Hoot and holler networks provide "always on" multiuser conferences without
requiring that users dial into the conference. These networks came into being more
than 40 years ago when local concentrations of small specialized businesses with
common, time-critical informational interests. Junkyards for example, began to
install their own phone wires, speakers (called squawk boxes), and microphones
between their businesses to ask each other about parts customers needed. These
networks functioned as crude, do-it-yourself, business-to-business intercom
systems. Hoot and holler broadcast audio network systems have since evolved
into the specialized leased-line networks used by financial and brokerage firms
to trade stocks and currency futures and the accompanying time-critical
information such as market updates and morning reports. Hoot and holler is used
in various industries as a way to provide a one-to-many or many-to-many
conferencing service for voice communications. * [Source:
Cisco Hoot & Holler Over
IP]
Cisco Hoot and Holler over IP Cisco's VoIP technology, which was initially focused on traditional PBX toll-bypass applications, can be used to combine hoot and holler networks with data networks.
