Voice Alerts

Setting up PageR Enterprise for VOICE alerts

With PageR Enterprise 5.3.0 alarm notifications can be sent to a regular telephone using a voice modem. The modem is controlled directly from PageR Enterprise (no script) and is used to make a voice connection to the target telephone (cell phone or landline). Recommended modem is HiRO H50113 usb voice modem available from Amazon.com ($21) or click Where To Buy.

Once connected, the alarm notification is spoken to the person who answered the telephone. After that they can issue commands back to PageR via the telephone keypad (see below) . This way PageR knows that the call was received and the alert escalation can be stopped by the user typing 2 or 3 on the phone keypad. Its a simple, reliable and powerful method of sending alerts.

The spoken text is completely under the control of the PageR manager. The text which would previously be sent to a cell phone or put in an email gets spoken by the TAPI software instead.

Touchtone Commands - controlling PageR from your phone

After the call is answered and speaking begins, you can press keys on the numeric keypad of your phone to send these commands back to PageR Enterprise:

1 = Add 1 to the message repeat count (must be pressed before the alarm message ends).

2 = Clear the alarm on the Monitored object that generated the call.

3 = Clear the alarm on the Monitored object that generated the call and suspend monitoring of the MO.

4 = Disable the Alarm object that generated the call.

5 = Disable all TAPI alarm notifications.

9 = Stop Scanning.

TAPI (Voice) Setup in PageR Enterprise

Click OPTIONS/More Options/TAPI setup tab. The following describes each of the TAPI phone setup choices.

Enable Alarm via TAPI Check to enable use of TAPI for Alarm Notifications.

Greeting Enter text to be spoken at the start of a voice alarm notification. This introduces the alarm message. e.g. pager alert, pager alert

Sign Off Enter text to be spoken at the end of the alarm notification. This signifies the end of the message e.g. thank you for using pager, have a nice day, goodbye

Default number This is the default telephone number to call.

Message Repeat Enter number of times to speak the notification (suggest 2).

Maximum Rings The number of rings of the target telephone to wait for before abandoning the connection attempt.

Answer Timeout Maximum time to wait for between ring tones before connection to the target phone line is assumed.

Enable Voice Detection Detection of a call being answered is either by detecting sounds on the line that are not ring tones and have a duration that is different than ring tones. In some cases, this detection is not reliable and must be turned off. If voice detection is disabled, the Answer Timeout is used to determine when ring tones have stopped, which is assumed to mean the call was answered.

Tone Threshold This value is used by the ring/busy detection software to separate those tones from background noise on the connection. If you can't connect to your phone, this value may need to be changed. Contact technical support for assistance with this setting.

Silence Threshold This value is used by the call answer detection by voice to separate silent periods (no Tone) from background noise on the connection to detect tones or voice (end of silence). If you can't connect to your phone, this value may need to be changed. Contact technical support for assistance with this setting.

Voice Mail Delay After the call is answered, this is time to wait in seconds before speaking starts. Used to wait for voice mail greeting in case the call is answered by voice mail. You may also enter the # or * characters, which if present, will be sent to the listener on the call to trigger voice mail systems to end the greeting and start recording.

Detection Error % This is the allowable error when matching tones on the telephone line to determine if the tone is a ring back, busy or someone speaking. The default is 10, for 10% error is allowed. When tone detection is failing, increasing the error margin may correct the problem.

Modem Device Select the modem to use to dial the call. Must support TAPI and voice.

Country This is the country in which you are calling. Controls ring/busy detection.

TAPI Test Button Click to request an immediate test of the TAPI configuration. The test message you enter will be sent by voice to the Default Number. Note that you can change the Default Number and click Test to test the number but if you change any other parameter, you must click Ok on the More Options screen to save your changes and then redisplay More Options to perform the test.

REQUIREMENTS

1) You must have the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 or later installed to use TAPI.

2) You must have a modem that supports TAPI and voice (wave/in and wave/out) calling. These are normally low cost USB modems but they must specifically state the term VOICE MODEM. We recommend using the HiRO model H50113 shown above as this is the model we have done most testing with.

In order to send alarm notifications via TAPI, you must configure Contact objects (OPTIONS/CONTACTS) to use TAPI. In the Contact setup, enter the word tapi in the Pager Script field. Enter the target telephone number in the Pager Service # field.

The TAPI calling Speech Format defaults internally to SAFT8kHz16BitMono. However, the Voice, Rate, Volume and Speak Punctuation settings on the Speech Options Tab do apply when generating the .wav file transmitted over the TAPI call.

The scheme by which PageR executes telephone calls is dependant on detection and proper processing of tones on the phone line. Here is the sequence of events that occur during a TAPI call session. This information is presented to aid you in diagnosing and working with technical support to resolve call problems.

PageR commands Windows TAPI to dial the target phone number.

When TAPI (working with the modem) determines the line is connected, PageR starts recording the sounds on the line.

PageR is trying to detect breaks in silence. When silence is broken by a sound on the line PageR analyses the sound amplitude, frequency and duration to determine if the sound (tone) is a busy signal, ring back signal, a keypad button push or a voice.

A busy signal ends the call. Ring back tones come at a standard time interval. If no tone is detected for the length of time set by the Answer Timeout field, PageR assumes the call is answered and begins the message speaking process.

For example, 7-8 seconds works for phone systems in the USA because the US uses a 6 second ring back period. If a sound is detected (silence ends) and the time since the last tone detection is shorter than the ring back tone standard time, PageR assumes the call has been answered and a person or a voice mail system is speaking on the line.

The message speaking process begins. PageR is also monitoring the line for any key press tone from the telephone key pad. So if a person answers the call but does not speak or speaking does not trigger message delivery, pressing any key on the pad will cause PageR to treat the call as answered and start the message speaking process.

In the case where a voice or timeout causes PageR to treat the call as answered, PageR cannot determine if the call was answered by a person or a voice mail system. So the Voice Mail Delay field determines how speaking starts. You can either enter a time delay in seconds to allow for a Voice Mail greeting to finish before PageR speaks (which is frustrating for a person) or you can enter the # or * character. PageR will transmit these characters on the line which will cause some voice mail systems to end their greeting and start recording immediately. This eliminates the need for a delay. If a person answers they will hear this tone and then speaking begins.

Using # or * is the best way to handle voice mail if your system supports these characters. Otherwise you must determine the length of time to wait for voice mail greeting if you wish PageR messages to go to voice mail.

Once the # or * is transmitted or the Voice Mail Delay has elapsed, PageR will play the Alarm Greeting text, then the alarm message text and then the Sign Off text on the line and disconnect.