* as a trunk-side call logger (call recording)

Good evening all. This is my first post and I must say I really appreciate what you all do here. I’ve recently been introduced to * and am very impressed.

I have my first question, as I try to understand this thing’s flexibility. Can anyone think of a way that * could be used as a trunk-side call recorder for my existing PBX? What I’d be looking to do is this. We have an existing dialer that calls out to customers and they want to record those calls. The dialer has 3 PRIs attached directly to it from the PSTN.

My thought would be to actually bring those PRIs into * and then have 3 additional PRI’s connected back to the dialer. The dialplan would be set up to basically pass everything coming in on one set of tie lines off to another set of lines (the 3 PSTN lines) and vice versa. However, I’d like it to also record those calls while they’re going on. My goal is also to possibly eliminate calls that are under, say, 10 seconds in length (dialers tend to hit lots of answering machines). Then, of course, I’m guessing there’s some form of web interface that can be used to look at/play back the sound files. I’m also assuming they can be searched based on the number dialed (since the system also keeps CDR/SMDR records).

Can * do it? Which build of * would be recommended for such a thing, and are there any plugins out there that would help facilitate this? I’m actually looking at going for a nice beefy dell server with a RAID mirrored 2TB SATA storage array, and PCI-based PRI boards since in this case, there’s no need that I can see with using TDMoE gateways, unless anyone disagrees.

Any input on this is greatly appreciated. I did searches for Call Recording and Call Logging, but nothing quite hit what I’m looking to do at the “trunk side”.

TIA,

Kris.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

That should not be hard to do. Have your PBX connect to asterisk (either via SIP or T1/E1 card) and then have your PRI’s connect to asterisk. Your asterisk dial plan should look something like this.

Exten => _X.,1,MixMonitor(file/directory/filename.extension)
Exten => _X.,2,Agi(some-agi-that-logs-the-recorded-file-name)
Exten => _X.3,Dial(Put dial string here)
Exten => _X.,4,Hangup

This will start the recording and pass the call out over the trunk that you specify. I would use an agi to store info on the call recording and then create a simple gui that will query the db for the file’s and their locations.