Connect teams with conference bridging

Communication is at the heart of collaboration. Just because teams cannot connect in person. Technology need not be a barrier to working together and sharing ideas. When combined with the connectivity of VoIP, conference bridging can be a highly beneficial function available for businesses. This technology can help business connect their remote workers and satellite office workers across diverse geographical locations. The feature offers businesses savings both in time and money by removing the need for some, if not all, on-site meetings.

What Is A Conference Bridge?

A conference bridge allows a group of people to participate in a phone call. It is usually done by inviting participants to dial into a virtual meeting room. This can be done from the participant's own phone, making it an excellent option for home workers, distance workers and remote workers to keep in touch.

Conference bridges are not to be confused with three-way calling. A three-way call is usually a standard feature included with most phone systems. However, its obvious weakness is the limit of participants.

In contrast, a conference bridge can allow a much larger number of participants to a call. Potentially hundreds can dial into a single meeting room. Some of the key features include;

Multiple conference rooms

Depending on the hardware, typically, it is possible to support multiple conference rooms containing multiple participants.

Graphical User Interface

Allows all participants to see who is currently speaking. Additionally offers advanced support for administrators and moderators, granting a more comprehensive set of controls.

Administrator assigned DID numbers

Direct inward dialling numbers (DIDs) are virtual numbers that allow you to route calls to your existing telephone lines. DIDs were developed to allow for assigning a particular employee a direct number without the hassle of requiring multiple physical phone lines.

Conference bridge systems also allow administrators to assign DID numbers to individual conference rooms. The single DID number connects callers with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR). This technology enables incoming callers to navigate a phone system before talking to a human operator, which prompts for a room number. Further secure with a PIN number for individuals or all participants.

Dynamic Meeting Rooms

Many large scale conference bridge systems allow for the creation of dynamic meeting rooms. These are created and removed on a schedule, useful for systems requiring a higher capacity that is difficult to plan for.

Moderator specific controls

Moderators can control the start and end of the conference, mute participants and turn the conference to a lecture mode where only the moderator can speak.