Ad Hoc Conferencing

An Ad Hoc conference is established by using the Confrn softkey on the phone. The person who sets up the conference is referred to as the conference controller. As the conference controller, you add each participant to the conference and therefore have complete control over who joins the conference. You can also drop any participant from the conference that you choose based on the roster of conference participants provided. The conference participants can drop out of the conference any time they choose by hanging up the phone, thus terminating the call. As long as more than two participants remain in the conference, the conference bridge is still active, and the conference is maintained. When only two participants remain, they are connected directly, and the conference bridge is released.

Several variations exist as to the basic method of setting up a conference, but a conference controller always establishes an Ad Hoc conference. The conference controller sets up the conference by pressing the Confrn softkey during a call, calling a third person, and then pressing the Confrn softkey a second time. The first Confrn softkey press allocates the conference bridge for this conference. The second Confrn softkey press creates the conference and connects all three participants to it. The conference controller can continue to add additional participants to the conference until either the conference bridge being used is out of resources or the maximum number of participants as specified in system configuration is reached.

You can perform the same operation by using the Join softkey when the calls are already active. In this case, you select three or more calls and then press the Join softkey. CallManager allocates a bridge large enough to connect all the selected calls, and then connects each of the calls to the conference.

To add additional conference participants to the conference after it has been created, the conference controller presses the Confrn softkey on the phone. CallManager provides a dial tone to the controller; the conference controller then calls the person to be added, and presses the Confrn softkey again. The controller rejoins the conference, and the new participant is added to the conference.