Attendant Intrusion

An attendant can intrude on a station that is part of a Meet-me Conference, as long as the conference does not already include the maximum number of parties.

Bridged Appearances

Bridged appearance users can be added to a Meet-me Conference, and count against the total number of conference parties. As bridged appearance users join a Meet-me Conference, the users are not prompted to provide an access code. Bridged appearance users also receive no announcements, nor are entry or exit tones applied when the users are added to or dropped from the call. Avaya assumes that this scenario would only take place with the knowledge of the user of the appearance that originally dialed into the Meet-me Conference. That user can use the Exclusion feature to prohibit the bridged user from being a part of the Meet-me Conference call.

Busy Verification

If the maximum of stations in a conference call is five or less, a station or an attendant can verify another station that is part of a Meet-me Conference. If the system maximum of stations in a conference call is six, a station or an attendant can verify another station that is part of a Meet-me Conference, as long as the conference does not already include the maximum number of parties.

Call Vectoring

If a Meet-me Conference VDN is administered to use a vector that has no steps, the call attempt is dropped, and a vector event is generated.

Capacity issues

A Meet-me Conference call can have a maximum of six parties on the call. Additional parties cannot join Meet-me Conference once the maximum of six parties is reached. However, if the 12–party Conferences field is enabled in the Feature-Related System Parameters screen, additional parties can not join Meet-me Conference once the maximum of twelve parties is reached.

Changing vector types

To change a Meet-me Conference vector to a non Meet-me Conference vector, you must first remove all vector steps. To change a non-Meet-me Conference vector to a Meet-me Conference vector, you must first remove all vector steps.

Class of Service (COS)

A user must have a COS that includes console permissions to change a Meet-me Conference access code from his own telephone.

Conference

Parties in a Meet-me Conference call can use the Conference feature to add other parties up to the system conference limit. When the parties are added to the call, the entry tone is not given. Two or more Meet-me Conference calls cannot be conferenced together.

Conference Tone

The purpose of the conference tone feature is to ensure that no one can be added to a call without the knowledge of the other parties. The Meet-me Conference already has entry and exit tones for all parties who enter the conference through vector processing. If one of the parties conferences in another user through the station Conference feature, the other parties remain unaware of the additional party because no entry tone is played. In this scenario, the conference tone should be played if required as part of the system parameters administration.

Conference/Transfer Toggle/Swap feature limitations

The Conference/Transfer Toggle/Swap feature is unavailable on analog stations and the attendant console. The attendant console can use the Split Swap feature to perform a similar operation.

The station user who presses the Toggle Swap button must be in the talk state with one of the parties. If the button is pressed during ringback, the system ignores the button push.

Telephone users must not use the Selective Conference Party Display feature to scroll too rapidly through the displays. The station hyperactivity feature takes the station out of service if the user repeatedly scrolls through the displays at high enough rates. This action causes the system to reset, and drop the user from the call.

Disabling Enhanced Conferencing

To disable the Enhanced Conferencing option on the System Parameters Customer- Options screen, you must first remove all Meet-me Conference VDNs and vectors.

Drop

No controlling party exists in a Meet-me Conference. Therefore, if a caller who is on the conference call presses the Drop button, the system ignores the button push, and the last party who joined the conference call is not dropped from the call.

Far-end Mute

Only one trunk on a Meet-me Conference bridge can be far-end muted at any given time.

Removing stations

You cannot remove a station that is administered as a controlling station for a Meet-me Conference VDN unless you first remove the assignment on the VDN.

Security issues

The Meet-me Conference feature can present a potential security problem. If you assign Meet-me Conference VDNs without access codes, a hacker can gain control of Meet-me Conference facilities and keep others from conducting legitimate business. A hacker can also potentially access the system, and use the system to make unauthorized calls. Avaya recommends that you administer access codes, and change the codes regularly to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to the system. If a user tries to change the access code of a Meet-me Conference and is unsuccessful, or uses an invalid access code, the system records an event to the Event Log.

Service Observing

Service Observing by way of the VDN is not supported for Meet-me Conference VDNs.

Transfer

When a user transfers a call to a Meet-me Conference, the transfer can be completed during vector processing only when a single party is on soft hold and waiting to be transferred. If two or more parties are on soft hold and waiting to be transferred, the transfer can only be completed after the party who initiates the transfer is connected to the Meet-me Conference.

Vectoring options

Attendant Vectoring and Meet-me Conference cannot both be enabled at the same time. If Enhanced Conferencing is enabled, but no other vectoring customer options are enabled, only Meet-me Conference vectors can be assigned. A non Meet-me Conference vector cannot be assigned to a Meet-me Conference VDN. A Meet-me Conference vector cannot be assigned to a non-Meet-me Conference VDN. No restrictions exist with regard to vector chaining between Meet-me Conference vectors and non Meet-me Conference vectors. When a call interflows from one type of vector processing to another, the call is removed from any queue, if applicable. The call is treated as a new call to vectoring, instead of a continuation of vectoring.