If you go to a wireless service provider’s store, you will likely see a network map showing the area they have under their cellular coverage. Infact these days you may find network maps showing coverage areas for 3G and 4G networks. In order to accurately map these coverage areas, service providers use what is known as ‘drive testing’. Network testers drive through different areas in vehicles equipped with spectrum analyzers and antennas and measure signal strength. Besides creating ‘number of bars’ signal strength maps, drive testing or wireless data collection can also be used to provide coverage analysis, determine network weakness information and aid in finding specific problem areas reported by consumers.

Some of the wireless service providers use an audio conference bridge in conjunction with such drive testing. A standard test signal is fed into an audio conference that is set up for ‘lecture mode’. In this mode the incoming signal is simply broadcast downstream. Different testers then dial into the conference using their cell phones and hear the test signal as they drive around. Since the test signal is a continuous tone, it helps them characterise where the signal becomes weak or is completely absent. They can also visit the spots where consumers complain about dropped calls and verify if that happens due to a weak signal or due to some other reason.

Modern audio conference bridges allow one to see a real time view of a running conference. Based on different thresholds for loudest speaker algorithm, the test supervisor can easily tell which routes have signal strength issues.

This approach of using a conference bridge for wireless signal strength testing can be cost effective and add a human angle to the test results.

Another side benefit of the real time display of the conference is that the test supervisor can tell which testers are dialed into the bridge and which ones are goofing off.

Many people look forward to a conference call with the same enthusiasm as a trip to the dentist. That’s because most people have had unpleasant experiences with their conference calls. Not surprising because large number of conference bridges out there are medicore or people attending the conference calls do not know how to use in-conference controls that may be available to them.

That’s pathetic, because audio conference calls are the most underused but highest value tool for helping a distributed team work together. While we are continuing to see many advances in desktop videoconferencing and Web-based conferencing, the fact is that audio conference calls are the simplest, cheapest, easiest way to bring a group together.

Modern bridges provide a number of features such as mute/unmute, mute all/ unmute all, self mute/ self un mute, enter conference muted, lock/ unlock, loudest speaker display, transfer to private room etc., that can make your conferencing experience pleasant. Some conference call bridges allow use of these functions via use of DTMF keys or via a web portal or both.

Next time you get on a conference call, ask the conference co-ordinator about what in-conference controls are available to you.

If you get a chance try to attend a analyst press conference. You can attand such a call in person or on a conference call. These are calls that a typical publicly traded company hosts every quarter. Usually the CFO and the CEO of the company are present. The meeting starts out with CFO or CEO giving the ‘state of the company’ speech. This is followed by a question and answer session with the financial analysts. During this session analysts from around the country or from around the world can ask questions about the performance of the company. Such Q&A sessons are usually managed by an event co-ordinator. The conference bridge being used to conduct such meetings allows the co-ordinator to tell which individual participant needs to ask a question and then allow or disallow the question based on contraints such as time avaialble, importance of the question etc. Some conference bridges allow an analyst to ask a question in private. The question is then filtered by the co-ordinator for relevancy and then asked in the conference.