Atcom IP04

Back in 2008 I posted an article about Affordable IP Phone Systems. This was all very well but I hadn’t actually ever touched the Atcom IP04 / IP08 phone system.

A couple of months ago I was able to get my hands on a demo unit thanks very much to Hadley at Nicegear. I regret being very busy with Uni at the time meant I wasn’t able to conduct an in-depth or scientific review.

Here are some of the things I can remember about the unit and the process of getting it up and running. Please note I would recommend trying it out first if you are considering going this route before leaping into it.

Hardware specifications

• CPU: 400MHz Blackfin 532 DSP Chip
• Zero/Four/Eight analog (FXO/FXS) module interfaces (IP01/IP04/IP08)
• 256MB NAND flash storage
• 64MB SDRAM

Software Features

• Built-in configurable Asterisk IP PBX
• Web based GUI
• High performance OSLEC (Open Source Line Echo Canceller)
• Voicemail
• Call forward, call waiting, call transfer
• Call conference
• Call queues
• SIP trunking, IAX trunking
• PSTN analog trunk (up to four PSTN trunks)
• Flexible dial plan
• Configurable IVR menu
• Replaceable MMC/SD memory

Setup

I constructed my review with a specific small business in mind (30 extensions, 7 trunks). Four trunks would be analogue and the rest VoIP. Extensions were going to be SIP but terminating to Linksys SPA8000′s as analogue adaptors as we have an existing analogue infrastructure in place (lots of cordless phones which were going to be challenging to find affordable VoIP alternatives).

First I launched straight in and tried to get it working. I couldn’t seem to get a dialtone on any of the analogue extensions. After a bit of playing around I decided to revert the settings to factory default. This got the analogue ports going properly in no time.

I set up a few extensions, that was OK, but I ran into some difficulty getting auto attendant / pre-recorded messages to work properly. Turned out that the extension group that was being used by the messages seemed to be conflicting with something, perhaps with the extension range I chose for the normal extensions. I opened up the extension list and there was some weird thing going on with the recorded message extensions being listed twice in the extension list – sorry I can’t remember exactly, but I did get it working without too much hassle.

Setup did take a bit of trial and error, however performing maintenance with the GUI should be a breeze after the initial setup.

Call Quality

The only oddity I noticed here was once when I was on a call and navigating the configuration GUI at the same time, I heard some digital artifacts on the line as each page was loading. I restarted the unit and didn’t have it happen again after that.

Based on a couple of unscientific test calls (Analog Phone > Atcom Unit > Analog Line > Telecom > Analog PBX) I came to the conclusion that the calls were a little noisier over the Atcom box than my normal line. I didn’t have any other ATA’s to compare what the quality was like. I imagine any FXO / FXS will degrade the quality slightly (any conversion from analog to digital), so wasn’t particularly worried about this. It could have also been to do with gain settings etc. If you were in a total VoIP environment, or using other adaptors to do the analogue conversion, this would not be relevant, as the quality of VoIP only calls was not at all degraded by the Atcom.

Conclusion

When looking at direct costs, this box would be hard to beat. We decided not to go with it at this stage, primarily because we were able to purchase our existing PBX for a good price.

The Atcom isn’t for the faint of heart – you do have to be prepared to do some tinkering to get this working right. However it should be easy to maintain after the initial setup. Admittedly I didn’t have to use the command line at all. I love the idea of no moving parts – and you shouldn’t settle for anything less (I could accept a fan or two). Consuming less than 5 watts of power is excellent.

I would recommend this unit to users who are going to use VoIP throughout their system (or at least for the trunks) rather than using analogue adaptors – although you should have a couple of analogue lines for failover and emergency calling. Do some experimenting of your own if you are planning to use analogue phones with it.

It would be great to hear about your experiences with these or other VoIP units, as would any other readers. Please leave a comment below or send me an email. Thanks!

We began with a couple of requirements:

• The unit must be portable, able to be wheeled around the campus.
• Upon arrival at the location, it should be able to be up and running within a couple of minutes.
• As our demand for video conferencing isn’t that high, the unit should be able to be used for video editing, to help justify the cost of having a powerful computer on the unit.

I first spent a few hours looking through catalogues of AV Trolleys and general computer trolleys, but wasn’t able to find any I was satisfied. The trolley would need to hold a computer, monitor, webcam, keyboard/mouse, speakerphone.

Last Wednesday I was down in our tech workshop when I noticed a sack barrow and realised we could convert one into a pretty useful trolley ourselves.

Building the trolley:

Trolley Ingredients:

• 1 x sack barrow with pneumatic wheels, purchased from The Warehouse ($39.95)
• 6 x pipe clips (I forget what size exactly, but they fit perfectly over the pipes on the sides of the sack barrow ($3)
• A strip of a wood of your choice. I used custom board, slightly wider & taller than the sack barrow ($0 – had it lying around).
• Bunch of screws suitable for the thickness of the wood
• 2 x cans of matte black spray paint from ($14)
• 2 x |_ brackets (sorry, cant remember their name) to secure the computer from sideways movement. ($3)
• A black ratchet tie-down type strop to go around the computer and trolley and hold it in place ($5)
• A simple VESA mount, this will mount the LCD to the trolley. I used this ($15)
• Total cost: around $80 NZD (the Polycom trolley was $600 alone….)

Computer Components:

(usually using the cheapest sources from PriceSpy)

• Your choice of VESA capable LCD – we used a 22″ BenQ G2110W ($310)
• Your choice of small form computer – we got a Dell Optiplex SFF Core 2 Duo, a very nice machine. ($400 brand new from GraysOnline auctions)
• Your choice of webcam – we got a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 ($125)
• Your choice of speaker/mic – we got a Logitech QuickCall USB Speakerphone ($100)
• Your choice of keyboard/mouse – we got a Microsoft Wireless Desktop 1000 ($55)
• Total cost: around $990 NZD

The Build:

1. Lightly sand the sack barrow to make the spray paint stick, then spray. I didn’t want a bright red conferencing trolley, so matte black it was.
2. Prepare the wood suitably, for me this involved sanding, sealing, then a couple of coats of matte black on all surfaces.
3. Sit the wood on the bottom of the sack barrow, and secure to the sack barrow with the pipe clips.
4. Now mount the VESA bracket for the LCD close to the top of the board. Obviously the exact placement will depend on your LCD.
5. Bore a hole for the monitor cables to go through, then attach the LCD.This is where I’m up to currently – the computer hasn’t arrived yet, so bear with me.
   Anticipated steps when the computer arrives:
6. Place the computer you are using, sideways on the bottom of the sack barrow. Use the |_ brackets on either side to secure the computer from sideways movement, and throw the ratchet tie-down around the machine to stop it escaping.
7. Find a place to mount or stow the keyboard, mouse and speakerphone. I am wondering about making a padded pouch of some sorts that will keep the keyboard and mouse on the back of the unit.
8. By using piggyback power cables I will eliminate the need for a multibox, as I’m finding it hard to come across a black multibox.

Backboard painted and mounted to the sack barrow with the pipe clips

Positioning the VESA mount

VESA Mounted & Cable hole drilled

VESA Mounted on the LCD

LCD Mounted onto Sack Barrow

LCD Mounted to Trolley

Testing the LCD with the new iTunes visualisations

Conclusion:

So far I am pretty pleased with how it has all turned out. I only attached the monitor thismorning, and the computer hasn’t arrived yet, but I’m looking forward to getting that all setup after the Christmas break.

Stay tuned for Affordable Video Conferencing – Part 2 – Software!

There is a strange sense of security that goes with having a dedicated appliance for something as critical as telephony. Businesses that are used to having a phone system on the wall somewhere may not be totally comfortable having a phone system running on any old PC sitting in the server room (although this could be a safer option, as you always can drop the hard drive into another machine if something goes wrong with one).

While there have been Asterisk appliances from major names like Digium, their cost is not much cheaper than a POTS system, making migrating from a traditional phone system hard to justify. The Atcom IPxx series on the other hand which you can get the base unit for under $500, depending on how many analogue trunks and extensions you want.

I should note that it is not a trivial cost associated with moving to VoIP – if you have existing analogue phones the cheapest way will be to use ATA devices such as the Linksys SPA8000. VoIP phones start at around the $200 which soon adds up.

The ATCOM looks fairly easy to set up. There will be a learning curve, but it is definitely within the scope of in house IT staff to create new extensions, reconfigure IVR menus, if not set up the whole system from scratch.

For the price, I would buy two, and keep one as a spare that I could drop the flash card into should anything happen to the other.

The Atcom IP01 / IP04 / IP08 can handle around 30 concurrent calls, which is plenty for any small to medium business in New Zealand.

My immediate reaction when I saw this was to buy it just because it was so unbelievably cheap. Unfortunately, being a student means that isn’t quite a good enough reason to buy one.

Update: July 2009
I still haven’t tried out any of the ATCOM gear. I have to say I am nervous about the quality, I’d love to think it would be excellent, but until I have tested it I won’t know. In New Zealand of course you are probably still going to want analogue trunks instead of relying on 2talk/SIP trunks unless you have a really nice internet connection.