.