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Phihong Midspan Explanation

Are the PhiHong Midspan units basically a switch/hub such that you can put them between a router and a set of phones? Or are they just power injection units essentially amalgamating 8, 16 or 24 channels where you have an in/out for each cable from the router on it’s way to the phone? Or something else….?

They are not a switch. They do nothing with the data. You still need a switch port to connect each power port to.

For each powered port they have an in and out socket.

in = data only to connect to the switch or router.
out = power and data to connect to IP phone or other Poe device.

When you are using the 8,16 or 24 port version you would usually need a set of short patch cables to connect all the in ports to the switch.

So why not just buy a POE switch?

1) Size. The spans aren’t very deep so will fit in most networking cabinets. Many POE switches are full depth devices

2) to power an existing switch. If you have made an investment in switches, you can add power without throwing away. For many high end managed switches, separate power can be cheaper than a powered switch to the same specification.

3) if you just want to power some ports.

One step closer to the Plug and Play IP PBX

SARK 500 flexibilityWouldn’t it be nice if you turned up to install an IP PBX and all you had to do was connect the lines and phones and everything just worked, with inbound calls automatically routed to the connected phones. With the combination of a SARK phone system plus snom and Yealink IP phones, it can be this simple.

Until now the reality has been quite different, the constant headache for telecoms engineers in setting up an on-site IP PBX has been in the configuring of extensions when they do not have control of the network. The largest time consuming element of any installation is the provisioning of the IP phones with the correct settings. Often getting this provisioning information to the phones has relied on special settings on a DHCP server . The problem with this is, that in most cases the telecoms installer does not have access to the DHCP server and even if they do, not all routers necessarily support this capability. The only option at this point is to manually set up each phone which is extremely time consuming and more importantly adds considerable cost to an installation.

The SARK development team led by Jeff Stokoe have harnessed a technology that has been embedded into snom and Yealink phones called SIP Multicast. During boot-up, the phones send out a SIP packet to a special IP address reserved for SIP Multicast. The SARK PBX listens to this address at all times and will respond, telling the phone where to get it’s configuration from. This achieves the same job as using the DHCP server but all the functionality is contained within the phone and phone system themselves. Therefore negating the requirement for the telecoms engineer to control the network. Furthermore, SARK will automatically generate extensions on the fly when it receives the Multicast message. The phone is then passed all it’s configuration information using an intelligent provisioning engine built into SARK. At this point the engineer has only had to physically connect and power up the SARK system and phones.

Paul Hayes, Product Development Director at ProVu Communications (the sole distributor for the SARK range of phone systems and distributor for Yealink UK) said: “The SARK system is designed to be accessed remotely, yet securely. In my mind this is essential for anyone wanting to install phone systems in any significant numbers. The zero-touch configuration system and remote access mechanisms in SARK allow engineers to manage systems without on-site visits, which significantly reduces both the installation and maintenance overhead for our resellers.”

ProVu Communications are the sole distributor for the SARK range of phone systems and the premier distributor for snom and Yealink phones.

Find more information on the SARK 500

ProVu turns up the volume on SIP phones

Algo Loud RingerProVu Communications has launched a new alerter product, the Algo 8180 SIP Audio Alerter that increases the ringing volume of SIP telephone systems for variable noise environments such as warehouses or factories. The device also auto answers for voice paging or full intercom systems.

Darren Garland, Managing Director of ProVu Communications, said: “The 8180 is typically eight times louder than a telephone speaker. This may seem ear piercing, but its SoundSure technology automatically adjusts the ring and paging volume to compensate for background ambient noise, therefore will only ring as loud as it needs to be heard.”

The product is equipped with a high efficiency integrated amplifier and tuned high quality loud speaker. The 8180 device is supplied to customers with several audio files pre-loaded to its internal memory for ringing sounds, but users are able to custom the system with personal audio files, music, sound effects or voice announcements.

Ian Godfrey, Sales Director of ProVu Communications, said: “The 8180 has been a hit with our resellers. It fills a gap in the market when our hosted or IP PBX resellers are looking to replace a more traditional telecoms solution where an existing loud ringer may have been in place. It takes them into opportunities that previously were not open to them.”

Find out more information: Algo 8180 SIP loud ringer / paging device

AASTRA SIP-DECT PHONES CERTIFIED WITH NET SmartSIP

Aastra Press Release:

“Aastra, a leading company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market, today announced it has successfully completed interoperability testing with SmartSIP 2.0 for Microsoft® Lync™ Server 2010 from Network Equipment Technologies (NET). This interoperability allows Aastra’s award winning SIP-DECT mobility solution and broad portfolio of standards based SIP phones, to be used as voice endpoints on Microsoft® LyncTM.”…

View the full Aastra press release

Answer and control your ProTalk IP Door Entry phone using your mobile phone

videocall on the iPadVoIP applications for smart phones
It is now possible to integrate your ProTalk IP Door entry system with: iPhone iPad iPod, Blackberry, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices using a video softphone applications such as Vippie.

Using this softphone you can now have a videophone call with whoever is calling at your door from where ever you are with a wifi Internet connection. You can then decide whether to allow the visitor access by simply dialling in an access code to operate the door release.

The ProTalk door entry devices support both H263 and H264 video codecs, please check that your SIP service provider or PBX supports at least one of these.

The Vippie softphone supports both video codecs, it is a 3rd party application, please visit their website for more information: voipswitch.com

Snom Summer Special – Buy 5 Get 1 FREE!

snomProVu are delighted to bring you the ‘snom summer sales special’, until the middle of August we are running a promotion on the snom 821 and snom 870.

snom 821

snom 821

The most popular handset in the 8 series range due to its versatility, price and feature set which recently qualified for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

**Buy 5 snom 821s and get one snom 821 free, all with snom OCS edition Firmware included!**

snom 870

snom 870

The latest model of the 8 series is the snom 870 with 5 way call conferencing, 12 different SIP identities, 12 freely programmable virtual keys and an advanced touchscreen display enabling 5-way conferencing via drag and drop.

**Buy 5 snom 870s and get one snom 870 for free!**

ProVu and snom are offering you the following snom summer sales special, valid until August 15, 2011.

To place your order for this amazing offer please contact a member of the ProVu Sales Team on 01484 840048.

Reasons why NOT to buy the German variant of the Gigaset DX800A for use in the UK

Over recent days, having tested a German variant DX800A purchased from two of the Amazon UK German traders I have discovered the following:

  1. Fixed line is only configured for ISDN, major issue for most UK users unless they are connecting to ISDN.
  2. Outbound call “line” Selection differs: when you make a call using UK variant you can select from DX800/IP line (if set up), Fixed Line (PSTN) & Mobile. For German variant you can only select ISDN, IP & Mobile. I looked through the Web UI and can find no option to enable the PSTN.
  3. German language menu settings as default (we know about this already and can be changed in the menu).
  4. German language for answering machine voice option prompts which cannot be changed. This makes the answering machine completely unusable to anyone that doesn’t speak German.
  5. Gigaset.Net doesn’t and can’t be used for outbound calling (refer to point 2, need to call via the DX800A which isn’t offered as a connection path).
  6. German PSUs.
  7. German language UG.

The UK version of the Gigaset DX800A is only available to Gigaset Pro Authorised and Certified resellers.

Find out more about becoming a Gigaset Pro Authorised reseller

Aastra Promotion – buy 10 and get 1 FREE

Aastra PromoHere at ProVu, we have been working closely with Aastra and are pleased to announce this fantastic offer to you

Through the month of July we are able to offer you a BUY 10 GET 1 FREE offer on the following phones:

There is no limit to the number of offers you can purchase.

To place your order and for more information please contact a member of the sales team on 01484 840048