Conference Moderator PIN Confusion

[FASTDEVICE]

I'm not sure if I have this configured correctly, so any assistance would be appreciated. 

I've configured my conference to accept a conference number and moderator PIN.

When callers dial a conference bridge number they are asked for the conference number, and then again for a PIN. This is highly confusing and prevented some people from joining the conference. How can I have the system ask for the conference number and then ask if you are the moderator enter your PIN now, otherwise press'#' to enter the conference.

[Darren Schreiber]

The moderator pin doesn't really do anything yet. Also, you either use a moderator pin or an attendee pin.

We're still working on moderator functionality.

 

[FASTDEVICE]

On the contrary it actually does work (at least to some degree). In user-portal Conference, the moderator is singled out above the other callers and given privilege to control mute and drop of the other callers. It's really a useful feature.   

It just occurred to me that you gave a demo of it in one of your interviews, that's how I learned of the features.

Edited September 23, 2017 by FASTDEVICE (see edit history)

[Darren Schreiber]

Yes but most people expect it to also not open the bridge until a moderator arrives, drop callers at the end when a moderator leaves, and give DTMF control, too basically. None of that works (yet).

 

[Olaolu Abiodun]

Good Morning,

curious as to whether the DTMF functionality for the moderator was ever implemented as of the last posting here.

[Darren Schreiber]

Nope, hasn't been much demand for it frankly but with all these folks WFH we are getting more folks interested again in conference features so we may revisit it. But at this time it's a no.

 

[Olaolu Abiodun]

Cool, thanks. 2 other questions:

1) i don’t see an option for “Wait for moderator”, does that mean that’s not available either?

2) Are the limits for the number of participants in a conference bridge determined b the number of inbound or two way call capacity on the account?

 

[Darren Schreiber]

1) Correct.

2) It's how many people are in the bridge overall regardless of where they're calling from.

 

[Olaolu Abiodun]

1) Hard to control people not just using the bridge at their whim, with the participant pin, if the moderator has no “real” control, no?

2) Not sure I understand. So, the number of trunks on the sub-account doesn’t limit the number of participants?

[Darren Schreiber]

1) We've heard this concern before, but it's been 15 years now and we've had exactly 0 instances of abuse. But, it's possible.

2) The conference limiter has no relation to the trunks. You are limited by whichever is lower. You do need a trunk for someone to call in from the outside but let's say you have 5 inbound trunks and 5 local extensions  also  call in but your conference is limited to 8, well two of those people aren't going to be let in.

 

[Olaolu Abiodun]

1) Here’s to hoping....not to sound like a distrustful New Yorker (lol)

2) Understood, where do I find the conference limiter?

[Darren Schreiber]

Re #2 it is only available via API I believe. It is untested, so that's why it's not in the GUI yet. It is called max-members and you set it on a conference object.

 

[Olaolu Abiodun]

Ok....I know we’ve had clients utilize our conference bridge service For approximately 60 participants before and we assumed the limits were based on the trunking options on the sub-account, so we increased that to account for it. There were no issues reported.

Until we setup/figure out api access, might have to do that again to be safe, although if there were no issues, I can deduce that our conference limite must be fairly high? Is there a default value?