Permanent Conferences?

[PatrickTodd]

Looking for a way to setup permanent (or at least long lasting) conferences with 3cx.

For example, systems like Asterisk allow you to reserve extensions for specific conference rooms that are always available.
If I schedule a conference and put its end years out would that suffice or is the room destroyed as soon as all users log out?

For that matter, when a conference is made via the conference extension, how long before someone else can make a conference using the same room number? The details on the doc pages are fairly sparse.

 

[NickD_3CX]

Currently there is no way to create a permanent conference but I suppose creating a Scheduled Conference with a far away end date could double for this in many aspects.

Instant conferences (non-scheduled) are closed once the lat participant exists, but given that you can create new ones on the fly with the same Conference ID this usually is not a problem.

What I would suggest is up-vote the following threat in the 'Ideas' section that is somewhat similar to what you are asking if you feel this is a feature that 3CX should consider adding at some point.
http://www.3cx.com/forums/recurring-scheduled-conference-call-43417.html

 

[PatrickTodd]

I setup a conference that ends in 2020 and that seems to work well, only issue is that it does not appear to announce callers when they enter the conference, is that a feature that I neglected to turn on or is it not present at this time?

 

[NickD_3CX]

There is an "Enable Announcements" option when you create e Scheduled Conference which I think is disabled by default. Try enabling that I they should work.

 

[PatrickTodd]

Turning on announcements worked, however scheduling a long conference does not seem to work. After the last participant leaves it looks like the conference ends unless the one who created the conference calls back in.

Tested by making a conference from the 3CXPhone application, scheduled conference to end in 2020 (should be enough right?)

Called in with another extension, all good, however if the creator extension leaves as well as the participant, the participant cannot call back in, receiving a 'invalid conference id' response.

When I call back in with the creator from 3cxphone, participants can now call in again using the original conference ID..

It would be extremely silly to have to leave one extension always connected just to have a reserved conference, is this intended behavior?

 

[PatrickTodd]

Another Issue I have noticed is that the conference ID is not included in the calendar ICS file attached to the email, as a result, when you add the event to something like Google calendar it only displays the DID you have set for conferences, which is confusing to many users when they call in and then are asked for a conference ID they then have to scrounge through their email to find.

Is there an option to include the ID in the ICS file?

 

[NickD_3CX]

Turning on announcements worked, however scheduling a long conference does not seem to work. After the last participant leaves it looks like the conference ends unless the one who created the conference calls back in.

Tested by making a conference from the 3CXPhone application, scheduled conference to end in 2020 (should be enough right?)

Called in with another extension, all good, however if the creator extension leaves as well as the participant, the participant cannot call back in, receiving a 'invalid conference id' response.

When I call back in with the creator from 3cxphone, participants can now call in again using the original conference ID..

It would be extremely silly to have to leave one extension always connected just to have a reserved conference, is this intended behavior?

Seeing that its a scheduled report, not a permanent one, that makes sense that if the creator leaves the conference should go inactive. I just thought though, why not use WebMeeting? From what I can remember those do not automatically get deleted unless manually deleted and the other participants can log in before the creator.

As for the ICS not having the Conf ID, I'll try and find out why that is not there.

 

[NickD_3CX]

Also, in regards to the Conference ID, I just go informed form our R&D Department that the ICS file and the information it includes are going to be improved at some point very possibly also including the Conference ID so that is already planned, I don't have an ETA though.

 

[PatrickTodd]

why not use WebMeeting?

Webmeeting looks great and all, so far it works well, but I don't see where a caller can join just via a regular phone. (I could very well just be missing that option?) We have clients who need to call in via the lowest common denominator. Seems like a pretty standard thing to have dedicated conference bridges.

I just go informed form our R&D Department that the ICS file and the information it includes are going to be improved at some point very possibly also including the Conference ID so that is already planned, I don't have an ETA though.

That would be super helpful, it just makes sense right?

Why include the DID in a calendar invite if the Conference ID is not as well? What happens when someone invites someone on their own calendar to the meeting and does not have access to the original email?

Thankyou for your help, is there a way I can follow issues for updates?

 

[NickD_3CX]

WebMeeting looks great and all, so far it works well, but I don't see where a caller can join just via a regular phone. (I could very well just be missing that option?) We have clients who need to call in via the lowest common denominator. Seems like a pretty standard thing to have dedicated conference bridges.

Going back a few replies, for this you would need something of the likes of a permanent Voice Conference, the only reason I suggested WebMeeting is because it does have the 'permanent' property as opposed to to Voice Conferences at the moment,

...is there a way I can follow issues for updates?

I try to update all relevant topics when a new update comes out, but nearly all updates, fixes, new supported phones, etc are posted here by our marketing team:
http://www.3cx.com/blog/category/releases/

 

[PatrickTodd]

Ok thankyou; I appreciate the time and help. Hopefully 3CX will have permanent conference options in the future release. For now I will have to deal with it for this install, but caution users about new installs that this is not an option with 3CX.

 

[Skwirrel]

I too am looking for a permanent conference option and I think I may have found a workaround. The version of 3CX I am using doesn't let me set the end date - instead it asks for duration when scheduling a conference. The maximum duration it will allow is 24H - so the workaround above is not an option for me.

HOWEVER this got me thinking and I have found that if you schedule a conference that doesn't START until 2020, it will give you the PIN number for the conference straight a way and this PIN works straight away even though the conference hasn't actually started.

I can dial in and out of the conference and it seems to persist even if everyone leaves the call. I guess this makes sense as it would be pretty bad if 3CX deleted a conference that you had told it didn't start until the future just because (for instance) one participant dialed in (and out) early.

Who knows whether this workaround will keep working in future releases (it wouldn't be unreasonable for 3CX to "fix" this so that the pin code only started working 1 day before), but I thought I would share it.

 

[AndreyP]

In 15.5 we made it this way - created extension with forwarding to conference place extension*conferenceID and it works.