We have a 4 Line License and want to know if we can mix and match SIP with our modems? Example, can we run the IVR with 1 line on SIP and the other 3 lines on modems at the same time? I couldn’t find any info on this in the help topics on your site, and it isn’t apparent in the setup screen whether or not this is supported. Please let me know if this can be done and any special setup info

Technically, there is nothing prevent you from mixing lines. There is also nothing special you need to do to set it up.

However, this is not common and not supported. For example, there are some features only available for VOIP lines but not for modem lines. So if your application uses these features, some lines will work and some will not.

I just had a couple of questions regarding your product which I hoped that you could help with.
1. How do I change the default anouncements that are used in the system.

If you are talking about the message played for incoming calls, you can turn it off. Go to Voicent Gateway > Setup > Options > Inbound, then select “Do not play the initial ‘You have reached…’ message”.

If you are talking about the Voicent ad message, you can only remove that after you purchase a product license key. The free version will play the message for each call.

I don’t want to turn it off, I just wanted to change it. Is that not possible? Are the fixed messages you have Wav files that the Gateway looks for from a particular file or folder. If they are, could we not overwrite the wav file recording that you have for “you have reached…” or “thank you and goodbye” with another Wav recording saved in the same folder with the original files name. That way the Gateway just looks to play the same file as normal and as far as it is concerned nothing has changed but the message in the wav file it plays has been changed to suit our needs

You can turn it off and replace it with your own IVR or PBX applications (which are designed by Voicent IVR Studio or Flex PBX). That in effect is replacing the audio files.

It is not recommended to replace the audio files, since you’ll have to do that every time you update the software.

2. The Record By Phone facility is not working. Outbound is fine and the modems are working fine but the Gateway is not picking up the inbound calls.

The Record by Phone should work and it has been working for a long long time. Please make sure the recording dialog window is still open when you call in. If it still does not work, connect a regular phone to the modem PHONE jack, call in again, make sure the phone rings.

The recording dialog window is open, i have connected a phone to the modem and it works fine for both inbound and outbound. I have tried calling in on both modem lines the phones ring but the Gateway just does not pick the call up?

Please send us the log files by select Help > Report Problems… from the program main menu after you called in.

3. How do we add additional voices to the TTS system that you have

It should pick up all the TTS voices in the system. Go to the gateway Setup menu, select Options, and select TTS tab. Choose any TTS voice you like.

Do you mean all the TTS voices on my computer or do you mean all the TTS voices in your system? Are you saying that to add a voice to your TTS system i just need to download it to my computer ?

All TTS voices on your system. The only requirement is that these TTS voices must be Microsoft SAPI compliant, which in most cases are true.

After the recipient of the call is played the message and selects an option ie press 1 to confirm. Can it be set up to play a Thank You message of some kind before the line is just disconnected? If so, and I imagine we must be able to do this, how doe we do it ?

Yes, by default, it should say “thank you and goodbye”. However, it is fixed and cannot be changed by the built-in Message Designer.

To change the message, or to have multiple questions and answers for your outbound call, you must use Voicent IVR Studio to create your message.

For more details about setting up a softphone with Freshtel, go to Freshtel’s website. Select Help, select Configuration Guides, and then take a look at topics related to setting up x-lite softphone or generic SIP devices.

The following should be the freshtel SIP settings for Voicent:

Codecs: make sure PCMA, PCMU, ILBC is selected.

We currently have some fields in our IVR that are fixed length e.g. 8 digit dates. We’ve noticed that when a DTMF is not interpreted by the IVR, the person is disconnected after 30 seconds of no input. This occurs if the person starts entering the date before the IVR has completed the prompt and the IVR only gets 7 of the 8 digits pressed.

Is there a way that we can play a prompt after 15 seconds of waiting to suggest to the caller that they may need to re-enter the date? Many callers seem are confused when they get disconnected. Alternatively could we extend the time that the IVR waits before disconnecting?

You may try to catch “noinput” exception in IVR Studio to re-prompt the user to enter the keys again. At this time, the time before an noinput exception is thrown is fixed in IVR Studio. The only way to change that is directly edit the generated VXML file. The value to change is the “timeout” value for the prompt element.

We’ve got a couple of questions for you… If we choose to buy one line now, then in a few months want an additional one… will we have to pay full price as if we were buying a separate line, or can we add it along with our other one and still receive the discount?

You can add more lines to your existing product any time. However, it is normally cheaper to purchase together. For detailed pricing info, please visit Voicent online store.

When we buy one of your products, how is it installed? Do we download it off of the Internet or are we provided the software? Do we require anything additional for the Professional Edition

You can download the software and give it a try first. When you have tested all the features you need, you can then purchase the software.

Where do I find information about the IVR progamming?

The best place to start learning IVR programming is the Voicent IVR Studio Tutorial, which can be accessed from program Help menu, under Product Walkthrough. After that you can try some of the included IVR samples.

If you want to learn further, you can learn VoiceXML technology, which is what Voicent IVR system based on. VoiceXML is a w3c standard for interactive voice applications. You could take a look at Voicent Gateway tutorial and outbound call tutorial, both of which can be found under the developer sections of Voicent website.

Specifically what are the uses of the ‘always true’ and system throws exception’ options. Can I get the syustem to hang up if no prompt is selected within a certain period of time? Is there a pdf or something which explains more about the IVR specifics of use?

This is best explained in an example. Support the system is expecting “1″ for confirm, and anything else for cancel, then you can create two element, one to handle the key press “1″, and create another element to handle everything else. For everything else, it should be set to “always true”. If you want to handle certain system exceptions, for example, if the otherside hangs up the phone, you can use the “system throws exception” option.

The current system default for system exception “noinput” is set to 10 seconds.

I have an 800 number how do I get it to forward to the FLEX PBX that I am setting up and getting ready to purchase?

If your toll free 800 number is from your VOIP service, you do not have to do anything. Once Voicent Gateway is setup with your VOIP service, any call to your 800 number should be automatically forwarded to Flex PBX.

If your toll free number is from a different company, you can normally set up call forwarding to a different phone number. For your VOIP service, you can purchase an incoming DID number, which is basically a regular phone number that can be called from any telephone. Once the DID number is set, forward your 800 number to the DID number.

Hi, I’m wondering if it’s ok to use your product to develop with? The gateway and xml products? If not, what product do you recommend I use? I’m wanting to develop with Real Basic which has a way to interact with HTTP protocols, etc, and I want to develop for outbound calling and sell the product along with an email outbound email program. Is this ok? I see you have some products similiar to what I need, but I’m told that the client wants both calling and email, etc, and therefore I’d have to develop this. Is this ok and does your license allow this in your free gateway download? I mean doing outbound calls via a voice modem? Thanks

Sure. You can use any Voicent to develop and integrate with. The shareware edition that you can download from our website should contain everything you need to develop. For the gateway product, you can also try to use Voicent IVR Studio, a graphical tool to develop your vxml applications. By working with a high level tool, you could save a lot of time in development and deployment. Also, you can freely distribute Voicent shareware edition, or you can ask your customer to download the shareware edition directly from Voicent website.

However, the shareware edition does add Voicent ad message for every phone call. So most likely your customer would want to buy a paid version that does not have the ad message. You can leave that decision to your customers. If you plan to sell a lot of your software, we recommend you sign up as Voicent reseller, which entitles you to 30% - 50% discount on most of our software products.

I need to call phone number with extension. I saw in knowledge base that I can add ,,,, to add pause. For example to get to extension 366, I can do 1-800-456-5678,,,,,366. I tried yesterday with skype, but does not work. Skype says 1-800-456-5678366 is not a valid number. Somehow voicnt is not adding pause for ,,,,. Can you suggest a way to get this working?

The comma will only work for analog phone line with modems. For VOIP service, such as Skype or SIP based, the comma won’t work. The reason is that the way a call is connected using analog phone line is completely different from using VOIP. However, you should still be able to dial extensions. The answer is described in the previous article about call hotel room with extensions.

I have your 4 line broadcast software. I would like to call hotel rooms through their pbx. Can this be configured so that when the main pbx answers the software creates a delay to wait for the hotel message and then dials a room extension to deliver the message after the room answers? Your info database mentions the use of commas to create a delay. I tried using commas in the phone number field but the system rejects them as unauthorized.

The best tool to use is to design your calling message using Voicent IVR Studio.

You may need to download and learn IVR Studio before understanding what we are talking about in the next paragraph.

When the call is answered by the hotel’s PBX system, you can set the delay by playing a silent audio file. After that, send the extension as “DTMF tones”. The way to do that is to put the extensions in a BBP column, then use the column variable in IVR Studio. Create a prompt using the extension column variable, set the prompt type to be “DTMF tones”. Once set, the system will send the extension tones as if someone presses the extension number from the dialpad.

The difficult thing is to know when the room answers. Actually the system will not know. So the best is to assume some delay, and play the message repeatedly. Ask the room to press a key if you need some confirmation.

You guys are GREAT! I actually have the IVR already, so I get the idea. What if, after I prompt the DTMF room number I delivered a repeated message like “Please press 1 for important information” which, by pressing, would then prompt to the actual message?

Good idea. With IVR Studio, you can design almost any phone interaction you desire. In this case, use the goto element to do the repeat message. And add a prompt node to play your message after 1 is pressed.

how would I terminate the call?

If the call is answered and callee pressed 1, then the system will play your message and disconnect. But you do need to deal with calling a room that no one answers. The best way to break the loop is to count how many times the repeated message is played. You can set a maximum of 5 times to stop the call. All these can be easily specifed in IVR Studio.