Hello,
I’d like to introduce you to Obelisk, a queue and agent management software with interesting features.
It was designed for immediacy and speed. Just copy the files to a folder, such as /var/www/html/obelisk, on your PBX and enter the configuration parameters. That’s all.
There will be two versions: a free one with limited functionality and one with full and advanced features.
Coming Soon 
A. Real-Time Dashboard & Wallboard
The core of Obelisk is its ability to visualize queue status instantly via the Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI).
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Dual Views:
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Dashboard View: Detailed cards for every queue with expandable statistics, charts, and agent lists.
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Wallboard View: A high-contrast, streamlined view optimized for large TV screens in call centers.
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Live Metrics: Displays waiting calls, abandoned calls, SLA (Service Level Agreement), Answered/Completed calls, Hold time, and Talk time.
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Algorithmic Health Score: Calculates a dynamic “Health Score” (0-100%) for each queue based on wait times, available agents, and SLA, displayed as a traffic-light color code.
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Visual Alerts: Blinking thresholds for calls waiting and excessive idle times.
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Agent Management:
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Global Toggle & Sorting: Sort agents by Status or Name.
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Real-time statistics: Total, Free, Paused, DND, Busy, and Talking agents.
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Multi-Status Badges: Visual indicators for Pause, DND (Do Not Disturb), Ringing, Talking, and Unavailable.
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Control Actions: Supervisors can force Pause/Unpause, Log Out agents, or initiate Live Monitoring directly from the interface. (Spy,. Whisper and Barge)
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Dynamic Charts: Real-time Pie charts showing Waiting vs Ringing vs Talking.
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Agent Info: Rich tooltips with Last Login, Last Call time, Call Count, Pause Duration/Reason.
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Agent Watchdog: Idle time monitoring with configurable threshold alerts for inactive agents.
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Global View Filters: “Free & Talking” toggle available on both Dashboard and Wallboard views.
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B. Live Supervisor Monitoring (Spy/Whisper/Barge)
Obelisk allows supervisors to intervene in live calls seamlessly:
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Listen (Spy): Silent monitoring; neither the agent nor the customer can hear the supervisor.
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Whisper (Coach): The supervisor speaks only to the agent (coaching) without the customer hearing.
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Barge (Conference): A three-way conference where everyone can hear and speak.
C. AI Virtual Manager (Gemini Integration)
Obelisk includes a cutting-edge “Virtual Manager” powered by Google Gemini 2.0 Flash.
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Strategic Advice: The AI analyzes live queue data + historical trends to generate tactical advice (e.g., “Shift staff to Sales queue,” “SLA is dropping”).
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Smart Throttling: Built-in rate limiting (1 request/60s) prevents API quota abuse while ensuring fresh data.
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Context Awareness: The AI is fed real-time data, 1-hour trends, and historical staffing heatmaps to make informed decisions.
D. Quality Assurance & Recording Manager
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Recordings Manager: Full interface to browse, filter (Year/Month/Day/Category/Keywordds), and play audio recordings.
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Audio Robot (Background Processing): A CLI script (
cron_audio_analyzer.php) runs in the background to scan, transcribe, and analyze recordings automatically. -
AI Analysis:
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Sentiment: Categorizes calls as Positive, Neutral, or Negative.
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Resolution: Detects if the issue was Resolved, Unresolved, or requires Escalation.
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Categorization: Automatically tags calls (e.g., Technical Issue, Sales, Complaint).
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Word Cloud: Visualizes frequent keywords.
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Advanced Player: Includes a waveform visualization (WaveSurfer.js) and precise duration calculation based on WAV header parsing.
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Chat-Style Transcripts: Displays call transcriptions in a readable, chat-like format separating Agent and Customer.
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Quality Dashboard: Visual charts in Forecast module for Sentiment, Resolution, Call Reasons, and Word Cloud.
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AI Word Cloud: Visual representation of most frequent topics/keywords in calls.
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CSV Export: Full data export of recordings including AI metadata and transcriptions.
E. Analytics & Forecasting
Predictive tools to help managers plan ahead.
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Traffic Forecast: Uses linear regression to predict traffic volume for the next 15 minutes.
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Staffing Heatmap: A visual matrix showing historical call load by Day of Week and Hour (08:00 - 20:00).
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SLA Analysis: Break down of Service Level based on Queue Weight/Priority (Premium vs. Standard).
F. Extension Diagnostics (PJSIP)
A diagnostic tool for IT staff to monitor the health of SIP extensions.
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Latency Monitoring: Displays Round-Trip Time (RTT/Ping) with color-coded alerts for high latency (>100ms warning, >400ms critical).
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Device Info: Shows User Agent (Brand/Model), Firmware version, and registered IP addresses.
1. Technical Architecture & Performance
Obelisk is engineered for speed and scalability, solving common issues found in Asterisk dashboards (like the “Thundering Herd” problem).
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Server-Side Micro-Caching: Reduces load on the Asterisk server by ~90%. It caches AMI responses for 2 seconds using file-based locking.
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Non-Blocking Locks (Flock): Prevents server overload when multiple users access the dashboard simultaneously.
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Thundering Herd Protection: Non-blocking file locks prevent server overload during concurrent access.
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Frontend Hash Check: The JavaScript client checks data hashes before modifying the DOM, eliminating screen flickering and reducing CPU usage on the client side.
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Database: Uses SQLite with WAL (Write-Ahead Logging) mode enabled for high-concurrency read/write operations.
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obelisk_history.db: Stores traffic metrics. -
obelisk_recordings.db: Stores AI analysis and metadata.
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Background Processing: Heavy tasks (logging history, analyzing audio) are offloaded to CRON scripts to keep the web interface responsive.
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Page Visibility Auto-Pause: Stops refresh when tab is hidden to save resources.
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Live Clock & Auto Refresh System: Includes Lock/Pause toggle for manual inspection.
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Robust PJSIP/Local Interface Parsing: Fixes for FreePBX/Asterisk complex strings.
2. Customization & Administration
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Custom Sections: Administrators can group queues into logical tabs (e.g., “Support”, “Sales”, “VIP”) via Drag & Drop.
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Section Management: Create, Rename, Sort, and Delete sections/tabs.
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Visibility Management: Hide specific queues globally or per section.
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Drag & Drop: Reorder Queues and Sections via UI (Dashboard & Wallboard).
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Privacy Modes:
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Agent Privacy: Hides real names, showing IDs instead.
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Caller Privacy: Masks phone numbers for GDPR compliance.
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Multi-Language: Built-in support for Italian, English, and Spanish, with auto-detection based on browser settings.
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Configuration: All settings are stored in a portable JSON file (
obelisk_config.json).
3. Security
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Authentication: Web-based login session management.
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Admin Panel: Protected area for sensitive configurations (DB retention policies, server settings).
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Input Sanitization: Strict handling of API keys and database inputs.
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Secure Session Management.
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Smart AI Throttling: Limits API calls (1/60s) to prevent quota abuse and reduce costs.
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History Tracking: SQLite database logging with optimized composite indexes.
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Systematic Pruning: Auto-cleanup moved to Cron for better system stability.
