Facilitate Immediate Communication
Singlewire Software’s PushToTalk is a walkie-talkie/intercom feature in InformaCast Advanced Notification designed to facilitate quick, easy, and immediate communication between multiple parties or on a one-to-one basis.
PushToTalk can be used to increase communication efficiency, reduce dependence on cellular walkie-talkies, and expand your organization’s ability to add functionality to desktop Cisco IP phones.
Watch the video below to learn more about how PushToTalk works.
Transcript
Hi folks, Tim Green with Singlewire Software. PushToTalk is an app that gives you the ability to do walkie-talkie or intercom sessions with Cisco wired and wireless- handsets and really the walkie-talkie sessions. Let’s talk about those first. They’re just what they sound like. Basically, I push the button, I talk, everybody else is listening.
So, it’s one to many -half duplex, again half duplex means one person talking, everybody else listening. Now when the person talking lets up their push to talk button anybody else in that push to talk group can then hit their button and- start talking. So really. Think about it like walkie-talkies we all used when we were kids. And again, it works with wireless handsets and also with the Cisco wired headset.
The second mode of operation for our PushToTalk app is intercom. Intercom is one to one full duplex. Full duplex meaning both parties talking and listening at the same time. Now the reason this is interesting, as opposed to just placing another call to a Cisco handset is, when I initiate a PushToTalk intercom session, the person on the receiving end doesn’t have to be near their phone – they don’t have to touch their phone.
I’m going to activate their speaker; I’m going to activate the microphone. And just like that, I can be having a one-to-one in full duplex conversation with that individual.
Okay folks, so the first mode of our push to talk app that I’m going to demonstrate for you is the walkie-talkie mode. Again, this is half duplex one to many, meaning one person is hitting the push to talk button and talking and every one else in that push to talk group is listening.
So to initiate this push to talk group all I’m going to do is hit the push to talk button on my Cisco wireless handset and when I do that I’m going to be presented with a menu of the push to talk groups to which this phone has been assigned. Now, I’m going to choose the third one down. And to initiate the push to talk session, all I do is hit the big silver button. And just like that, I’m ready to start talking and have everybody else in the session listen.
So, now I’m in the push to talk session. Notice that I’ve got an exit button and a who button. That who button is only presented to the person who initiated the push to talk session. When they hit that, what they get is a list of the other people who joined their push to talk session. Le me back out of that.
Okay. And now I’m actually ready to talk. So I’m going to hit the push to talk button. You hear a little feedback in the back ground. That’s me talking over the this wireless headset and my voice being carried across the network and played through the speaker on a wired disk set that I have here in the demo center with me.
Let that up. Notice that when I let it up, everybody is waiting for somebody else to hit their button and start talking. It is that simple. Now, as I go or as the session continues, I can end that session. And then other people in that session can have the option to exit at any point when they want to. So I’m going to go ahead and end the session.
And, that’s pretty much it, folks. That’s the walkie-talkie mode of our PushToTalk application. So, one of the feature to mention of our PushToTalk application. And this works in the walkie-talkie mode. Is, if you’re in a walkie-talkie session and you get a phone call, you have the option to take that phone call, have your call,
When you terminate your call, the PushToTalk app is monitoring the status of your phone and if your push to talk session, the one that you left -is still in progress, you’ll get an option, you’ll get an invitation actually to rejoin that session, and you can rejoin or not. So nice intelligence in the application gives you the ability to participate in that push to talk session and take phone calls if you need to, and then rejoin that session afterwards at your discretion.
Now, I would like to demonstrate for you the intercom mode of the PushToTalk application to initiate an intercom session. All I am going to do is hit that push to talk button on my wireless handset. And when I do that again I going to be presented with a list of the push to talk groups to which this phone has been assigned.
Notice that the first group in this list is labeled intercom, that’s the one that I’m going to initiate. And when I initiate that, what I’m presented with is a menu of search criteria. This is completely configurable this is how you find the other end points with which you want to have the intercom session.
So in this case, I’m just going to type in an extension, you see that? I am going to hit submit and just like that, sorry folks got to be the other end. Just like that I am in a full duplex, one to one, push to talk intercom session. Notice I’ve got an end key and a who key. The person on the other in has an exit key.
So, what we do now is have a conversation. When we’re done with the conversation, either the recipient hits exit, or I hit end. And just like that, the session is over and you’re ready to use your phone. And just like that, the session is complete.