[Asterisk-Dev] asterisk and large scale multicast Hoot n' Holler

[John Todd]

At 9:15 AM -0500 on 4/20/04, Jennings, Mike wrote:
>I did some searches on * and multicast and didn't see much.
>
>What I'm looking to do is have potentially thousands of users listen 
>to a multicast "party line" (Hoot 'n Holler) with the ability to 
>talk on the Hoot if needed.  So, most of the time it's just users 
>listening to someone talk (presenter say) and then the ability for 
>users to ask questions, comment, etc.  It would be nice if the 
>presenter could see the user's name (LDAP) and for the user to block 
>their name if necessary.  Arbitration would be nice but not 
>completely necessary.
>
>Any comments greatly appreciated.

Yes, that is possible, but complex.  "Thousands" of users is 
something that takes some consideration, especially for selectable 
two-way communications.  If you just want big "hoot" channels, that's 
not too difficult.  Actually... hmm... no, it's not too difficult to 
do overall.  You'd create large conference chains off of a "master" 
server of some type.  Then, each user might be able to auto-forward 
themselves to a conference arbiter.  I think this could probably even 
be done with the nifty flash interface I've seen recently, though 
putting text into the interface would require a human to intercede 
and handle the call manually....

LDAP would be workable fairly easily with a lookup when the user 
"signs on" to the bridge, using (possibly) something as simple as 
perLDAP.

In summary, "Yes!" but in detail: "Yes!  Hire an Asterisk consultant!"  :-)

JT