I was asked to help with creating an alert system in the case someone is threatening our receptionist. Our front desk is on the first floor of our building and our offices are located on the second. If someone comes in and is threatening the receptionist we want the ability to alert the people on the second floor. The first thing that came to my mind is using the paging and intercom app. When our receptionist calls the paging number there is a beep heard on their phone. Since this will be used in an emergency situation having the receptionist’s phone beep is not a good idea. Is there a way to stop the beep on the dialer’s phone? We are using Snom 760s. Is there a better way to do what we are looking for?
The second part to this is we are looking at having two options, the receptionist needs help and a warning that something is happening but not to come downstairs. I know the paging and intercom app can play an announcement after the phone’s auto answer but this setting is setup in the general section of the app so I can only setup one announcement that is played regardless of what paging extension is dialed. Is there some way to setup an extension that will page a list of phones and play a specific announcement?
I don’t know how to get the version of our FreePBX system but our core is running version 2.11.0.1 and we have the Paging and Intercom version 2.11.0.8 installed.
I’d be inclined to start with a “SIP PANIC BUTTON” (Google is your friend) and set it up with a custom context that does whatever it is you need it to do. For example, you can set the phone up so that it immediately dials into your paging system and plays a specific message.
The second requirement is a little more challenging, as it will require a trio of states (Come, Stay, Off). That one might be better done with the phone.
As to your version, look under “Reports” (IIRC) for “Asterisk Info”. The version info should be on that page.
I don’t have any issue with the button, that part I worked out all ready. The part I’m struggling with is how to get FreePBX make the call to the 2nd floor people without the receptionist’s phone making a noise and then how to get it to play an announcement.
Maybe using the intercom app isn’t the best solution, I’m up for other suggestions.
For Human engineering reasons, don’t call them all at the same time if they are within earshot, advantage yourself by making individual files and touching such files with a random delay.
An example bash script, you can call it anyway that doesn’t leak the fact to the “Threat”
#!/bin/bash
cd /var/spool/asterisk/outgoing
IFS='-'
COUNT=1
for i in $(mysql -bs -pmysqlpw -umysqluser asterisk -e "select grplist from ringgroups where description='911'");do
touch HOLD -d "200 seconds "
chown asterisk:asterisk HOLD
echo "Channel: Local/$i@ext-local
CallerID: \"FrontDesk NEEDS HELP!!\" <911>
Application: Playback
Data: alert&thunderstorm&approaching&reception&silence/10
Archive: Yes
#MaxRetries: 5
#RetryTime: 10
#WaitTime: 30
#Account: 911
" > HOLD
if [ $COUNT -eq 1 ];then
touch HOLD -d "3 seconds"
COUNT=$(( $COUNT + 1))
else
touch HOLD -d "$((4 + $RANDOM%20)) seconds "
fi
mv HOLD $i-$(date +%T).911call
done
Just add your extensions to a ringgroup called 911
An interesting side effect is if you add cellphone numbers (without the trailing #) to the ringgroup, then the script will call those numbers, it might thusly be even more “silent”
Thanks, looks like call files is the way to go. I have created one that does what I was looking for and since it isn’t using the receptionist’s phone it happens unknowingly to anyone on the first floor. Now I just need to put all the pieces together.