BCM450 Overhead paging through analog trunk

[Ryvn]

We have a BCM450 that was moved to our new facility when it was built. We would like to get overhead paging to work, but we're having a tough time getting it to work. In our new facility, we tried using an analog trunk into the Bogen PCM TIM with a 3 zone ZPM for output. When we dial the code (we programmed 87), the overhead speakers cut out to mute the music, but the local handset gets a HUGE sound, possibly backfeed. Plus, nothing can be heard on the overhead.

To go to the other building, we have two Bogen MVP130s to act as a signal over IP bridge. If I take a sound source on the local side, I can get sound to go over to the speakers without a problem. However, when we plug the wires into the analog trunk, the system hangs up as soon as we dial the overhead code for that trunk (we programmed 88). I think that this bridge simply passes audio and therefore doesn't have the circuitry to act as the other end of a loop start trunk. That's just a guess though.

I've scoured the web in search of answers, but I've come up empty. Avaya wants $750 an hour just to talk to the technician who comes out....they won't talk to us. The technician who set up the system is a good programmer, and he chatted briefly with Avaya while on another call. They told him that he had the paging to analog trunk port set up correctly, but they won't go any further unless they get cash.

Can anyone offer any insight or assistance to help us get this working? We don't need to page to both sets and overhead, and I've read that with a trunk you can't do that anyway. But we do need overhead paging at both sites (not at the same time, but that'd be really cool in an ideal world).

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[GordonKapesMZ4]

Well there is a very inexpensive option and you won't have to worry about using line cards either. You won't have to worry about paying Avaya all that money either. Be warned it's a rather primitive method, but I have made it work at various locations with no complaints whatsoever.

If you have the capability to have an IP Phone at each site, open the IP Phone and splice the speaker cables going to the phone speaker and run an RCA cable to the amplifier of each building.

Then you can set those 2 phones in the same paging zone such as Feature 614, and then both buildings will get paged at the same time. The voice quality over those IP Phone speakers is quite enhanced and clear, actually way better than an analog trunk.

What's even better is that if you wanted to, you could combine all phones or certain phones into the Feature 614 zone and have phone and loudspeaker paging for those dead zones where speakers aren't heard.

Another option I haven't tried, but have read about, is using a headset adapater that allows you to plug in an RJ-9 connection to a standard handset cord and thusly into an amplifier. I like the speaker phone idea better though.

I tried once with an M7100 set and it didn't work, but maybe a T7316 would work?

Let me know what your options are as far as IP phones.

"Keep the Peace, Use RLS"

http://www.joetheucxguy.com

 

[Ryvn]

GordonKapesMZ4, that's a great idea. I had thought of that using our existing digital phones (non-IP), but it seems it would only work for our building. As we have the Bogen MVPs bridging the signal to the other building, they seem to simply take an audio signal and send it over. The IP phone idea is very attractive, but might be costly. We originally had some IP phones quoted and specced out that weren't too bad in price, but the installers couldn't get them to work. We ended up having to purchase Avaya/Nortel 1140E sets...not cheap at all! If I could find a cheaper phone that would work, I'd gladly hack it up in order to get things working.

It seems that it shouldn't be that hard to set an analog set, set it to auto-answer, and then when you dial that extension, it sends the audio out the port. However, I'm not the engineers on this, so I don't know. I know that IP Office has a way to do it, but we don't have that. I was really hoping we did. Of course, I'm up for anything, as long as we can get it to work.

 

[GordonKapesMZ4]

As long as you have some licenses I'd buy a couple of the Nortel IP sets on ebay for a couple of bucks. You can find 1110 sets for under 60 dollars on that site. I just bought a 1230 sets for $21. Let me know what you find. If you need help setting it up, I'd be more than happy to direct you through it.

"Keep the Peace, Use RLS"

http://www.joetheucxguy.com