Allow Conference call to continue after leader/admin drops off

Hello.

Using ‘Conferences’ module v. 15.0.7.11 in FreePBX 15.0.17.67, I would like to achieve the following:

Initially require the leader to join the conference bridge before other users can hear each other. If for whatever reason, the leader drops off the call, allow the conference call to continue without everyone being placed on hold.

This scenario is becoming more of a requirement now that remote work has become commonplace. ‘Leaders’ may be in a region with poor cell service, so I’d rather not have conferences calls interrupted based on their connection. However I still like the idea of having some control over the start of the conference. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

These are separate settings in the Conference config, Leader wait and Leader Leave. Have you configured both correctly? Based on my understanding of those to parameters, you can do what you need.

Thanks Lorne!

I have tried those settings: Leader wait: YES and Leader Leave: NO

While this allows the callers to stay on the bridge when the leader drops off, at that point they hear hold music and are not able to hear each other.

Hello! Just wanted to follow-up and ask if we had any other ideas?
Thanks!

Hello. I just wanted to follow-up on this. Any way to achieve what we want with this? If not through the GUI then through Asterisk CLI directly?

Hello. Just another bump to see if we have any working resolution to this. Thanks!

Hello! Was wondering if there has been any development with the issue I’m experiencing. It seems as though it may be a bug with the current FreePBX version? Do we need to escalate to the dev team?
Thanks!

How about showing the config settings for this conference? We haven’t seen anything that would be a bug yet. Well, we haven’t seen anything at all.

Thanks Tom. Here we go.

And how many users are still in the conference when the leader leaves?

Wait, scratch that. You have Leader Wait enabled. The conference cant be active without a Leader because of that. Sure the users can stay in the conference but until a Leader joins, the users cant talk.

I tested it with 1 or 2 other outside parties and get the same experience: hear hold music until the leader rejoins the conference.

See my updated reply.

Lorne said it should do what I want. Does it boil down to this feature not being supported?

Well honestly, Leader Wait is misleading. This should be more like “Leader Required” because this setting tells the conference to not let new users join without a leader (marked user) present and it will stop existing users from talking or using conference features (just plays MoH) until a leader is present. Setting this option to “Yes” means a leader must always be present from the start to the end of the conference for all users to talk.

Leader Leave tells Asterisk to kick all users when the lasted marked user leaves the conference.

In FreePBX only admins are marked as leaders and the only way to tell there is an admin is to enter an admin pin.

Understood. Is there an alternative way of allowing existing users from hearing each other without the leader having to be present, other than by untoggling “Leader wait”?

No, this is perform a specific function. You are telling the conference only be allowed to be used when a marked user (leader) is present. You cannot get around that with the standard config. You would have to write custom dialplan that checks for all this before the conference is engaged, thus not using the Leader options and have to make your own logic for blocking new users joining until a leader is there but still allowing existing users to continue when the leader leaves.

Because that’s what you’re trying to do right? Block users from entering the conference before the leader joins but still let them talk if the leader leaves?

That is correct. Appreciate the pointer. Guess I’ll look into building custom dialplan.

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