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The mystery behind KBC unraveled

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DQW Bureau
New Update

Ever tried to dial in the Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) numbers to participate in the show? Ever experienced the frustration of not getting through? Ever cursed the guys behind the show? But ever wondered who did the technology? And ever wondered how the one-and-a-half-lakh calls per day are handled, once the lines are opened for public?

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Having heard the meticulous details with which KBC has been executed by officials of ECM Asia--the company who bought the Asian rights of the program, "Who wants to be a millionaire"--one would have assumed that the back-end technology would also have been handled by its own engineers. However, the honors to integrate the system of enabling calls, interacting with callers, selecting the right candidates and finally choosing the selected few has all been executed by a small Delhi-based IVR integrator, DialNet systems.

With indigenous CTI technology developed by Gurgaon-based Parsec Technologies, DialNet initially undertook the pilot project in the two metros of Delhi and Mumbai for six weeks. Thereafter, the project was expanded to the four metros and now with a contract for 52 weeks, the installation of the system will also expand to smaller towns, the first of which is at

Nagpur.

Said JP Dutta, COO, Parsec, "The biggest challenge before KBC was whether to have a Web-based system call center or to have a telephone-based call center system." Initially Star Plus debated on the virtues of a Web-based system but it was eventually ruled out considering the low levels of Internet penetration. Today, the huge success of the program is attributed to the fact that the telephone is quite accessible to a large percentage of the Indian population.

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Admittedly, the profile of the participants are largely from metros and from urban Indian but at least that's the initial target of the show. However, viewers in smaller towns and the semi-urban Indian need not worry as the roll out plan of the program envisages the expansion of the program's centers to all B class cities. What's more, these centers would then have a local dialing number. In all, the project would entail setting up of centers at 64 locations.

How the system works

Currently there are 12 servers at the four locations of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Bangalore. Each location has three servers each: the network server, the database server, and the Parsec server, which is loaded with its CTI software. The system is based on Dialogic's card and operates on Windows NT server platform.

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DialNet handles the entire execution of the selection process--from setting up of the call centers, to maintenance of the software and the database of questions. The process is monitored by Arthur Anderson at all stages. When a caller first dials in, he is greeted by an IVR, which guides the caller to do the needful thorough prompts. After the caller answers the preliminary questions, the answers are recorded automatically in the database. During this process, all the three servers are at work simultaneously. The first to intercept the calls is the CTI server, which sets the circuit between the PSTN line and the network server. The network server provides the necessary prompts and guides the caller to the database server. The database server, which stores the questions, gives the caller the questions and stores the response. Each and every detail of the calls that get through the KBC lines are recorded. And considering the stakes involved, we can understand why!

Callers who give wrong answers are automatically disqualified. All callers who made it through this round are selected randomly with the help of a software. The selected candidates who made it through this stage are called up by a call center at Kalkaji. This is only an outbound call center manned by eight operators. These operators call up the candidates and ask them a second set of questions. Here again, the conversation is recorded by DialNet to be played by Arthur Andersen to rule out any prompts and ensure the fairness of the selection process.

"The call center at Kalkaji has restricted entry and stringent security rules to ensure fair play," said Dutta. But the fairness is also attested by Arthur Andersen who monitors the selection process. All those who give correct answers at this stage are again selected randomly through the same software taking care to ensure that there is an even distribution of candidates from all the four regions.

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The KBC project is essentially a small project and in the words of Dutta, is only worth a `couple of lakhs'. But considering the volumes involved and its impact on the population, the project has required a lot of scaling in terms of access capacity. Said Dhiraj Chhabra, GM (Operations), DialNet, "Technically we did not have to do much customization for the IVR. In fact, it was at the lowest end of the IVR. But we had to drastically scale the capacity due to the volumes that were coming in." Initially the program started with 16 lines in Delhi, which had to be scaled to 180 lines within no time.

DailNet has hired a lot of E1 lines to accommodate the traffic. Each E1 line has the capacity to accommodate around 30 telephone lines simultaneously. In Delhi, it has six E1 lines dedicated to the show. Mumbai has eight E1 lines, Calcutta has three E1 lines and Bangalore has four E1 lines dedicated to the show.

DialNet usually processes eight to 13 episodes concurrently per session once the request from KBC comes. This is when we see Amitabh Bachchan telling us that the KBC telephone lines are open for a specified period. Typically, DialNet takes about one-and-a-half day to process the calls of each episode. Usually the selected callers are also given the option to choose the day of the episode.

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Responding to the query that callers have to pay much more than the normal PSTN rates when calling up the KBC lines, Chhabra said, "There has been a lot of wrong reports printed in the media. Subsequently we have also sent rejoinders for these reports but it is a sad reality that rejoinders never have the same impact as the wrong report that has once been published." Reality is that callers pay the same amount as in a normal PSTN call. However, KBC also has an ISD line, which callers can also use as a premium number to get instant connectivity, but then they have to pay ISD rates.

In fact, KBC has to pay for every call that is made into the DialNet center. Said Chhabra, "It is a service that DialNet provides KBC and is therefore charged for the use of my telephone lines, the software, its maintenance and the support." He also said that the DailNet systems can handle any number of calls but is dependent on the directives that are sent out by

KBC.

Usually it is about one-and-a-half lakh per day.

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The number of calls and the number of episodes to be selected are dependent on the rate at which KBC can schedule its shooting. According to Chhabra, the dates are decided in concurrence with KBC, Synergy--the Siddharth Basu owned firm that provides the questions---and Amitabh

Bachchan.

DialNet also handles the calls of many high-profile events like the game show on SAB TV, which is said to be in competition to KBC and the response calls of Aaj Ki

Baat.

(CNS)

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