Docs / Call handling

Conference rooms and the switchboard

This chapter covers conference rooms (numbers people dial to talk together, with PINs and moderators), watching and controlling a room from the console, rooms that are only open at set times, and the switchboard: the operator panel in the user portal for receptionists.

Conference rooms

A conference room is a number in Extensions & numbers. Anyone who can reach the number can join: people inside the company dial it, and outside callers reach it through a phone number (DID), an auto attendant option or a business-hours switch. A room is always there; there is nothing to book or start.

Creating a room

1. Open Extensions & numbers and click Add.
2. Choose Conference room.
3. Enter the Number (2 to 8 digits; the console suggests the next free number from 900) and a Name, for example 900 "Team meeting".
4. Set the options below. All of them can be changed later.
5. Click Create conference room.

To change a room, open it from Extensions & numbers (the Conference rooms tab lists them), change the settings and click Save. To remove it, click Delete conference room at the top of its page.

To let outside callers in, route a phone number to the room under Phone numbers (DIDs), or add the room as an option of an auto attendant. See Phone numbers and routes.

Room options

How the PINs work:

• No PIN and no moderator PIN: callers go straight in as participants.
• A PIN: callers are asked for the conference PIN. The PIN joins as a participant, the moderator PIN as a moderator. After three wrong tries the caller hears "goodbye" and the call ends.
• Only a moderator PIN: callers are asked for a PIN. The moderator PIN joins as a moderator; anything else, including just pressing #, joins as a participant.

Someone alone in a room hears the tenant's hold music until the next person joins. Unless the room is quiet, people hear a tone when someone joins or leaves and are told how many are in the room.

Wait for moderator suits a meeting led by one person: participants hear music until someone joins with the moderator PIN, and when the last moderator leaves, everyone else is removed from the room.

Keys during a conference

Everyone in a room can use these keys:

Moderators also have:

Recording a conference

With Record conferences in this room on, the first person into an empty room starts the recording, and it runs until the room empties. Every participant's call record points at the same file, so the recording shows once per participant under Recordings and Call history. Putting it on legal hold or deleting it acts on all of them together. See Call recordings.

Watching a room live

Open the room in Extensions & numbers. Above its settings, a card shows who is in the room, refreshed every 3 seconds. When nobody is there it says Nobody in the room; otherwise In the room now with the count.

For each person you see Who (name and number), Role (Moderator or Participant), Audio (Muted or Can talk) and Joined (how long ago). The buttons:

• Mute / Unmute one person.
• Remove takes one person out of the room.
• Lock room / Unlock room (at the top of the card, while the room is in use) stops or allows new participants joining; moderators can still join. People already in the room are not affected.

In a room that starts muted, this is where a moderator or an administrator unmutes the people who should speak.

Rooms that are only open at set times

Onyx Voice has no booking calendar for rooms. To open a room only at certain times, put a business-hours number in front of it:

1. Create the room, for example 900 "Board call".
2. In Extensions & numbers, click Add and choose Business hours. Give it a number, for example 501, and enter the Open hours when the room may be used, such as tue 09:00-10:00.
3. Set When open to the room (900) and When closed to Hang up, a voicemail box or an auto attendant that says when the call is.
4. Route the phone number for the call to 501 under Phone numbers (DIDs), and tell people inside the company to dial 501.

Callers who dial the room's own number (900) still get in at any time, so give out only the business-hours number. You can also force the business-hours number open or closed for a one-off meeting. See Auto attendants, opening hours and prompts.

Conference rooms from the command line

onyx conf add acme 900 --name "Team meeting" --pin 1234 --moderator-pin 9876 --wait-for-moderator --record
onyx conf list acme

The options are --pin, --moderator-pin, --max, --wait-for-moderator, --start-muted, --quiet and --record. onyx conf set takes the same options and replaces all of the room's settings, so give every option you want to keep.

The switchboard

The switchboard is an operator panel in the user portal for a receptionist. It shows everyone in the company as a tile with their phone status, the operator's own calls, parked calls and queue waits, and lets the operator transfer calls by dragging them onto a person.

Making an extension an operator

1. Open the receptionist's extension in Extensions & numbers.
2. In Person and voicemail, tick Operator: gets the switchboard in the portal (everyone's presence, transfer, take ringing and parked calls).
3. Click Save.

From the command line: onyx ext set acme 100 --operator on.

The person also needs a portal sign-in for that extension (the User portal card on the extension's page). After signing in at https://pbx.example.com/portal, they see the Switchboard card. People who are not operators do not see it. See The user portal.

The switchboard acts on calls on the operator's own extension. They can take calls on a desk phone, the browser softphone in the portal, or any other phone of the same extension.

Presence tiles

Every extension of the company that is in service has a tile with its number, name and status. The operator's own extension is not shown. The statuses are:

A person whose calls are forwarded shows "Forwarded to" and the number. The panel refreshes every 2 seconds, and stops refreshing while you drag a call so the tiles do not move under the mouse.

Transferring a call

When the operator is on a call, it appears at the top of the switchboard with the caller's name and number and how long it has been going. To transfer it, do one of these:

• Drag the call onto a person's tile.
• Click Transfer on the call, then click the person's tile.
• Type a number in the box next to the call (an extension, or an outside number as your users dial it) and click Send.

The transfer is blind: the caller goes straight to the person and the operator's phone is free at once. If the person does not answer, the call follows their usual handling, such as voicemail. To announce a caller first, use the transfer key on the phone instead. Hang up on the call ends it.

Taking a ringing call

A tile that is ringing has a Take this call button. Click it and the caller is moved to the operator's extension: the operator's phones ring and the operator answers there. Use it when someone is away from their desk.

Parked calls

Calls parked in the company's parking lot are listed under Parked calls with the parking space, the caller and how long they have been parked. Click the arrow on a call to bring it to the operator's phones. See Calling features and feature codes for parking.

Queue waits

If the company has call queues, a chip per queue shows the callers waiting, the longest wait and how many agents are free, for example "650 Support line: 2 waiting (longest 1:05), 1 free". See Call centre.

When it does not work

• "The switchboard is for operators": the extension is not marked as an operator. Tick Operator and save.
• "That call is no longer on your phone": the call ended or moved before the transfer. The panel catches up within 2 seconds.
• A red notice that the phone system is not reachable: the call engine is not running. Calls cannot be controlled until it is back.
• The operator's call is not listed: it is on a phone of another extension. The switchboard only shows calls on the operator's own extension.