ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Finally got back to this. Unfortunately, we do not use Apple machines.

Wayne Watson wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related 
> institutions.
> ***************************************************************************** 
>
>
> Good. I'll check them out. Unfortunately, that won't be for almost 2 
> weeks, since I'm about to leave on a trip.
>
> In unrelated group, someone offered this, "I would think you could use 
> a BlackBerry or Treo and get QuickTime application to stream it."
>
> Bruce Wyman wrote:
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology 
>> Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related 
>> institutions.
>> ***************************************************************************** 
>>
>>
>>>
>>> http://www.parliant.com/phonevalet
>>>
>>> http://www.ovolab.com/phlink/index.php
>>>
>>
>> I've used both Phone Valet and Phlink and both will do what you're 
>> trying to do, after you jump through a couple of hoops. (I've also 
>> used asterisk and would be quick to admit that it takes some effort 
>> to get going quite like you want it and requires some additional 
>> hardware. Both Phone Valet and Phlink come with a USB device that 
>> hooks up to your *analog* phone line)
>>
>> Allan's approach is along the lines I was thinking of.
>>
>> You'll need to rip your subscription CDs into individual audio files 
>> -- if the tracks are individual tracks on the CD, you can just use 
>> iTunes to rip them to mp3s (or aac or other, you're going to probably 
>> use a mac mini for this, so whatever iTunes will rip, the mini will 
>> be able to play back in Phone Valet or Phlink).
>>
>> I'm not at the office (at AAM in Chicago) so I can't poke at either 
>> Phone Valet or Phlink to suggest the best way to rotate the daily 
>> message, but my suspicion is that just some applescripting will do 
>> it. At worst, you could have a 5 minute manual process in which 
>> someone on staff just selected the new audio file as the welcome 
>> message each day.
>>
>> Also, if you didn't do applescripting within Phone Valet or Phlink to 
>> change the messaging, you can do a wide variety of unixy cron jobs to 
>> do file renaming in the finder based on the date, essentially never 
>> touching Phone Valet or Phlink, just renaming the new file to what 
>> they both think the outgoing message file actually is.
>>
>> I've used both Phone Valet and Phlink to set up a phone-in audio tour 
>> with some basic menus and different audio bits based on selection. We 
>> also capture audio responses in one portion of the tour. I've found 
>> Phlink to be a little less reliable than Phone Valet, although 
>> they're both pretty good products. We now use Phlink to answer an 
>> internal help line and email the phone messages to specific staff. 
>> Phone Valet runs the audio tour.
>>
>> When I'm back in the office next week, I can take a closer look at 
>> both products and see if there's an incredibly obvious way to solve 
>> the problem that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head.
>>
>> Oh, and let me reiterate -- both products are expecting an analog 
>> phone line (RJ45 jack).
>>
>> -bw.
>

-- 
           Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)

             (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
              Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

           "One nation under reason and knowledge." -- Anonymous*
                 * More or less anonymous!
                    Web Page: <www.speckledwithstars.net/>

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