Cisco IP Phone External Speakers

[VoIPGuyNSC]

Cisco has some brilliant designers and marketing staff. Here is another perfect example. We are currently in the research and design phase of a unification project involving classroom multimedia speakers (ceiling mounted) and a traditional zone-based paging system. Our ultimate goal is to make the Cisco IP phone the primary communication device for the classroom. We already use it on a limited basis for second-line auto-answer speakerphone paging to classrooms. The only downside to it is that the internal speakerphones on Cisco 7940's are not quite loud enough for all applications. Enter the 7970 and its 3.5mm external speaker jack. Great and just what the doctor ordered, but not exactly perfect for a classroom environment. Expensive and for the most part, overkill. What it does offer us though is the ability to use one ceiling mounted speaker array driven by a classroom AMP/Mixer that the teacher has control over.

My question is this: Are there other solutions for increasing the volume of Cisco IP Phones, keeping in mind that I'm not talking just about ringing, but the conversation as well. Thank you.

John Lever
Telecommunications
Richland School District Two

 

[IPTnewbie]

Get a berbee POE paging speaker and assign the same DN as the office phone page. wouldnt need to be 7970 on the desk. those r still real expensive.

im sure as you know depending on the state of which the phone is in ie onhook = ringer volume, handset=handset volume, speaker =speaker volume. when you press the volume key it gets louder.

with that said. do away with the hard phone altogether and run IP communicator on the teachers PC (if they have one). attach nice klipsch 5.1 speakers and youll have to keep the volume turned down. and basically is a 7970 without the touchscreen.

hope this helps.