Why Audio Conferencing?

• It is a cutting edge program that allows you to totally manage and control all aspects of a live interactive telephone conference session, and at a very reasonable cost.
• You can conduct a live telephone forum with just a few, or tens-of-thousands of, invited (& opted-in) attendees/participants.
• Deliver a message to multiple people in multiple locations, whereby everyone hears the exact same message, delivered the same way, with the same inflection, at the same time.
• Everybody can hear equally well, and they can just listen or make a request to be heard, and/or participate, at-will, via touch tone (IVR) mass surveys or controlled verbal exchange.
• This is with the Host's total control of the entire process; and fully detailed documentation of everyone’s participation.
• The presenter(s) and other participants can be located just about anywhere there is web access or a phone!
• It is a comprehensive, very easy to learn and use, operator-friendly web accessed secure service.

How Does a Typical Audio Conference Session Work?

The unique, fully secure, data-gathering, web based system:

• Typically sends a customized automated prerecorded invitation (robo call) to your target audience, and allows interested parties to opt-in and be instantly transferred to the Live Audio Tele-Conference that is in-session.
• And/or, sends out email invitations to your target group with the toll free inbound phone number and password for your meeting.
• Displaying the meeting info on your web site, and in mailers and advertisements, are also viable alternatives.
• The Host group can monitor and control all aspects of the Audio Conference via a secure web link with our proprietary Audio Control Panel.
• The conference can be all one-sided communications utilizing the speaker(s) live discussion, and/or optional prerecorded information.
• Attendees can merely listen and not be heard, or, at their discretion, participate at various levels of verbal and IVR communication.
• They can opt-in at anytime to request to participate in the mass-discussion, or they can be moved by the host group to sub-forums to be pre-screened, etc.
• Pre-screeners can post the participants questions on the audio control panel for the host speaker to see.
• The speaker can prioritize the questions, and control who is heard - if at all, when, and for how long.
• Alternately the host can conduct an open forum (usually with smaller groups only) with all the attendees able to interact verbally.
• Or the host can request verbal feedback to questions, exchange ideas, collaborate on projects, etc., all under very controlled conditions.
• The host can conduct IVR touch tone mass surveys and in real-time view individual and overall results.
• Individual opt-in requests and IVR responses are annotated to each attendee’s record and are made available immediately to the host group.
• The host group will receive a digital audio recording of the entire meeting, and detailed reports of who attended and their IVR activity.
• Invitees/attendees only need a touch tone phone to participate.
• Presenter and team can fully control the event via the audio control panel, or our customer service reps can assist as requested.

A Typical Audio Conference Flow:

• Prior to the phone call invitations going out, usually some form of notice would be sent to the prospective participants by the Host Group - say by email, prior phone call, direct mail, etc.
• The invitees can then call a toll free number and log-in to join the meeting.
• Otherwise, a customized live or automated prerecorded, either an anticipated or cold call, can be made inviting the participants to join a meeting in progress.
• Invitees opt-in to the on-going presentation by touching the appropriate touch tone key on their phone.
• Audience members can then choose to actively participate in the discussion with a touch of their phone keypad.
• The presenter can then field the call and everybody on the line will be able to listen in.
• Alternately, one of the host’s assistants can pre-screen the call – as a private side-conversation, assign a priority or other code to the caller’s screen ID, and even enter text explaining the callers question or other notes of interest, so the Host can pick and choose.
• The waiting callers can be assigned a priority by the screener or the presenter.
• Sub-groups can easily be formed to take on different subjects, and handled as side-conversations, or even conduct transactions.
• The Host Group retains complete control of every participant, even during a live Q&A session.
• The Host Group can see a real-time view into the conference activity.
• You can even email a web link so that people can listen to a streaming audio (& video) version.
• Guests that are viewing on-line can also participate in on-line surveys. 
• A complete summary report, and a digital audio recording of the entire event, is provided to the Host Group at the conclusion of the conference.

Audio Conferencing can be divided into two basic groups:
 

1. Two-way Audio Conferencing

Two-way audio conferencing allows everyone attending the conference call to speak and be heard by all participants.

This type of conference call is best for small groups who need to share information, collaborate and gain understanding, in the shortest possible time.

Our solutions for two-way audio conferencing include:

A. Reservation-less Audio Conferencing for unscheduled and on-demand conferences.

• Event size: 2 to 64.
• This is reservation-less calling at its best.
• Perfect for informal and on-demand teleconferencing.
• This is two-way (everyone can talk at the same time) calling, ideal for ongoing and on-demand conferences.
• Use it to bring remote people into an impromptu meeting or to quickly end round-robin email exchanges.
• Participants simply dial the toll-free number and enter their PIN to participate.

B. Recurring Audio Conferencing for recurring meetings.

• Event size: 2 to 64.
• Ideal for those recurring conference calls, such as weekly meetings.
• Conference calls open ahead of time and you have the option to use PINs and barge tones.
• All you have to do is invite your conference attendees and pick up the phone.
• Available any time, day or night, and you have more options than standard two-way conference calling.
• The system automatically opens 15 minutes before the start of your conference - so attendees have the option to communicate amongst themselves prior to the start of the actual conference.
• Calls can be accessed with a random or set PIN, or no PIN at all, and you have the option of using barge tones to signal when an attendee has entered a conference call.

For both types of calls the audio control panel let's you control your conference call from your web browser.

You can see who is attending your meeting and use features like mute/un-mute and call reporting to manage your call without operator assistance.

2. Broadcast Audio Conferencing + "Virtual Town Hall Meetings"

• Event size: 2 to Thousands (10k for interactive, 50k for streaming audio).
• Broadcast Audio Conferencing includes all the features you need for larger, professionally managed audio conferences.
• Used for announcements, product launches, presentations and organization-wide training. 
• Broadcast Audio Conferencing delivers the quality, functionality and capacity that your group demands for larger, operations-critical audio conferences.
• Optionally dial out to your database of tens-of-thousands of phone numbers, in a matter of minutes, to allow recipients to "Press One" to participate.
• Broadcast audio conferencing allows the meeting hosts, or presenters, to speak during the conference; attendees are in a listen-only mode.
• The audio control panel let's you control your conference call from your web browser.
• You can see who is attending your meeting, facilitate Q&A sessions, and use features like mute/un-mute and call reporting.
• Presenters can choose to accept live questions from attendees during a broadcast conference, either with everyone listening or in a separate controlled side conference.
• It is scalable to thousands of participants with the option to record your conference calls, schedule an audio moderator to assist with large conferences, assign individual PIN/access codes and more.
• With high-quality audio, powerful conference management features, and the capability to host thousands of callers, our Broadcast Audio Conferencing delivers the best teleconferencing on the market for large meetings and events.

Web Conferencing

Simply put, web conferencing refers to the combination of traditional audio conference calls and internet-based software that allows people to view, share ideas and collaborate on documents and applications.

When web conferencing and audio conferencing tools are combined, meeting presenters and attendees can show and tell, listen and see, and collaborate and communicate just as if they were together at an in-person meeting.

Our web conferencing services help you to cut travel time and distance related costs, while communicating and collaborating more effectively across your entire organization.

Whether it's for meetings, training, sales or service, web conferencing is an affordable and versatile way to:

• Reach more of the people that need to be reached.
• Use rich audio and visual demonstrations in real-time to make maximum impact.
• Slash travel expenses. Online meetings don't require airports, hotels, conference rooms or reams of print-outs.
• Train and present for less. Cost-effectively train or present to large groups, in real-time or on demand.
• Collaborate remotely. Share tools, ideas, documents, and applications with colleagues, clients and constituents anywhere in the world.

For the most part, web conferencing services

can be broken into two basic groups:

1. Desktop Sharing

Event size: 2 to 200+.

Desktop sharing is best used for smaller web conferences, from 2 to 200 participants.

One meeting presenter controls the web conference, showing attendees what's on their desktop using a simple interface. Two-way audio is by phone.

In addition to simply showing what's on their desktop, presenter's can also use annotation tools to highlight specific features of their presentation.
 

2. Interactive Web Conferencing

Event size: 2 to Ten Thousand.

Powerful, fully interactive web conferencing for team collaboration, dynamic online meetings and large events.

Interactive web conferencing allows for multiple presenters to share control of the conferencing tools.

Documents, slides and other visuals that presenters want to show attendees are uploaded to the web conferencing software.

Features include: audience polling during a live conference, audio question and answer sessions, conference recording and playback, and more.

To get started:

• There are no programs or equipment to buy.
• No special software is required to buy or download – you just need high-speed web access and a password. 
• And it is very easy to learn and use.
• We will train as many people as you like as many times as is necessary at no additional cost.
• Plus we have advanced on-line training programs available.
• We will also have customer service representatives working along-side your group for the entire conferencing process.
• A demonstration utilizing your criteria can be arranged at your convenience.
• We can also arrange for a week long test of the system by your staff, if you prefer.

Technology that Works the Way that You Work

• We approach the technology platforms behind our audio and web-based conferencing products with one goal in mind: to be as easy as you need it to be and as sophisticated as you demand.
• That means we have put a lot of thought into how our tools are developed, which standards they adhere to and how they operate.
• Our group's long history in voice products, starting as one of the industry's first voicemail providers in the mid 1980s, lies at the core of our proprietary technology.
• That understanding enabled us to evolve and develop products that address audio collaboration and conferencing and, through  special vendor relationships, to also offer web-based conferencing, virtual meetings, online demos, presentations and hosted event conferencing.
• Our infrastructure is designed for scalability and security. We offer on-premise switches and conference bridges - and our systems are fully redundant and fault tolerant.
• As today's audio conferencing is currently based on telephony, we adhere to all industry standards.
• While telephony represents technology with which we are very conversant, we also are looking beyond the standards of today, exploring IP audio as the next generation technology.
• We provide world class switching and routing and network management.
• Our virtual private networks (VPNs), multiple firewalls (with automatic fail over), and multi-server systems all support our proprietary host interface links (HIL) - the technology that enables our customers to achieve the control they need for both audio and web conferencing.
• We have applied our understanding of human interface requirements into our Audio Control Panel.
• Our proprietary Control Panel web page, which features drop down menus, recognizable tool bars and status indicators, provides for the technology presenters need to effectively manage their audio and web-based conference calls and virtual meetings.

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