We designed and coded the tech behind a dial-in auditory experience platform, as an alternative to Zoom parties for online social events. On launch, the system successfully supported over 1,200 callers with 400 simultaneous callers at peak. Tech used included Twilio (Flex, Functions, Studio, TwiML), AWS S3, and OKTA. The video below shows the Twilio Studio routing configuration and logic for incoming calls. The audio in the video is a recording of a call into the hotline.
The client had organized two virtual immersive art parties over Zoom during COVID lockdowns. Recognizing “Zoom fatigue” and seeking to reinvent themselves, they envisioned a virtual dial-in party where the experiences would take place primarily over the phone via calls and MMS. They asked for a scalable technology platform that would enable them to configure any number of experiences from prerecorded audio, chatbots, interactive voice assistants, to human-actor-operated auditory interactions.
We used a suite of Twilio tools to build a programmatic phone tree, against which configuration files could preload the experiences. We set up call-center software for human-actor-operated experiences and routing rules and ACLs to distribute calls to the operators. We trained and staffed the volunteer operators. We set up an analytics package so the status of the operation could be monitored in real-time. We performed stress tests to ensure the system’s technical success on the launch night.
Callers interacted with a “Superintelligent AI” from the future who needed their help; by following a voice-recorded phone tree, callers selected among a bazaar of fifty experiences to help the AI. Callers were sent text messages and called back to re-engage them after their experience ended.
Stack:
- Twilio (Flex, Functions, Studio, TwiML)
- AWS S3
- OKTA
- Event Technology