[Asterisk-Dev] G729 in non-realtime mode - way forward for Asterisk?

[Kevin P. Fleming]

> Now, even if it turns out that royalty-free use is limited to using
> this Windoze converter in a non-realtime fashion, then still we should
> be able to take advantage of that. It was mentioned that the utility
> should be capable of running in the WINE environment. So, one could
> set up a G729 batch conversion server that takes all files dumped into
> a networked directory and converts them. Even if it takes a few
> minutes before a voicemail message shows up converted in the target
> directory for Asterisk to pick up, then that would still be reasonable
> bypass solution in my view.

Since it appears that you are referring to the VoiceAge sample codec 
implementation here, please do us all a favor and go to 
www.voiceage.com, where you can read the licensing agreement for this 
implementation directly (rather than secondhand).

I used this codec to convert all the sound files for my systems to 
G.729, but I only did so because I already own plenty of G.729 licenses, 
and I did it at a time when I knew 90% of them were not in use. Granted, 
  by the strictest interpretation of the license I was in violation, 
because I did not run the codec on the same machine where the licenses 
are installed, but I think what I did is fairly safe, especially for a 
one-time operation.

As cheap as G.729 licenses are, I can't see how all this "batch 
conversion" effort is worth it. With nearly every VOIP phone supporting 
G.729 natively, if you convert all your voice prompts and configure 
voicemail.conf to store files in G.729, you only need licenses for the 
number of simultaneous channels you expect to the outside world (PSTN 
and/or ITSP), which cannot be an extremely large number. If it _is_ an 
extremely large number, then you are likely better off using an external 
media gateway product (like AudioCodes Mediant 2000) that natively 
supports G.729, which removes Asterisk G.729 licensing from the picture 
completely.