IP Office Announcement over Phones and Overhead PA with Voicemail Pro

[indyvql]

We have an IP Office system running 4.2 with Voicemail Pro.

We are trying to set up the following functionality:
Inside the office, when someone wants to page somebody, they can record a page that plays over the phones (all 54xx series digitals) and over the overhead paging (using an analog extension port on the IP Office configured as an IVR port). We would like to keep the key presses to a minimum.

We are currently just paging to the overhead (just pick up, dial the analog extension and speak), but not everyone can hear the overhead in their offices.

We have found a couple potentially useful modules in Voicemail Pro.

1. The Voice Question (with only a record) combined with the Whisper function lets you send a recorded message to the phones to play aloud (by creating a Dial Paging short code).
PROS: Minimal interaction required, just dial the paging extension and it records after the beep
CONS: Have to push a button to end recording, have wait for the Whisper to complete before hanging up, skips the first few seconds of the message on first play (although it plays in a loop)

2. The Post Dial function to Post Wave file to PAGE:nnn lets me send a recorded message once to the phones.
PROS: Sends the message immediately, ignores hangup of initiating extension
CONS: No easy way to record a 1-shot message (without getting into the menu structure of Edit Play List)

Neither one seems to satisfy our needs entirely. Perhaps there is an even better way of accomplishing our goal, but we haven't thought of it yet.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I have lurked on this forum for a bit and it seems that there are a lot of good minds out there.

Thanks,
Torrey Bievenour
IT Manager
Vision Quest Lighting, Inc.

 

[tlpeter]

Try the whisper action

ACS - Implement IP Office
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Women and cats can do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea!

 

[mforrence]

Have you considered removing VMPro from the mix and simply doing a classic page? Create the appropriate hunt group with external + digital/IP phone users included. Dial the page access code, when you hear double beep, speak. Users hear you realtime.
Mike

 

[racom]

I spent hours trying to do the same. I never did find a way to do it. I had the same line of thinking, and came to the same conclusions. If you find a way, please post.

 

[TaureanDragon]

Just curious, why would you not want to do this real time as mforrence suggests? Dial the paging group, say what needs to be said and hang-up.

Regarding the two modules you mentioned,
1) The Voice Question, unless you can predetermine the length of the message, a key press is going to be needed to terminate the recording. Alternatively Avaya introduce a configurable silence detect so if x secs of silence is recieved after speech the recording automatically stops (they may be listening\watching and oblige ) this may help eliminating the key press. As for missing the first few seconds of recording, I think this will be due to the paging device being Analgue, and the voicemail getting a connected event as soon as the call is placed, rather than when the paging device answers. This bit could be addressed by add in short silent recording as a 'prompt to be played before the recording' on the specific tab of the Whisper Action. The length of silence will need to be a function of the Paging systems auto answer time.

2) Have to admit not really in a position to comment on this approach.

 

[indyvql]

We would absolutely love for it to be real-time. So far, past attempts to direct connect to both the paging interface on the digital phones and directly to the overhead paging has only worked on one or the other, but not both (think it has something to do with the fact that the analog paging has a different connection process). Perhaps I will try some further configs on that front (and without resorting to VM Pro) and see what happens.

If I learn anything, I'll pass it along here.

Thanks,
Torrey

 

[mforrence]

There is a tech document that describes the setup process in detail - I'm sure your friendly local Avaya Business Partner can set it up in an hour. Requires that external paging be connected via an analog station port configured for paging. We do this regularly and it works fine - however there is a maximum "supported" number of keysets that can be in a paging hunt group. 64 is supported max on an IP500, fewer on other platforms. However, we've exceeded the max at several sites without trouble - just don't expect Avaya to assist if you do have trouble.
Mike

 

[indyvql]

Thanks for the input so far.

My experimentation led to these results (note that we have a UPAM between the Analog Port and the Paging System): No matter how the analog extension is set (Quiet Headset, Paging Speaker, Standard Telephone, IVR Port), it isn't possible to do paging to the paging system and paging to the phones in the same way. It seems that Dial Paging (which works with the digital phones) cannot operate properly with an analog extension of any type (general result is a busy signal). We currently use IVR Port as it seems to give the best results. Perhaps an alternate configuration of the UPAM would work better (believe it is set up per the Station Port/Centrex instructions), but the instructions for that are a bit vague on some points.

We'll poke around a bit more and let people know if we find an ultimate solution.

Thanks,
Torrey

PS: On a side note, there is a document from Avaya (2002) that describes hooking up a paging system to an IP Office system (and uses Dial Paging), but it does not describe the UPAM and seems likely to be pretty out of date.

 

[Westi]

I have at least 200 sites with the exact same type of paging because that is the most popular type of paging, so it works.
create a huntgroup, put all users into that collective huntgroup including the analog extension, create a shortcode for dial paging and have the group as target.
make sure that there is no shortcode (the one you are using right now)that has the extension number of the analog extension as shortcode entry otherwise it will not work. The UPAM doesn't make a difference to the paging port but when in doubt use your buttset in offhook mode and hook that into the paging port to test that should emulate how it works.

Joe W.

FHandw., ACS

I don't suffer from insanity
I enjoy every moment of it

 

[indyvql]

Westi,

Thanks for your input. We will give it a try and report on the results (although it may be a couple weeks as I have another project that has taken priority). The part about not having any shortcode addressing the analog extension directly is an interesting/odd requirement (and one that I'm pretty sure we weren't meeting since we had a lot set up for testing purposes).

Two questions that I have though:
1. What mode are you using on the analog extension?
2. What mode are you using on the UPAM?

Thanks,
Torrey

 

[Westi]

if you use a shortcode
234
dial paging
234

to page through the analog extension then you need to get rid of it before it will work in the group (most likely have not tested it) because the group page will include that analog port 234

collective mode for the group

UPAM sorry I never used one but it should act as a low impedance interface (600 Ohm)the same way the offhook butt set would do to work on the analog port at all and once you have the paging port working you should be OK with just adding that extension to the group.

Joe W.

FHandw., ACS

I don't suffer from insanity
I enjoy every moment of it