[Asterisk-Users] Newie Questions RE: Polycom Critique

[Chris Coulthurst]

I have 4 Polycom phones here, two 500s and two 300s.  The 500 is a top-shelf
phone with quite a few asterisk-friendly features.  I absolutely love the
speakerphone: it has superb tone quality, and its truly full-duplex.  The
caller on the speaker does NOT hear him/herself back through the microphone.
I can only assume some level of active noise reduction. The 300 Model has no
speakerphone, just a monitor-mode speaker, and the sound quality isn't as
good, but its still very competitive...

If you choose a Polycom, you are choosing 'programmability'.  While quite
simple to provision out-of-the-box to just get going, if you want to
fine-tune feature keys, alert-info types and the like, you will be digging
through the rather thick admin guide at first, but soon you start
remembering where to look for a change.

Asterisk apparently does not fully/partially support the SIP SUBSCRIBE
messages this phone wants to use for CallPark, GroupPickup, etc.  Once this
becomes possible, I doubt there is much you can't duplicate like a
traditional key-system.

The only gripes I really have about this phone are these:  There is NO
BACKLIGHT.  C'mon companies!  My old Panasonic KX-TD1232 is 12 years old,
and has no backlight.  I'm ready for this little bit of sunshine! It really
surprises me, when I look at a entry-level low-budget phone like the
Grandstream BT100 and see that even it has a basic blue backlight.

The other gripe I have is, Polycom doesn't well-document any of the
'enhanced' features showcased on these phones.  There is a SERVICES button
that seems to have no purpose on the 500, but brings up a minibrowser on the
600.  Presence and SIMPLE aren't well documented/possible with asterisk yet,
and what the Polycoms do offer is extremely limited in its practicality.

All in all, if Polycom would put in a little backlight, and make a matching
SIP-enabled DSS console with REAL LEDs, I'd run with them and never look
back!


Chris Coulthurst
chris at shuksan.com
 

|-----Original Message-----
|From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
|bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Matthew T. O'Connor
|Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 9:29 PM
|To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
|Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Newie Questions
|
|Thanks for your repsonse, perhaps I mis-stated my situation.  I have
|asterisk up and running with a TDM22B and have two analog phones working
|with two analog phone lines.  What I can't seem to get started on is the
|setup of a SIP phone.  I have looked at all the info on voip-info.org
|and it is somewhat helpful, but not enough to get it going.  So any help
|would be appreciated.
|
|Also, is it generally accecpted that the Polycom phones are a good
|choice?  Why might I choose something else?  Can the Polycom phones be
|setup to work against a propritary phone system like the Nortel or Avaya?
|
|Thanks again,
|
|Matt
|
|
|
|Dean Collins wrote:
|
|>Yes asterisk not only competes with avaya and Nortel but exceeds them once
|you know what you are doing.
|>
|>If you are only new to Asterisk there is now asterisk at home
|http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net
|>
|>don't be put off by the name - people run entire companies on this
|version)
|>The asterisk at home solution the easiest way to get started. It is an .iso
|cd that you burn, load into a suitable PC (I run mine on a P3-700) and this
|super smart scripting code automatically installs the following software;
|>Asterisk (the open source switching software)
|>AMP (an open source release of a gui configurator) they have their own
|separate sourceforge website https://sourceforge.net/projects/amportal
|>FOP (a graphical web page for transferring calls, monitoring who is online
|etc) http://www.asternic.org
|>Web meetme (a graphical web page for monitoring and controlling conference
|calls)
|>
|>Check out www.voip-info.org for information about configuring your Polycom
|>
|>Welcome to the family.
|>
|>Cheers,
|>Dean
|>
|>
|>
|>
|>>-----Original Message-----
|>>From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
|>>bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Matthew T. O'Connor
|>>Sent: Friday, 10 June 2005 5:27 PM
|>>To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
|>>Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Newie Questions
|>>
|>>Hello, I'm new to asterisk.  My company is opening a new office and I'm
|>>seriously considering using Asterisk for the phone system.
|>>
|>>A couple of questions:
|>>
|>>How does Asterisk compete with the Avaya IP Office or the Nortel BCM
|>>systems?
|>>
|>>I have purchased a Polycom 500 phone but I'm having trouble getting it
|>>setup and talking to Asterisk.  Is there somewhere that has SIP phone
|>>setup A-Z for beginners?  All the documentation I have seen assumes you
|>>know more than I know at this point.
|>>
|>>I'm sure I'll have lots more questions, but that will do for now.
|>>
|>>Thanks,
|>>
|>>Matt
|>>
|>>_______________________________________________
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|>>Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
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|>>
|>>
|>
|>
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