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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |-----Original Message----- |From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:asterisk-users- |[EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net |> |>don't be put off by the name - people run entire companies on this |version) |>The [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:asterisk-users- |>>[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Matthew T. O'Connor |>>Sent: Friday, 10 June 2005 5:27 PM |>>To: [email protected] |>>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 |>> |>>_______________________________________________ |>>Asterisk-Users mailing list |>>[email protected] |>>http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users |>>To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: |>> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users |>> |>> |> |> |>_______________________________________________ |>Asterisk-Users mailing list |>[email protected] |>http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users |>To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: |> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users |> |> |> | |_______________________________________________ |Asterisk-Users mailing list |[email protected] |http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users |To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: | http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
