CAPEK%YKTVMT.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Peter G. Capek) (10/22/90)
While trying to get the schedule from a local octoplex movie theatre recently, it occurred to me that it would be to the advantage of both the theatre operator and the local exchange carrier to allow multiple incoming calls "get through" to the theatre's recording at the same time. I believe that there are services which allow this on a nationwide basis, or even on a local basis through a special exchange, but it seems as though, by proper programming in the switch (assuming it is a digital switch, which should have no problem "replicating" a half speaking path to many listeners), one could have many callers listen to a single recording. All that would seem to be needed is for the owner of the line to designate that this should happen, and perhaps to designate a maximum time that any single caller should be allowed to listen. This latter wouldn't even really be necessary, I guess; the caller is paying for the call as usual. I can't believe this is a new idea, but I've heard of it being offered as a service by the phone company. Is it? Peter Capek [Moderator's Note: Actually, the theatre could use voice mail from a commercial voice mail service with DID ports. For example, I use Centel Voice Mail. It has about 30 ports, and up to that many callers can be on at one time, via any combination of mailboxes. The theatre could, as an example, have 29 callers at once, leaving one port for everyone else! It works like an accordion at partioning the boxes and the ports. Plus, most voice mail systems can have more than one box linked via a 'front end box' like mine is. A caller would be told to press 1 through 7 for the various theatres or 8 for future attractions. Voice mail is easy to use and easy to update at any time. The cost is quite inexpensive. At Centel mine costs $7 per month. PAT]
nol2105%dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil@dsac.dla.mil (Robert E. Zabloudil) (10/25/90)
In article <13914@accuvax.nwu.edu> CAPEK%YKTVMT.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Peter G. Capek) writes: >X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 755, Message 1 of 11 Gosh, I hope I'm not too far behind reading the Digest... >While trying to get the schedule from a local octoplex movie theatre >recently, it occurred to me that it would be to the advantage of both >the theatre operator and the local exchange carrier to allow multiple >incoming calls "get through" to the theatre's recording at the same >time. I believe that there are services which allow this on a >nationwide basis, or even on a local basis through a special exchange, One of my previous jobs involved as a side duty the regular updating of the "KRVR Weather Line", which did indeed allow multiple callers to hear the same recording at the same time. I never got bold enough to dig into the 'inner workings', but we always ended our spiel with, "If you called in the middle, the message repeats", which it would, once. I'm sure there was a nationwide marketer of these 'boxes' that got a kickback of the commercial message we recorded along with the weather and condx, but that wasn't part of what we needed to know to do our part. By the way, we were supposed to "wait for the green light to go out" before updating the message. On the day of the 1978 blizzard, we had to cutover to the 'short' message in the middle of a call several times ... hope the vast masses understood. [Moderator's Note: 'The vast masses' ?? ... Gosh, now you are beginning to sound like a certain gas-bag radio commentator on WFMT in Chicago, or a particularly arrogant columnist for {The Washington Post}. :) PAT]
BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) (10/27/90)
In article <13914@accuvax.nwu.edu>, CAPEK%YKTVMT.BITNET (Peter G. Capek) writes: > While trying to get the schedule from a local octoplex movie theatre > recently, it occurred to me that it would be to the advantage of both > the theatre operator and the local exchange carrier to allow multiple > incoming calls "get through" to the theatre's recording at the same > time. Many multi-line answering machines even back in the 'old' days had either of two schemes. The cheaper one was to 'barge-in' if the message was already playing, and let you hear at least one complete version before cutting you off. The slightly better version had a phased entry, and had the same message playing maybe in four different phases. Your call got answered only when the next available phase started and EVERYONE else starting with you all heard the same signal from the same amplifier which came out at some good level and went through a pad towards each line. If the sound source failed, and between words, this kept everyone from chatting to each other. The modern digital, often PC based, machine can handle MANY lines, understands Touch Tone, and could easily be setup to responsively give anyone whatever individual information they needed, each with a unique 'playing' of the digital voice. The typical auto-attendant / voice mail box would also make a GOOD theater machine, and I even think a SMART local theater might also list the competing EXPENSIVE adjacent big town theaters as a service and customers would always call them for ALL movie info and would probably go to the local one mostly anyway. If you want CO grade stuff, DIGICEPT makes 'nice' machines that can do HUNDREDS of lines even over MANY COs from a central machine. They can take T1 trunking in, too. They have cards that do time and temperature automatically. I think they just got 'gobbled' by Audicron - a former competitor. Cook, now gobbled by NTI, also used to make telco grade announce machines. For the local theater, the PC based solution should be fine. Most COs and some PBXs have never busy numbers that anyone calling connects to. These are often used for volunteer fire (whistle blows - everyone dials in to see where to go) and for hospital code 99 teams. These are "all chat" lines, and that isn't what the theater needs.
cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) (10/30/90)
In article <14074@accuvax.nwu.edu>, BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) writes: >I even think a SMART local theater might also list the competing >EXPENSIVE adjacent big town theaters as a service and customers >would always call them for ALL movie info and would probably go >to the local one mostly anyway. There exists something analogous to this in New York City now. Calling 212-777-3456 (777-FILM) gets an automated system that lists a large fraction of all theaters in the city and outlying regions. (Non-commercial theaters are not listed.) You can retrieve movies by title (first three letters), category (drama/comedy/horror/action/etc.), or location (enter ZIP code). Once you have narrowed down to a particular movie at a particular theater, you will be given the show times for that movie today. Show times that have already passed are automatically omitted. This service is extremely helpful. It is sponsored by {New York Magazine} (which publishes weekly movie listings and capsule reviews) and radio station WPLJ. There is no charge except normal telco charges, but you must listen to a commercial for an upcoming film when you cfirst connect. There is also an option to find out about upcoming features in the magazine or WPLJ. Of course, you must be able to send DTMF tones to use the service at all. cowan@marob.masa.com (aka ...!hombre!marob!cowan)