Contact Store 3.1 - WAV Playback - Final Word 1

[MrIPO]

Has any body worked out a way to playback the G.726 Wav files external to the Contact Store web interface.

eg: Using Windows Media Player

I have tried many Codecs Packs / Apps / Convertors with no luck whatsoever.

Theres a big star waiting for you if you can help me out !

http://www.iporesource.com

"Launching late 2006

 

[IPOUK]

I've spoken to Witness and Avaya Witness support - both said the same thing - there is no way to play back the actual Wavs which are stored with the xml file.

The reason I have been given is that they are actually encrypted files - and only the Witness Player (via the web interface) is able to play the files. Saving the files obviosuly decrypts the files - hence there is no way to actually play the wav files. It's actually a fairly decent feature as it means the wavs can't be edited.

So backing up or restoring the files means you need to actually restore the backup to the actual location so it can be played (I'm guessing anyway, I have not done this).

If you want to be really clever, you can connect to the database with SQL Enterprise Manager and make all sorts of changes to the Database (we have an issue logged where if you withold your cli, the call gets recorded, but the wrong tags are added to the database and so the call doesn't come up in a search - editing the database can sort this out - but be careful!!)

 

[MrIPO]

Yep I found this one today, with 3.1 Contact Store if calls outbound have CLI withheld the .wav and xml are created but cannot be seen when searching. You will not in the .xml ?? denoting that CLI was withheld

Also all call are presented as incoming when in fact they are outgoing when cli enabled, we have a patch to fix this.

Cheers

http://www.iporesource.com

"Launching late 2006

 

[IPOUK]

yes that patch came out months back - but the withehld cli is a causing big problems! We've had it logged for a few weeks now, I just haven't had time to chase it up yet. Will do tomorrow and will let you know.

 

[MrIPO]

Cheers for the reply

You know the strange thing is with 3.0 Contact Store I swear I could reply the recordings via the Windows Codec set for Windows Media Player 9.

Am I going mad ?

The fact you cannot play these files back external to contact store really scares me and I have expressed this to AVAYA you may well have the case where the Contact Store installation becomes corrupt. I had this other day when performing tracing and getting the Contact Store MSDE data and log for AVAYA to examine. I had to stop the MSDE engine to unlock the files. Went to restart and got a dirty MSDE error saying MSDE could not be started and that it was currupt. Only way to fix was to de-install and re-install contact store losing the clients existing archived recordings.

Am I missing a simple way to resolve MSDE issue without reinstalling in regard to contact store? I did try repairing the MSDE installation with no joy ! The client did not have a backup of the server to restore from.

http://www.iporesource.com

"Launching late 2006

 

[IPOUK]

In our demo room I still have V3.0 Contact Store installed and I definitely can't play the wavs - I've installed almost every codec pack I could find and it still wouldn't work.

Upgrading Contact Store from 3.0 to 3.1 was a right pain re. MSDE! I seem to rememeber I had to rename the folder where the CS error msg was appearing then changing it back after the install.

Documentation on the upgrade procedure is awful - I think they should really document how the process works from what is actually stored in the DB - and installers should understand SQL, because a lot of people don't!

Fortunately not seen your problem so can't really offer any help, but it seems like an odd one. If you still have all your recordings (wav and xml files) you could always manually add it to the DB and then it comes up in the searches - just have CS make a normal recording, note the number it creates the xml and wav file. Then rename one of your previous xml and wav files that you can't access anymore (if you don't know which wav it is - you may need to look in the xml file and work out which one it is), then add it all into the DB and then you should be able to listen to it again! Of course, playing the wav file would be far simpler!!

 

[MrIPO]

Damm thats a long winded way but i guess it is the only way !.

Also have you figured out the entire sequence of events when a call is recording. My understanding is as follows

Call is recorded, data for the call placed in MSDE eware.mdf, then XML and WAV files are created in \calls directory 890001\000\00\XX the XX means for every 100 calls recorded 00 abd then next 100 01 and so on.

Upon review via the web interface the serch criteria is indexed directly against the data in the MSDE database and then the results are shown in conjunction with the data contained in the .xml file. The WAV is played directly from the directory via the contact store for de-coding and the tomcat engine for delevery.

http://www.iporesource.com

"Launching late 2006

 

[MrIPO]

What about migrating the contact store from one server to another. I am not talking about having contact store on one machine and the recordings on another but actually moving the entire installation from one machine to another without losing archived recordings.

http://www.iporesource.com

"Launching late 2006

 

[SuperJenks]

I dont know if this will help you MrIPO. If you are an administrator of the CS, you can download the wav files to you pc through the CS web interface and listen to it through Windows Media Player. Its the Diskette Icon at the end of the playback toolbar at the top. I tested it and it works. Im not sure how it works as far where it stores the wav file because I was under the impression that the CS will record the wav file in a compressed format which is why you cant listen to them through a standard Media player. But some how if you download it through the CS interface, you can play it with the media player. The bottom line is: Im not sure if the CS converts the oringinal compressed wav to a non compressed wav. I would look at the htm code in CS to see if it requests the system for a conversion of the file (This is getting out of my area of knowledge).

 

[crashtest1000]

1st rule of CS
Install it on a separate partition

2nd Rule
Nominate a back up location folder

3rd Rule
Back up to DVD drive

4th Rule
Explain to the customer if the files are so important to them check them every day

5th Rule
Set up SMTP alarms so the customer knows what’s going on with the server.

 

[JeSTeROCK]

Just though i'd add this from the Contact Store Pre-requisites doc. Note the part about industry standard wav files.

Storage of recordings
Recordings are stored as follows:
• Recordings are stored on a single hard disk partition on the recorder server itself or on a network
share. Avaya recommends RAID 1 (mirrored) or RAID 5 (striped) redundant storage for
maximum security of recordings.
• Recordings are compressed to G.726 (16kbps) by ContactStore's central processing unit (CPU)
after the call completes.
• Recordings are saved as industry standard .wav files, in a hierarchical directory structure.
• Details of all recordings are stored on disk in industry standard .xml files, alongside the audio to
which they refer.
• On locally mounted partitions, the oldest recordings are automatically deleted as the disk partition
assigned for recording reaches a specified minimum free space threshold.

 

[yeehaababy]

wheres the patch for all calls showing as incoming?

 

[MrIPO]

You would need to raise a ticket with your local support supplier.
The Patch is installed in the Tomcat directory.

http://www.iporesource.com

"Launching late 2006