Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Digital telephone audiotex equipment suggestions

This is topic Digital telephone audiotex equipment suggestions in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 04-17-2005, 01:02 PM:

What equipment does your theatre use to answer the phone and provide movie times?
Please list make, model, number of lines handled, and where it can be purchased. Thank you!

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 04-17-2005, 02:42 PM:

I've designed several IVR systems, but never for a cinema. But thats not important.

You need

a) IVR software - http://www.voiceguide.com
b) Dialogic line cards
c) A PC to put them in

For announcement you'll only need the basic edition of the software, which is good to 30 lines. If thats not enough, there are other options to go to 240 lines per PC.

For announcements, even quite complex stuff (press 2 for next weeks upcoming movies etc) there is no programming involved, its all drag and drop icons.

There is, of course, other IVR software available, but this just my recommendation is from personal experience, I know it works, I have no experience of other software.

There are other options I've seen mentioned here, including one that connects lots of callers onto the modern equivalent of a tape loop, so the caller gets to start mid-way through the announcment. Thats an example of (to paraphrase something you hear a lot round here) IVR done wrong, and in my opinion gives the impression of a business with poor attention to detail. You mileage may vary.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-17-2005, 08:47 PM:

A now-defunct theatre near here used to have a system with a menu, "press 1 for showtimes, press 2 for our polilcies on R-rated movies," etc. I would like to find something like that but it only has to handle 1 line.

Posted by Mike Williams (Member # 1140) on 04-18-2005, 05:35 AM:

One system I have always wanted to see used in a theater is Asterisk
It is an open source PBX system that runs on Linux. As far as equiptment is concerned, it can run on a PC. It will even let you incorporate VOIP lines with services such as Broadvoice.
Appearently, it is pretty easy to set up and very scalable and functional.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 04-18-2005, 12:40 PM:

I found this one: Datalabs

Also this one, but it's overkill, neat, but overkill: MXU+ Small

I'd prefer to not use a PC for this. I want it reliable. [Eek!]

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 04-21-2005, 07:37 AM:

And what do you think lurks under the snazzy metal box of the neat, overkill MXU...?

Yep, its a PC.

Posted by Todd Leach (Member # 883) on 04-21-2005, 02:13 PM:

I use a Talkswitch 24 works great for a small theater.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 04-21-2005, 04:14 PM:

The Talkswitch 24 looks great!
Does it do any type of reporting?

Posted by Todd Leach (Member # 883) on 04-21-2005, 10:10 PM:

The only reporting it does is it tells you how much memory the voice mail and auto attendants use. It doesn't log or count calls.