[Asterisk-Users] Re: Asterisk-Users digest, Vol 1 #4901 - 10 msgs

[Chris Shaw]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Kawakami" <jkkawakami at optellabs.com>
To: <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 8:08 AM
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Re: Asterisk-Users digest, Vol 1 #4901 - 10 msgs


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> > Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Analog Phones with Status Light Indicators
> > From: Adam Goryachev <mailinglists at websitemanagers.com.au>
> > To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> > Organization: Website Managers
> > Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 14:53:02 +1000
> > Reply-To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> >
> > On Wed, 2004-08-11 at 20:42, Steven Critchfield wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2004-08-11 at 06:17, Jeremy Lowery wrote:
> > > > I am currently a new asterisk user and new to telephony in general.
I
> > > > have been looking around to implement a solution with asterisk that
> has
> > > > many of the nice features of a proprietary PBX for a small office.
The
> > > > features that I am looking for that I haven't been able to find any
> > > > information on are:
> > > >
> > > > - status light indicators for which incoming line in ringing
> > > > - status light indicators for which lines are currently in use
> > > >
> > > > Basically any information on phones (analog preferred or hard VoIP)
> > > > which have status light indicator buttons that can be made to
function
> > > > with asterisk.
> > > >
> > > > Is this possible, and has anyone set up a phone system with these
> > > > features using asterisk? If so, what phones were used and what kind
of
> > > > special configuration is required?
> > >
> > > You are looking for line occurences/apperances.
> > >
> > > Your problem is that in the analog world, to get those line apperances
> > > you have to wire every line to every phone. Not very efficient, nor
> > > practical, nor does it scale to a large number of phone lines. Plus on
> > > some circuits, lines are not relavent, such as a PRI.
> >
> > However, it might be relevant to be able to:
> >
> > a) program 5 lights on each phone to display the status of the 5
> > extensions of people in your 'group'.
> >
> > b) program a number of lights on each phone to display the number of
> > people in a specific queue (ie, each light represents a 'position' in
> > the queue).
> >
> > > Under asterisk, you are encouraged to use extensions. Extensions are
> > > flexible and scaleable. Your 3 line phone system now can scale up to 2
> > > or 3 PRI without making major changes to user behavior. You will not
> > > find a phone system with a T1 worth of indicator lights in a price
range
> > > for every persons desk, You wouldn't want a phone with enough
> > > lights/buttons to access 3 T1s worth of phone lines.
> >
> > Unfortunately I have this situation:
> > Another supplier proposing an NEC phone system where the phones have 16
> > programmable keys for Direct Station Selection (DSS)/Busy Lamp Fields
> > (BLF) or Feature Access.
> >
> > AND
> >
> > The customer 'must have' a number of those DSS/BLF's, where must have
> > seems to be around 4 to 5. So, I would absolutely love to be able to do
> > this with some VoIP hardware phone such as the polycom IP600 or even a
> > cisco 7960.
> >
> > > So before you hamstring your small office into having unnecessary
> > > growing pains as it expands at some time down the road, think about
the
> > > nicer, larger PBX solutions.
> >
> > True, but would still be nice to see the status of the people around
> > you/in your team. How can I offer any sort of comparable/competitive
> > system without this??
> >
> > Regards,
> > Adam
>
> Adam-
>
> As a reseller of both * and traditional proprietary systems I make this
> comment to you:  Sure, with * you have some limitations with the terminals
> that we have access to but the story you need to be telling is one of
> flexibility and of feature richness.  In * systems the terminal is simply
a
> voice path for a user, there are applications available to give BLF that
are
> generously donated to the community that are way more flexible than
anything
> the NEC is going to provide to them.  If you can't or won't use these
> applications then build a new one that works for you.  The deal with * is
> that the features we are talking about are commodities and they belong in
> the public domain.  The power of the system cannot be limited to the
> terminals but in the applications that the users use (ask them how much it
> would cost for ACD or Conferencing or DB based CDR records on the NEC,
these
> are all standard in the basic build of *) and also the story you need to
> tell is what happens if your system grows?  Talk about total cost of
> ownership not total cost of purchase.
>
> In the end, * really isn't a good play for the 4x8 KSU in a dental office.
> You need to find the thing that the customer wants to do differently than
> the NEC's or Nortel's or the Avaya's are going to let them.
>
> Jason Kawakami

Also just to add a little, with SIP this WILL eventually happen in *... The
SNOM phones have DSS for the receptionist consoles with lights for each
extension.

At least with the SNOM phones * can inject things like intercom=yes into the
SIP headers which can control the behavior of the phones... It's only a
matter of time before that functionality is in mainline *...

Soon also, a SIP Barge function will probably be implemented that allows you
to simply press a DSS button and bridge you into the conversation like Avaya
PBXes do...

If they want an analog phone that looks and works like a PBX phone, check
out the Sayson 480 ADSI phone. It has SoftKeys that can be programmed with
all of the features you would expect on an NEC or a Avaya or Nortel. It may
not have the EXACT same bells and whistles, but it has a lot of features! :)

Didn't mean to overwrite what you were saying Jason, simply to add to your
arguments :)

       -Chris