Avaya IP Office used to support an application called IP Office Conferencing Applications, this was a simple to use web based application that helps administrators and users setup and schedule MeetMe Conferencing easily (Password Protected Audio Conferences). However Avaya stopped support for this application starting from Avaya IP Office 500 V2 Release 6.0, Although IP Office continue to support MeetMe Conference feature with up to 128 ports (Maximum of 64 party in any conference call); however the Conferencing application is not available any more. The reason why Avaya stopped the application while keeping the support for MeetMe conference feature is that they want Small Medium Businesses to have sort of secured audio conferencing with limitations that force them to look for Avaya Audio conferencing solutions such as Avaya Aura conference with sophisticated features and easy to use tools.
Since Avaya stopped support for the application; I have been looking for a simple way to configure MeetMe Conference on IP office with Password and Greetings but couldn’t find any documentation, after a deep research and with the help of the configuration posted here I was able to setup MeetMe Conference on IP Office 500.
First of all I need to highlight that MeetMe Conference with IP Office 500 needs Professional Edition and works only with E1/T1 ISDN Connection and not on FXO port for the below two reasons:
1- Avaya IP Office 500 supports only 2 FXO port with MeetMe Conference, meaning that only 2 external participants can join the conference using FXO.
2- You don’t want to give your customer or external participants a list of numbers to keep dialing to join the conference, with E1/T1 ISDN Connection you can have 1 DID setup for conference that all your external participants can dial to join your conference.
Configure MeetMe Conference:
What we are looking for here is to setup a password protected conference room, when your participant dials MeetMe Conference DID they should here your greeting that welcomes them and ask them for the password, after dialing the password they can join the conference, to start the conference the conference originator should dial the MeetMe Confernece code on any local phone. We will also setup a way to change the password from any local phone, in order to accomplish this you need:
1- Create a User Variable in Voice Mail Pro
2- Create 2 Modules in Voice Mail Pro (One for the MeetMe Conference and Once to change the password)
3- Create 2 short codes (One for tthe MeetMe Conference feature and Once to change the password)
4- Create an Incoming Call Route to transfer the call from IP Office to Voicemail Pro.
It’s possible to create multiple MeetMe Conference rooms with different DIDs, Let configure one DID with MeetMe Conference and let us say that the DID ends up with 2210.
Setting up your MeetMe Conference Password:
Let us start by configuring User Defined Variables on voicemail pro, this is just a container that is used to store values so that it can be used again to be compared with a user enter valued.
Create User Defined Variable
Open Voicemail Pro – Click on Administration on the tool bar – select user defined variables – Click the plus button to add new one – Enter a name (here I will use PINCon2210, it’s just a name but I will use this so that I can remember to which MeetMe Conference this password is associated) then Click Ok – Click Update.
Create a module to set and Change the Password
on Voicemail Pro right click on modules – Click add – Name your Module (SetPIN2210) – Click Ok – Connect your start point on a menu action – Double Click on the menu action – On the Touch tones tab – Click the plus sign – add ?????? Questions mark (I am using 6 Digit PIN code, you need to enter ? mark with the same number of digits you are using as a PIN code). On the Entry Prompts – Click plus sign to add greetings (I always recommend to record your own professional greeting rather than system prompts since it’s more professional however to use the system prompts click on browse – select enu folder and add the following files:
1- enu/173.wav
2- enu/579.wav
3- enu/no_06.wav (This prompt will tell how many users the user should enter if you are using different number of digits for your PIN code then select the respective file for example select enu/no_04.wav if you are using 4 digits PIN code)
4- enu/no_wav
Click on Ok.
This should play “Please enter new password” “Password must be” “6″ “Number”
Connect your ?????? from your action menu to a Set User Variable Action.
Double Click on Set User Variable Action – click on Specific tab – on assign the following user variable select PINCon0119 from the drop down box then click browse on ..with the following value option – Select $KEY from System defined variables drop down menu – Click Ok.
Connect the Next option of the Set User Variable Action to a Disconnect Action
Double Click on the Disconnect Action – On the Entry Prompts tab of the properties of the Disconnect Action set it to play enu\pin_04.wav This should play this plays “Your access code has now been changed” or alternatively you can record your own.
Create a MeetMe Conference Module:
on Voicemail Pro right click on modules – Click add – Name your Module (Con2210) – Click Ok - Connect your start point on a menu action – Double click on the menu action – On the Touch tones tab - Click the plus sign – add ?????? Questions mark (This again should match in quantity of Question mark to the number of digits you are using for your PIN code). On the Entry Prompts – Click plus sign to add greetings (This must be record by your own professional greeting rather than system prompts since it’s more professional, recording can be like “Welcome to …Your Company name… please enter your 6 digit pin code to enter the conference” however to use the system prompts click on browse – select enu folder and add the following file enu/svm_06.wav which will plays only “Please enter your access code”.
Connect ?????? from your Menua to Test User Variable – Double Click on Test User Variable – on the specific tab select PINCon2210 from the “This action will return ‘True’ if the following variable’ ” drop down menu and select $KEY on “matches the value below” option.
Connect True of the Test user variable action to Transfer action – Double Click on transfer action and name it TransferCon – On Specific tab set the Destination to the short code that we will create later for MeetMe Conference for our option it’s 2210.
If you would like to record your conference and you want to warn your external participants that the call will be recorded before they proceed you can connect the Test user variable action to another menu with greeting that ask the user to confirm the recording with the call with two touch tones: 1 to confirm and 2 to cancel. Connect 1 to TransferCon and 2 to disconnect module, Watch the video for explanation.
On the False of the Test user variable you can have multiple options:
1- Connect to disconnect action (With Prompt to tell the user that they have entered a wrong password and goodbye them)
2- Connect to Transfer action (Set the destination as the operator extension a with Prompt to tell the user that they have enter a wrong password and they are being transferred to the operator for assistance)
3- Connect to another Menu action that asks them again for the Password and if entered wrong for the second time you can again transfer to operator or disconnect.
Create MeetMe Conference Short Code:
On IP Office Manager – right click on short codes – Click add:
Code: 2210
Feature: Conference Meet Me
Telephone number: 2210
Create Short Code to set and change the password:
On IP Office Manager – right click on short codes – Click add:
Code: #2210 (Make sure this doesn’t overlap with any other shortcode)
Feature: Voicemail Collect
Telephone Number: “SetPIN2210″
Assign your DID to your MeetMeConfernece Room:
On IP Office Manager – right click on Incoming Call Route – Click add:
On Standard tab – Assign your DID. On Destinations tab – select VM:Con2210 as your destination.
Now your MeetMe Conference is ready, you can create another MeetMe conference with another DID following the same steps. You can also watch below Video for a simpler explanation of the above steps.