Audio Conferencing

If you are in the market for an audio conferencing service, but feel overwhelmed by all of the information out there? Then, you came here in the right place. This knoll offers a well-organized and up-to-date overview of conferencing calling services, including VoIP and web-based services. Choosing a suitable audio conferencing provider for your business will be a task and a half if you are not armed with the right information.

You can link any number of people via phone; web or video from different locations whenever they need to meet and travel is not necessary or advisable. Let us only focus on the different options available in audio conference scene.

1. Self Hosted Audio Conferences

Self Hosted audio conference enables you to have a conference 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without needing to make a reservation. The Self Hosted service requires a once off registration for a specified number of lines. A set of call-in numbers, account number, host and guest PIN is issued. To join a conference, participants call in and enter their PIN, or the conference host can call out to them or you can use a combination of both. Please note - a touch-tone telephone is needed to participate in this conference type.

2. Customer Call-In Audio conferences
Each participant phones an allocated number just prior to the booked time. The administrator welcomes them, requests their name, telephone number and the conference convenor's name. They are then put on hold until the conference begins. An optional roll call can be conducted and then the meeting starts.
The Confer Link Call-In service is particularly useful for participants who aren't sure where they'll be at the meeting time. As long as they have the conference access number, they can phone in from anywhere

3. Operator Hosted Audio Conferences
An administrator phones each participant just prior to the booked time, places them on hold and, then, when everyone has been contacted, connects them at the designated start time. An optional roll call can be conducted and then the meeting starts.

Optional extras (available with Call-in & Call-out Audio conferences):

· taping,

· question queuing,

Before selecting any audio conference solutions, think about the value or ROI it is going to give your business. I will review the different audio conference providers in the next knoll.