Can Cisco do voice announce intercom when calling 1 phone? I have a school bus depot using 2 phone systems. The Cisco for outside calls and the old DBS for intercom and Overhead pages. They say the overhead paging is an upgrade that they can't afford at this time. Is voice announce an option also??? :bang: :bang: :bang:

No Cisco does not have intercome features through the phone.

You mean you can't call from phone to phone at all, or just no voice announce intercom?

No, they CAN call from phone to phone, but it's not hands-free. The recipient of the internal call receives a ringing call that they must answer using the handset or speakerphone.

I believe that the Cisco system can integrate with an external paging system by purchasing a separate server. It will probably be pretty expensive though. Adding-on to VoIP systems isn't as simple as adding-on to traditional systems. It can easily cost many thousands of dollars for hardware and software upgrades for an oversight that was made when purchasing the "system".

So, to answer your original question in a nut shell: No voice announce intercom, one of the most basic requests of phone systems can be accommodated. Unfortunately, you will need to hold onto the old system for the paging function.

That is DUMB!!!!
The only reason they are using Cisco is remote admin. The city of Dallas threw them out a while back and now the school district is buying the junk again. Your government in action.

The thing is Cisco comes in themselves on big deals and likes to promise the world. As good as us phone sales guys are, the Cisco guys are really good. And since they do not do the installs they are long gone when things go wrong! No one ever got fired for installing Cisco..........Right?????

You can connect to any exsisting paging system, as long as you have FXO (analog) ports on your call manager server. Just set one of your FXO ports up as a trunk and tie it into your paging system.

mgere,
I believe that the question refered to intercom paging to the desk telephone, not to a seperate paging system. As I am sure you are aware, intercom paging is a common feature among even the most basic Key/PBX systems on the market for the last 15 years - this is a rather large deficiency in the Cisco (and other IP systems) at the current time, something that I am sure will be resolved though.

Steve

just out of curiousity can someone list any more specific examples of ciscos problems?

There is a lot of talk about how, for example, you can't take multiple calls on a phone.

Well I have never seen a problem with taking multiple calls on a phone. Other then the paging it is a really good phone system. The probems with the system come down to pricing, the amount of gear needed, the huge learning curve, and all the different places it has to be managed. However the main install is expensive, but the distributed sites are inexpensive to install.

https://www.cisco.com/en/US/product...s_tech_note09186a00801f3b4e.shtml#topic1

Multiple Calls Per Line
These are the Multiple Calls Per Line enhancements in Cisco CallManager 4.x:

Overcomes the limitation on the maximum number of calls per line.

Introduces the CFB Trigger concept to replace the original Call Waiting flag.

Configurable CFNA timer per line.

Maximum Number of Calls
In Cisco CallManager 3.x , the maximum number of calls allowed per DN is restricted to two. The new feature in Cisco CallManager 4.x makes this count database configurable, per line appearance, per cluster. However, due to the limited memory available in devices such as Cisco 7914 IP phones and the large number of lines that can be attached to them, it is necessary to limit the maximum number of calls for all lines on one single device. This limitation is stored in the database per device type.

For Multiple Call Display (MCD) devices, the default maximum number of calls is set to 4 per line appearance.

For non-MCD devices, this number remains at 2, due to the limited display capability. The default is set to 2 as well.

The sum of the maximum number of calls for all line appearances per device should not exceed the limit for that device type. If it exceeds the limit, the device is no longer able to register.

Once this limit is reached, a user cannot use that line to initiate new calls and no new incoming calls are offered.

Note: An MCD device can display more than two call instances per DN at any given time. The display information for one call instance does not interrupt the display information for another call instance. Cisco IP Phones 7960 and 7940 are MCD capable, while 7910, SP12, and 30VIP are not.

This is a REAL issue if you are used to having capabilites of taking more than a one or two calls.

After futher investigation, selling company insists
that a Page server is required. Any other connection of paging will void warranty!!??
Looks like Cisco phones are about flexible as a 57 Chevy A frame. Yes we could use trunk to page but there is still the matter of no Voice Intercom.
Have they ever met any one who uses a phone system??


:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:

Are the Cisco phones you are using multi-line with speakerphone ? How about adding a second DN and making the second DN auto-answer ? If the called party is off-hook, the phone can ring or play a call-waiting tone.

Do you need multiple phones in the called group to "autoanswer" simultaneously ? This would require a 3rd party solution like Informacast from Berbee. (Which would run on its own server.) https://www.berbee.com/public/berbeesoftware/IPSpeaker.aspx
The berbee software can be ordered directly from Cisco with a cisco part number.

You gotta be kidding. Another server to have voice announce intercom. Such a deal I have for you!!

How can they cost 3 times as much and not have half the features? It has to be great sale people. Just my 2 cents

It's called BRANDING - unlike most of the other manufacturers whose avenue to branding is to use the dealers and resellers dime to advertise and promote the product Avaya and CISCO spend Millions on branding. This is why 90% of the phone system manufacturers are unknown to the public. SO if you walk in with a Shoretel, Tediran, etc vs. an Avaya or Cisco dealer.
ALL that rep has to say is an off handed comment like "yes those little guys, they have a 1% of the market share, wonder if they're going to be around in a year. The end user will NEVER tell you this - sometime because they're not even conscious of the little seed that was planted, but when it gets down to bucks that undefined
"comfort" feeling wins 1000s of deals for these guys. (as evidenced by many a thead here about market share)

The other Mfg.'s ESPECIALLY the new ones dont seem to learn this, but we all know that mfg's brainless.

Cisco is very good at low balling bids on new installs, but after the honey moon is over and the customer needs adds, moves, changes or license renewals the price is sky high.

Dan S

Berbee makes applications that are said to interface well with Cisco Callmanager Applications. Some local schools are using it for paging in the area where I live. Seems to work well, don't know the pricing though

check out
https://www.berbee.com/public/berbeesoftware/PCbroadcast.aspx