[Asterisk-Users] Still unable to use g729 codec... please HELP

[Aaron Johnson]

Rich Adamson wrote:

>>>Ok. Thanks a lot anyway. BTW, do you know how many g729 licenses I 
>>>need in this situation? Maybe 1 is not enough. Maybe I need 2: 1 for 
>>>decoding and one for encoding.
>>>
>>>RODOLFO
>>>      
>>>
>>As the documentation states, you need 1 license for each instance of 
>>g729 in use.  That license is used to either encode, decode, or both.
>>    
>>
>
>The problem that many of us have with the above statement is trying
>to figure out exactly what "instance" happens to mean. Past postings
>have suggested that an instance may be required when listening to
>vm (under some circumstances), while gsm files are played to certain
>calls, while a real call is in progress, etc, etc.
>  
>
You are correct, keeping track of what requires a license can get 
complicated.  Since they are not expensive, I imagine many people simply 
purchase more licenses than are actually necessary.

Phone using g729 listening to voicemail encoded in ULAW, GSM, anything 
but g729 => 1 license used
Phone using g729 listening to voicemail encoded in g729 => No licenses used

I suppose most people only need to be concerned with transcoding to/from 
g729 if they are handling a lot of concurrent calls.  For instance, we 
save all of our client's voicemail in g729 and ULAW format.  By doing 
that, when our clients use their phones to listen to messages, we don't 
have to do any transcoding.  Likewise, if they check their messages from 
an outside line, by saving the messages in ULAW format, we don't have to 
transcode there, either.

As I said, if you are handling a low call volume, then go ahead and 
order a few more licenses than you need.  If you are going to be 
handling a larger call volume, I suggest investing some time to 
understand all the ins and outs of transcoding and g729.