VoIP PBX

Finally it is also available for OSX of the famous SoftPhone NCH: Talk Express. This soft-phone stands out from the others for ease of use and a host of advanced features such as:

• Supports up to 6 lines with the ability to put calls on hold.
• Work with a cap can be used with standard or a set of speakers and a microphone
• Includes data compression codecs (GSM, ulaw, Alaw, PCM and G726), echo cancellation, noise reduction and support to the "comfort noise".
• Implements the SIP standards
• It can be configured to work behind NAT and firewalls.
• Support Caller ID and the logging.
• Includes a phone book and speed dial functions.

The product is available as a free download , but there is also a business version that supports more features (multi-conference, call forwarding, DND, etc..).

Tags: Call Center Systems | VoIP PBX | Asterisk Consultant Naples | PBX Phone | VoIP | Asterisk CTI | PBX | IP Phones | Networking | Linux

I must confess: I am a newbie to Asterisk , the popular open source PBX. This does not mean that a user is not jaded of GNU / Linux . Lately my interest in this software is increased, since I am trying to achieve integration with the PBX currently in use in the company.

Coming from an experience made ​​with GNU / Bayonne - a scripting system which create IVR - I had already tried the integration of telephony and Festival. For the uninitiated, is a software conversion Festival TTS (Text To Speech, or text-to-speech).

An IVR is essentially an automated, interactive phone system ie a: IVR normally have a menu through which to perform actions (eg, press 1 to do this, press 2 to do that, etc.. Etc...) These menus are essentially static and still require the use of pre-recorded voices. It 'obvious that having a TTS system that can translate the texts (eg, retrieved from a database), you can create much more flexible and customized IVR.

The difficulty arises because the Festival is, like most of the software in English. Fortunately, a group of researchers of the CNR of Padua has been modified to make the Italian and English voices.

Let's see how to install Asterisk on Ubuntu + Festival TTS combination in Italian. Prerequisites:

• Ubuntu 6 or 7
• Asterisk 1.2.x or 1.4.x

Of course the instructions are for the Ubuntu distro, but they are easily adaptable to your favorite distro.

The steps are as follows:

• Install Festival: apt-get install festival
• Install the Italian voices for festival: apt-get install festvox-italp16k festvox-itapc16k
• (Ubuntu) Edit the file /etc/init.d/festival : remove an exit 0 that prevents to start the service startup Festival
• Edit the file /usr/share/festival/voices.scm , is to add the Italian male or female voice as the voice of default:

(defvar default-voice-priority-list
'(pc_diphone <- maschile
lp_diphone <- femminile

• Edit the file /usr/share/festival/festival.scm to add a macro integration with Asterisk:


(define (tts_textasterisk string mode)
"(tts_textasterisk STRING MODE)
Apply tts to STRING. This function is specifically designed for use in server mode so
a single function call may synthesize the string. This function name may be added to
the server safe functions."
(let ((wholeutt (utt.synth (eval (list 'Utterance 'Text string)))))
(utt.wave.resample wholeutt 8000)
(utt.wave.rescale wholeutt 1.0)
(utt.send.wave.client wholeutt)))

This code must be inserted before the last line: (provide 'festival) File festival.scm

• Start the server Festival: /etc/init.d/festival start

At this point, we can use the function in our extension.conf Festival:

exten => 100,1,Answer()
exten => 100,2,Festival(Ciao Mondo)
exten => 100,3,Hangup()

Happy Festival to You!

Tags: Call Center Systems | VoIP PBX | Asterisk Consultant Naples | PBX Phone | VoIP | Asterisk CTI | PBX | IP Phones | Networking | Linux

Some time ago I purchased a subscription with a telephone carrier called Italian Eutelia . The peculiarity is that it is a VoIP telephone service brought flat on a common 4Mbit ADSL: 15 hours included in the monthly fee for local calls and long distance calls, free calls to all numbers Eutelia.
I must say the service has always been quality.

After some time, I discovered - through a friend - the existence of a telephone service called skyphoi that allows, once the registration is completed, to activate a VoIP account and get a free geographic number (eg 02 xxxxx): with the enormous advantage of being able to always have a fixed line number to be called when

Nothing extraordinary so far, were it not for the fact that the service is provided by Eutelia skyphoi! Which means that I can call home and all users skyphoi free. In addition, the rates for outgoing calls to numbers not-Eutelia are quite favorable.

At this point all that remains is to put on a small Asterisk PBX-powered

Tags: Call Center Systems | VoIP PBX | Asterisk Consultant Naples | PBX Phone | VoIP | Asterisk CTI | PBX | IP Phones | Networking | Linux