PSTN for Live Event Audio
Allow live event audience members to dial in to the audio stream using the PSTN.

The feature team is reviewing this feature request.
102 comments
-
Chuck commented
I agree it would be nice to allow attendees to dial in on POTS or cellular lines to a live event.
-
Anonymous commented
Hi, Could you advice if this feature will likely go to previous this year?
-
Dave Grant commented
@Alex Been under review for eight months, any update?
-
Kieran commented
Hosting on Zoom, many members of the public dial in during city council and commission meetings. It would be great to allow attendees to listen and speak through dial in so we could transition to Teams live events for our public meetings moving forward
-
Anonymous commented
Hi Are there any timelines for this feature?
-
David S. commented
Need some dailin option for attendees, we're at the state government level for transportation and need to provide access to the public who don't have computers, there are laws about equal access that we have to follow
-
Jon Vassar commented
Even if it had a limit (200 users), it would be better than no option. Ever do a non-enterprise event with a senior citizen wanting to listen in?
-
Anonymous commented
Can't wait for it. We have a lot of users who have not the equipment and ability to use a headset or speakers. But a phone has everyone :-)
-
Mark Garza commented
As an enterprise customer, to compete with Live Event. This is a requirement.
-
Anonymous commented
Hi @christian-lebourgeois , can the method you described be duplicated to double the number of attendees from 250 to 500?
-
Steven Rudolph commented
Hey Alex whats the feedback of the feature team? We are waiting for this feature in times of COVID. We have to reach a lot of people and more than 30% have no sound on PC but a telephone or mobile.
We only need the listen function. We have to share informations by voice to all in our company.
BR Steven Rudolph
-
Christian LeBourgeois commented
We have been waiting patiently for this item to move. In the meantime I have developed a slight workaround
Requirements:
1 extra MS Teams license with audio conferencing capabilities.
1 extra pcQuick Explanation: You will use a new Teams account and an available pc to relay the audio from the live event by sharing the live event in the Teams Meeting with the option "Include Computer Sound". Since the Teams meetings has a dial in option, it allows people to use the Teams dial in conferencing to hear a live event
Create a new O365 account with MS Teams license and Audio Conferencing. When the live Event is created by another account, you will create a Teams meeting (not live event) with this new account for the same date/time as the live event. Send out the dial-in information ONLY as the dial in for the Live Event. 5 minutes before the live event starts, use the extra pc and secondary account to launch the Teams meeting you scheduled. While you are leading the Teams meeting on the new account, share the video of the live event in the meeting with the option "Include Computer Sound". Once the meeting starts, the people dialed into the secondary Teams meeting will not know the difference since they are only using their cell. As the live event happens, the audio is relaying through to the Teams meeting for audio only.
A couple of gotchas with this workaround:
1. The users will be able to unmute themselves and start talking. Since it is relayed audio it will not be heard by the live event but will be heard by other dial in users. Someone needs to watch the Teams meeting for Audio relay to make sure to keep all muted.
2. There is a 250 person limit on Teams meeting attendees. If you plan on having more than 250 dial in users this solution might not be the best
3. Make sure the computer running the relay Teams meeting is wired to the network and has a strong internet. If If the audio is poor for the relay pc, all of the dial in users will experience the poor performance as well.
4. When creating the meeting for the Teams audio relay, make sure it is not an account related to the live event. It should be a separate account created for this exact reason. -
mistagreenjeans commented
@John Duggan
This is regarding "hear only" and not two way communication for attendees in live events. People who want to use their phone/landline to hear a teams meeting usually do so by dialing in. In Meetings they can attend. In live events participants (the audience) cannot contribute at all via voice or video.
In companies of 1000 that do a Town Hall meeting, you will have about 5% or so that will want to dial into the meeting to hear what is being said. Usually sales who are on the road.
@Alex, there should be dial in numbers (like Teams meetings) for live event audience members. They should not have the option to talk or share anything but there should be a way to call in and listen.
-
Anonymous commented
This is unbelievable. With E3 you have to pay extra for audio license and then in Live Events dial in folks are presenters??? Please change that ASAP!
-
John Duggan commented
If what people are asking for is a way for live event attendees to submit audio to a live event over PSTN, I would vote not just no, but 100 per cent no. Six months ago I would have said yes. Here's why I changed my mind. I enabled call in for attendees to live events using external equipment with the mix minus technique. It was a great technical solution, but failed to account for human behavior. Even on very small scale live events, we had attendees calling in and leaving the outgoing audio on their phones un-muted while they slammed doors, did laundry, and yelled at the kids, etc, in teh background. Boss had to constantly interrupt his train of thought to yell down the phone to beg people to put their phones on mute until they had something to say. It never worked. Always ended up hanging up the phone. Abandoned the practice of encouraging attendee call-in for this reason. Typical attendance at our live events ranges from 30 to 240 and we could never get people to do what they were supposed to do and mute the outgoing audio on their phones immediately after calling in until they had something to say. That is the typical experience. Believe me when I say that telephone audio call-in for Teams live event attendees is something you THINK you want until you get it.
I spelled out the 'h, e, double hockey sticks' word in my original post and it got automatically edited out as inappropriate so I had to edit to restore sense to the sentence. Anyone that easily offended needs to stay off the internet. Hilarious!
-
TheSharpeMan commented
I believe you can get a Dial-in number if the organiser has the 'Audio Conferencing' add-on for O365 E1 & E3 plans. E5 already includes it
-
Chris commented
Our company has also inquired why there is not an ability to have attendees join via audio only. This is a feature that needs to be incorporated in the next upgrade for Teams Live Events.
-
Anonymous commented
This would help for people who cannot afford or use computer. Web based on mobile would help also.
-
Anonymous commented
It is a mandatory feature ! Many other solutions already have it
-
Anonymous commented
Our users are asking for this. Please fast track!