We settled on using 2talk as our VoIP provider, and so far, 98% of our outgoing calls have gone over that. A VIC2-4FXO card provides us with POTS trunks, just incase we run into internet connectivity problems. Users can dial 8 to force a call to go via the analog trunks, in case of a poor VoIP service. ISDN is too expensive as we are in a small town, and on a tight budget.

As well as the four internal FXS ports, we have a Linksys SPA8000 providing 8 extras. Still having some issues trying to send faxes over that, but we will get there. It is a shame the SPA8000 isn’t supported more by Cisco Configuration Assistant, but I’ve tried to put the less critical extensions onto the SPA8000.

We use a Snap ADSL2+ internet connection, and are using a Linksys AM300 in half bridge mode connected to the UC520 WAN port. All of our regular web browsing (and site to site VPN traffic) goes over a separate internet connection, independant of the UC520. I’ve got a spare AM300 in the rack should anything ever happen to it, all configured up and ready to swap over.

All of the voice equipment  & core network switches are connected to UPS battery backups, so in the event of a power cut (which happens fairly often) we can keep the phones up and running for about 40 minutes. The staff would have usually gone home if an outage lasted that long however, can’t do much with the computers down.

Surge protection on the analog trunks concerned me, we have been through quite a few trunk cards in the Samsung PBX, so we installed some APC phone surge protectors in the rack. They weren’t cheap, but we managed to squeeze 4 trunks through two of them (each of them protects 2 pairs, centre pair is line 1, next pair, line 2 etc). I made some breakout cables (cut a RJ11 modem cable in half and terminate the ends to a RJ45) to split the lines out to the FXO ports. Didn’t bother surge protecting the ADSL side of the lines for fear of reducing the ADSL performance. That’s what the spare modem is for!

I plan to purchase another VIC2-4FXO card to keep onsite as a spare should anything happen to the one in the device; they are much cheaper to buy from eBay than NZ new. That just leaves the risk of the UC520 itself failing; I hope the chances of this are very low because we can’t afford to have another one of those just sitting around. We will consider purchasing a SmartNET warranty contract, however it is a second hand device so have to work out what to do there.

The second hand system we got included a 7961 with a 7914 expansion module. Problem is we have two phone operators who need to see what is going on with the lines. Was about to fork out about $700 for another 7916/14 when I found the 7931.

Not quite as pretty as the 7916, but only cost us $290 and it provides all the functionality we require; will probably buy a few more.

The remainder of the phones are 7911s with a couple of 7941s. Our logo displays on the phone screens which is a nice touch.

If you would like to know more about any of this, don’t hesitate to contact me, I’d love to discuss it further.

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!

If you haven’t read part 1 – do it now. In summary, I converted a Dell Small Form Factor PC into a Video Conferencing trolly. I mounted the PC to the sack barrow using some tiedowns.

After trialling many different options – trying hard to find a free one – we were left with a shortlist of Mirial Softphone, or Polycom PVX. While there were other free products out there, we specifically wanted a product which would allow us to do direct IP calls, so we could call into parties using real hardware conferencing units too.

We trialled both products, not scientifically. The general consensus was that Mirial perhaps had slightly better performance/quality, but the user interface of Polycom PVX was much more intuitive.

Both are great products, in the end it came down to affordability – Polycom gave us a great educational price through an NZ dealer which sealed the deal.

Our video conferencing setup hasn’t been without its problems – first it was a faulty network cable, then we didn’t have a static IP address set for the unit in Hokitika, obviously small problems which could happen with any units.

I’ll go out on a limb here and say that this seems to be an area that could do with some quality open source development!

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!

This comes after a weeks worth of changes to our accounting package sadly being lost after replication stopped working in the middle of my exam study week. More on that later.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for this tool, I am still very much in the stage of throwing ideas around for it, so let me know what you would want in it.

I will be releasing it freely when I get it to a working state.

Update (October 2009):

I haven’t got any further with this unfortunately, I got busy. I just had a look today and found a blog post that might be helpful. I’m still hoping to write something to do this more automatically, perhaps this summer.

As far as the web side of things go, we will be using a modified installation of WPMU, and a Moodle installation in the background. I won’t be integrating these as I don’t think it is worth the time it would take me.

I based our Moodle installation on the Solstice theme by NewSchool Media, a much needed addition to any Moodle installation!

The idea behind WPMU is that teachers will be creating classroom blogs etc, so to keep everyone in the same place we are providing a place for them to do just that.

Here are the logos I designed for the project

Which reminds me I need to optimise one for B&W printing…