SpeakInteractiveWave Variables

SpeakWave variables provide a simple mechanism for playing back audio files to a caller. However, many types of applications require special features for audio playback. For example, modern voice mail applications usually include the following features:

• Fast forward and rewind during message playback.
• Increase or decrease volume during message playback.
• Speed up or slow down message playback (especially useful for those really slow rambling messages!).
• Skip message option.
• Abort or restart option.
• Playback of long messages without performance penalties.

SpeakInteractiveWave features are included in Active Call Center to address each of these needs, within limitations. The limitations of SpeakInteractiveWave variables are as follows:

• Wave files for SpeakInteractiveWave must be formatted in an acceptable audio format. For most voice modems and telephony cards (including Brooktrout) either 8 or 16 bit 8,000 Hz mono PCM format should work. For most Dialogic hardware, 8 bit 11025 Hz mono PCM should work. Multiple formats may work with some hardware while other hardware requires a specific format; the exact format(s) required depends on the hardware drivers.
• SpeakInteractiveWave audio features (such as rewind, fast forward, volume adjustment, etc.) only work well with high performance telephony audio drivers such as those provided with Brooktrout telephony cards. Most voice modems have low performance audio drivers and hardware, and as a result the usefulness of many of the SpeakInteractiveWave features is severely limited with voice modems.
• Performance for playback of short wave files that require no interactive playback features is optimized by using SpeakWave variables. Although SpeakInteractiveWave features offer higher performance for large wave files, they do impose a performance penalty for small wave files.
• Only one SpeakInteractiveWave playback is allowed at each Node.

Description and Usage of the SpeakInteractiveWave Variables

There are three variables used to control interactive wave file playback: SpeakInteractiveWave, SpeakInteractiveWaveCommands, and SpeakInteractiveWaveStarNode. SpeakInteractiveWave variables are always processed after all of the Speak, SpeakWave, Record, SpeakAfterRecord, and SpeakWaveAfterRecord variables. Their usage is as follows:

• The SpeakInteractiveWave variable specifies the fully qualified name of the wave file to play back. For example, to playback the file "C:\TEMP\Message.wav", include the following line in the VBScript macro:

SpeakInteractiveWave = "C:\TEMP\Message.wav"

• The SpeakInteractiveWaveCommands variable specifies the various touch tone options available to the listener to control wave file playback. By default, all of the following touch tone commands are available:

Touch Tone	Feature
1	Rewind 10 seconds.
2	Restart wave file playback.
3	Fast forward 10 seconds.
4	Slow down audio playback.
5	Playback at normal speed.
6	Speed up audio playback.
7	Decrease volume.
8	Playback at normal volume.
9	Increase volume.
*	Abort playback - exits to the SpeakInteractiveWaveStarNode.
#	Skip remainder of wave file.

The SpeakInteractiveWaveCommands variable can be used to limit the available commands to a subset of the commands shown above. To specify the commands that are available to the caller, set the SpeakInteractiveWaveCommands variable to the list of available tones. For example, to allow only restarts and volume adjustments (options 2, 7, 8, and 9), set the SpeakInteractiveWaveCommands variable in the VBScript Macro as follows:

' Allow only options 2, 7, 8, and 9.
SpeakInteractiveWaveCommands = "2789"

To cause any touch tone to behave exactly like a pound sign (terminate playback), simply place an X in front of the command. For example:

' Allow only options 2, 7, 8, and 9, 1 to end.
SpeakInteractiveWaveCommands = "2789X1"

• The SpeakInteractiveWaveStarNode allows the developer to specify the Node to which a call will proceed after an aborted playback due to the user pressing the * key. This variable overrides the value that may be set in the GotoNode variable. By default the SpeakInteractiveWaveStarNode is set to the Answer_Phone Node: therefore, the default setting is such that if a user aborts interactive wave file playback by pressing the * key, the call will continue at the Answer_Phone Node. To change the default behavior, simply set the SpeakInteractiveWaveStarNode variable to the name of a different Node:

' Continue at Node 'Aborted' if user presses *.
SpeakInteractiveWaveStarNode = "Aborted"

Example Using SpeakInteractiveWave Variables

An excellent demonstration of the SpeakInteractiveWave variables can be found in the Voice Mail System example in the Examples folder. SpeakInteractiveWave is used during message playback at the Listen_Message, Play_New_Messages, and Play_Saved_Messages Nodes.

To test this example, do the following:

Start Active Call Center and load the Voice Mail System example using File ... Open Call Tree from the menu bar.

If using a telephony card (telephony cards support SpeakInteractiveWave features best) choose Phone Calls ... Monitor Phone Lines from the menu bar. If there is no telephony card, choose Phone Calls ... Simulate Calls from the menu bar.

Call into the system and at the first prompt press 1 to leave a message for Ron. When prompted, record a fairly lengthy message (45 seconds or more in length). After recording, you will be asked if you want to listen to your recorded message. Press 1 to listen to the recorded message.

SpeakInteractiveWave is used to play back the recorded message. Try using some of the special features mentioned above while the message is playing! When finished, send the message and hang up.

Call back into the system, and at the first prompt press 0 to retrieve messages. At the next prompt, press 1 to enter Ron's mailbox. Press 1234 when prompted for the mailbox password.

After successfully entering the password, the system will announce the date and time of the new message. The date and time announcement is made with the SpeakInteractive variable, so you can press # to skip the time/date announcement. The saved message is played with the SpeakInteractive variable, and as before, you can experiment with the special features by pressing various touch tones.