Using VLC to Output Multicast Paging

[almityone]

I have a current paging setup that accepts an RCA in and wanted to use the sound card as the paging output device for the overhead speakers.
I tried using the 3cx softphone as a paging device but occasionally it would have issues and give a busy signal.
I discovered that VLC can accept the multicast paging output as an rtp stream.

To do this:
For Example: Setup a multicast page on IP 224.0.1.75 port 50001 (or the settings you prefer)
Then you can start VLC using the following.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" rtp://224.0.1.75:50001
OR
From VLC menu
Media, Streaming, Network, enter URL rtp://224.0.1.75:50001, Then Select play at bottom

Hopefully this helps somebody out.
Matt

 

[almityone]

I have further refined this if anyone finds this useful. I am using grandstream phones that do not support multicast and have been having issues with paging.

Using VLC: you can setup a hidden vlc at startup on your users computer and bypass paging the phones all together.
Setup multicast at different addresses to acheive different groups and start a vlc (or multiple) on each computer to achieve different multicast paging groups.

multicast paging: 901 sales team
start /min "VLCStreamer" "C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" -vvv -Ihttp rtp://224.0.1.75:50001

multicast paging: 902 everybody
start /min "VLCStreamer" "C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" -vvv -Ihttp rtp://224.0.1.75:50002

Maybe somebody will find this useful

Matt

 

[craigreilly]

this is handy... I was just responding to someone having trouble with paging to lots of phones.
http://www.3cx.com/forums/page-100-phones-34067.html#p148220

I have yealink t38 with custom firmware with multicast paging... but this is a great idea... i.e., my warehouse.