Automated "always on" inter-office video chat?

[towelie88]

Hi Everyone

I have been asked to set up an "always on" inter-office video connection for my work- Our head office is in London and we have two smaller offices in Lisbon and San Francisco. I want to be able to schedule a 4 way call that starts up automatically when each office opens - Is there any way of doing this on Skype or similar?

I have tried using Automators watch me do function to initiate the call, and then turn on auto answer on the other accounts which works to a degree - Is there any better options for automating a Skype call?

Thanks!

 

[kohlson]

On when people are there, right? Or for a predetermined time? Completely unattended operation or people turn on/off when they arrive/leave? I note that this is a 9 time zone difference. Automator, IFTTT, Xbox - all these have slightly different capabilities. You may want to consider teleconferencing services (some are free, and some are fee) that can use a common URL such that each node connects to the same "place."

 

[towelie88]

Ideally I would like it to start at 9am (GMT) for london and lisbon, and then have a connection to the US office join a group chat automatically at 9am PT / 5pm GMT. I want to make it as automated as possible - Obviously I know I can start a group chat with all three offices, I just want to see if there is any way of scheduling it to happen automatically?

I found this, but being facetime based it is only a one to one video call.

https://papercutsoftware.github.io/teleportme/

 

[simonsi]

Start it up, leave it running. Are you broadcasting an open office view? You may have privacy concerns if peeps don't know they are being broadcast...

SF isn't going to get much overlap with either of the other offices on regular office hours...