The program that was working fine on the development machine is having problem with record step on the machine that will be used as server. We get the following message:

"All wave devices that can record files in the current format are in use. Wait until a wave device is free, and then try again."

Development machine is XP and server machine is 2000.

Any help in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Sanntosh

Is this in TeleFlow Simulator that the problem occurs on the server computer?

If so, is there a sound card and speakers set up on the computer? If you use Sound Recorder (Start >> Programs >> Accessories >> Entertainment >> Sound Recorder), can you record and playback with that on that system?

Our experience with on-board sound cards has been pretty poor, as well. If that is what it is, this may not be something you can solve just by getting the card working under Sound Recorder.

If Simulator is where you are having the problem, but you are intending to run live on this system, I would actually recommend not solving this problem at all... Just proceed to get the hardware all set up and running, and worry only about getting the phone system recording.

If this is a problem in production (on the telephony card when calling in), let us know. Either way, it might help if you could send a complete log (with this error in it) to support@engenic.com. We will review and respond in this thread.

In the log, I see it is recording to:
C:\IVR\FROM_3~1\where\11111161


A couple of things come to mind immediately.

1) Run TeleFlow Designer, and open your application by going to "File >> Open Application", then locating it through the open file dialog. This will ensure a full, proper path for the TAP location. (If you open the application by double-clicking the TAP, you will get these short path references (eg. FROM_3~1). Try running it this way instead. It shouldn't matter, but is worth checking.

2) The filename doesn't have an extension. If you ensure that there is an appropriate .WAV extension on the filename, this might make a difference.

3) Which "Voice type" is the Record step you are using set to?

Let us know the results of the above.

Chris etc - We are getting this same issue on our telephony servers, though everything worked fine on our laptops, it's for playback not record. Unfortunately, we need to run the simulation to test the webservice that we've created, which generates the wav file for customer playback when TeleFlow. We've verified that the wav file is intact and playable external to TeleFlow. We do not want to place actual outbound calls in order to test this functionality. What do you recommend? Please advise at your earliest, as we're on a bit of a time crunch with the customer.

Thanks in advance,
Susan

Hi Susan:

I suspect that there is no sound card available on your telephony server for TFSimulator to use, that the sound card is not compatible with TFSim, or that the sound card is in-use by another process (or processes).

Can you please confirm the following:
1. When you say, the sound file is "playable external to TeleFlow", where did you play it? Was it played on the telephony server machine?

2. Does the telephony server have a sound card? Why make/model is it? Is it on-board? Note that we have had issues with on-board sound cards and strongly recommend a Creative Labs Sound Blaster (or similar) expansion card be used instead.

It might be better to test with the telephony card, since at some point you are going to have to verify that functionality will work. The telephony card is very fussy about what format of audio files it will play. You will need to ensure your web-service is generating .wav files containing audio of the following format: PCM, 16 bit, 8 KHz, mono. You also need to ensure that your NMS configuration loads the DSP file "rvoice". If it does not, it will not be able to play the PCM wave audio.

As an alternative to placing calls to live customers, you could do one of the
following:

Change your application to temporarily replace the Place Call step with a Wait For Call step. The app will stop at that point and wait for you to call it.

Or, you could populate your phone number in the Place Call step with one that is appropriate to test with. I would simply "hard-code" that. After you've verified the service works as expected, you could put your TeleFlow variable back in that field.

Hi Tim - I'm answering your questions in the body of your reply:

Can you please confirm the following:
1. When you say, the sound file is "playable external to TeleFlow", where did you play it? Was it played on the telephony server machine? I played the wavs physically on the telephony server, using Windows Media Player.

2. Does the telephony server have a sound card? Why make/model is it? Is it on-board? Note that we have had issues with on-board sound cards and strongly recommend a Creative Labs Sound Blaster (or similar) expansion card be used instead. Yes, it is a SIIG Soundwave 7.1, and it is not onboard. It is comparable to the Soundblaster (looks like it uses the same app actually...)

It might be better to test with the telephony card, since at some point you are going to have to verify that functionality will work. The telephony card is very fussy about what format of audio files it will play. You will need to ensure your web-service is generating .wav files containing audio of the following format: PCM, 16 bit, 8 KHz, mono. You also need to ensure that your NMS configuration loads the DSP file "rvoice". If it does not, it will not be able to play the PCM wave audio. I suspect that what you're saying here might be the crux of the issue but then would these settings affect what's in the simulator? We don't actually have the T1s accessible yet, so we've been using the Sim to test. So would the Sim be trying to access the telephony cards to playback or the sound card?

Thanks a lot for your help,
Susan

The Simulator does not access the telephony boards (essentially, that is the point of the Simulator). I get the feeling that the Simulator is just not going to play on that sound card.

You said this worked fine on your laptop? Does this mean that TF Sim was able to play that file (or one just like it) by running your production application on your laptop?

Could you email this audio file to us at support@engenic.com?

Yes, the simulator plays the wav fine when running the production application. And I'll send you the wav now...

Hi Susan:

That file will not play with TeleFlow Server on an NMS card. The sample rate is 22 KHz, and it needs to be 8 KHz. Aside from that, it looks fine to me.

To check yourself, find the file with Windows Explorer, right click it, and select "Properties", and then highlight the "Summary" tab. It should summarize the data type in the file for you.

The error with the Simulator indicates that there is no free audio device for Simulator to use, and could well be legitimate. Any number of services could be using that device (in the past we've had problems with Windows Media, some modem software, Skype, etc.). Were I in your shoes, I'd follow Chris's advice to Santosh: abandon Simulator on that server and use TFServer and your target telephony card.

If you want to troubleshoot the sound card, you'll need to do audit every process running and stop any that could be using the sound card. You should be especially wary of any "helper applications" that came with the card; programs running in the task tray, and such. Almost all hardware manufacturers are doing that these days.

Let me know if you found anything that could be locking the audio card, and
also what version of Windows is that machine running?

This is running on Windows2003R2. We never installed any 'special' software with the sound card, so there should be no worries there. Unless you meant the NMS card versus the sound card? There's no modem or messaging client on the servers - they only have what they need.

Thanks, Susan

I did mean the sound card. Sometimes, drivers include little "helper apps". I am just grasping at straws, because I can't see why this would fail. Is this still a 64-bit version of Windows (and processor to match)? Maybe that's the problem... (?)

Lets try a different track. Will the Simulator run the "AnswerTest" application that ships with TeleFlow? If you've installed to the default location, it should be at:

C:\Program Files\TeleFlow\Applications\AnswerTest\ANSWERTEST.TAP

This is the simpliest application we have. It waits for a call, plays an audio file (in the desired TF/NMS format) and hangs up. Lets see what that does. Maybe it will tell us something.

The hardware is 64bit, but the OS is 32. We didn't try running the sample TAP, but we'll set that up tomorrow. Plus we found a way to set the correct formatting, so I think we're closer. I'll let you know how we get on tomorrow. Thanks a lot for taking the time to help us, especially after hours.

Take care,
Susan