Hey all. I think asterisk is pretty cool but what’s the best is it’s free!!! I have recently thought of a cool idea for my church. I was wondering could I use asterisk to allow multiple calls to a phone line and it play sound, specificaly sound I’m getting from the audio system feeding into the computer and speakers. Someone can call on their cell phone and it will start playing the audio.
Also, if this is possible, can multiple people call and just listen to the same thing?
Sure it is.
Way 1:
Pipe the audio output from the church into the asterisk box sound card. Use the * CLI to connect the console to a meetme conference. Now set up line(s) or VoIP numbers that can call in. When people call that number, they get Background() to play a welcome msg introducing what is about to happen, then MeetMe() puts them into the conference with the console as a muted user. All the people (doesnt matter how many) who go in that meetme room will hear the audio being piped into the sound card, and not each other (as they are muted)
way 2:
If the * box is not near the stage or audio gear. Set up a box (any box) near the stage with icecast (mp3 stream software). Set up a Music On Hold class which uses this stream as the source, and after playing callers the greeting, send them to MusicOnHold(liveaudioclass) which will put them on hold indefinately, playing the mp3 stream from the other box.
You could also I think use a MOH command to open the sound card audio directly and pipe it in as MOH…
Keep in mind that every user using this will occupy a channel. If you use analog/POTS lines, it will use a line; if you have a PRI (T1) it will use one channel of that, and if you have VoIP it will use one channel of that (and the bandwidth that goes with it). If you use a low-bit codec like G.729, don’t expect it to sound great, especially if your performance involves music or singing. Ulaw will sound pretty good.
Hope that helps!
Oh man, that helps alot. The first one will apply to me. And that rocks, that they can’t hear each other and all, that is what I was worried about. It will be using a POTS, a regular phone line. Can I use that one phone line for multiple people to call and listen?
With one phone line, one caller is all you’ll get. You’ll be able to broadcast Sunday’s services to a whopping one person at a time with your single phone line. This is not a limitation of Asterisk, but a limitation of the phone line.
Unless you’ve paid the phone company some extra money for a party-line-like feature, your only options are to get more lines or use VOIP with an Internet connection large enough to accommodate the number of callers you’d like to support. This is only true if you’d like to do a live broadcast.
If you want to make a recording available such that callers could dial in one after another, listen, and free the line up for the next caller, you could do that, too. But, that’s a lost of busy signals depending on the length of your Sunday service.
With a PRI, you could support 23 callers each Sunday, those cost a few more bucks than a single pots line, however. Only the Asterisk part of most Asterisk-based solutions is free, the telco still wants money when you plug Asterisk into it. 
Yeah, unfortunately, that’s what I thought. But atleast I know that asterisk can do this however. Thanks yall. I’ll be back if the church decides to do this.
Do you have any sort of decent Internet connection?
If so you can use that… ipkall.com will give you a free DID (phone number) that you can point at your * box. many people can call this at a time, IF you have the bandwidth to deal with them.
Have a look at GABCAST.com
And then look at nerdvittles.com/
You use asterisk to create a PODCAST which can then be linked to your website and also folks can use a phone to access them as well
by using GABCAST you will using their bandwidth…
You can use a IAX softphone to record the podcast
It is easy to do and very cool…The main guy at GABCAST is the Freepbx guy (or was until Rob Thomas took it over)
They are great folks and will help you if needed…