Line-status indication on extension

[phoenixschool]

I have a Quadro 16x with snom 360s and 320s. Our users will be transitioning from an old Intertel system. The phones would show a light next to each function key associated with an FXO line if the coresponding line is in use.

Although replicating this feature on the Quadro would have limited usefullness for sites with unlimited outgoing calls via an ITSP, it could definately be handy for sites with only FXO lines or FXO lines + limited ITSP lines. This way extension users would know which lines are in use or if all lines are in use, before placing the call and hearing the "All lines in use" message.

[Mario]

Sorry for the late response.


We are working on "key system emulation" for the future that includes the ability to see line appearances on the IP phones. We do not have a determined timeframe for this yet.

[datamine]

Any timeframe for this feature enhancement yet?

[Stebo]

Is now released this feature or not?


I need it!


Thank you!

[davrays]

Not yet :) The work was suspended due to a number of objective and subjective reasons. I personally don't fully understand why people so stick to these "key system" way of operation, instead of normal PBX usage, but thats my subjective opinion.
Now the work on this is resumed, but still there is no specific dates. Something would be ready, most probably, within the next month.

[kopcom]

Just wondering how you were going with the fxo indication, this feature is important as with no visual indication users cant tell if the fxo is in use or not. Makes it hard to convince new clients to purchase over a traditional key system and at this stage i have to make clients aware of this limitation.


Regards GK

[davrays]

The key system emulation features are expected to be ready at the alpha-stage after about two months, so the realistic date for the release would be 3-4 months starting from now.

[baccpbx]

Hi Adam From Biztronics in Australia, the Key System Emulation is a Key Selling Point for me, i have just lost a 20K sale the other day due to this fact and i have been asked about it in new quotes that i am doing. Please keep me notified as you get nearer to the time of release. i am also happy to beta the release as well.


I can not stress how important this is to me...


My contact details are email: adam@biztronics.com.au (adam@biztronics.com.au) Phone:+61 3 9532 2299 Mobile: +61 4 39 896 719 Epygi Ext.:77607314@sip.epygi.com and 77607313@sip.epygi.com


Thanks Adam

[baccpbx]

Any Progress on this, i am happy to help with beta testing if you have something... i am really need it to help me sell your product. And if i can sgtart testing it for you then at least i acna tell my customers that we are activlly doing something and there is a out come to this issue, my details are above if you need to contact me

[davrays]

Hello Adam :)


the key system emulation features are not yet in the stage when we can give it to you to test... I would tell it is now in a pre-alpha stage - that means everything is written and ready, but not yet working :))


Hopefully in two weeks we will have something between alpha and beta :)...

[ssteiner]

I'm wondernig.. is the key system emulation realized with shared line apperances as available on other systems?
I come from a Linksys SPA9k background, where this is a feature that is frequently used, and I'd really like to see this on the Epygi (which I otherwise consider superior to the Linksys offering). I've just recently made the plunge myself, and SLA is really the one feature I'm missing (the rest I can replicate and there's a lot more I can do now). I'd like to recommend the Quadro to other people who are in the same boat and are looking for a suitable small system which sticks more to standards.

[AramK]

You are correct, key system emulation will bereleased with shared line apperances, so you'll have it on your Quadro soonand also you can start torecommend the Quadro to other people :) Edited by: aramk

[davrays]

The internal release with the key system emulation is ready and we are testing that now.It will support 8 shared lines with up to 20 phones registered on each. Hope this will be enough. Edited by: davrays

[baccpbx]

Hello, Adam from Biztronics, i am in need of the Key System Emulator as soon as i can i am abouit to loose some big clients if i dont. can you please contact me via email or voip ext and let me download it on to my 2x so i can help you test it, i can not stress how much i need to see if it is going to help me. Epygi SIP Ext. 77541411@sip.epygi.com

[souren]

Hello, Adam from Biztronics, i am in need of the Key System Emulator as soon as i can i am abouit to loose some big clients if i dont. can you please contact me via email or voip ext and let me download it on to my 2x so i can help you test it, i can not stress how much i need to see if it is going to help me. Epygi SIP Ext. 77541411@sip.epygi.com

Hello,

I'll make a quote from Epygi Publications
Quadro6L:
This product is based on the 6 port FXO gateway product. It will support the 4.1 Quadro software package with all the 4.1 features. Additional features will include a package for Key System Emulation. This will add the Shared Line Appearance feature to the existing feature set. It will have 10 IP lines. The focus for this product is to fill a gap where our customers needed a few more FXO ports for a small office and wanted to stay in a single box solution. Estimated Beta date is currently late November.


Hope this was helpful.

[baccpbx]

Hi Does this mean the Key System Emulator will only work on a 6L ? I will need to know this as if there is not change of it ever going on a 2x or 4x, i will have to look another product to sell as i am going to loose my customers. i am very happy with the epygi, but i am in the SME market and i just can not get the PBX mentality over the line, they are all to use to the Key System way. Thanks Adam

[AramK]

Hello Adam, there was a misunderstanding from Souren's side. Key System Emulation is implemented not only on 6L product, but also on all Quadro IP-PBXs, which are 2x/4x/16x with all their modifications. Also, as I understand, in this stage youneed this featurefor beta testing and todo a demofor yourcustomers, not for regular use. I'll check the possibilty to give you a beta-image and will inform you soon.

[baccpbx]

That would be great, all i need is to have in in house in my demo room, so at least i can explain to the customers that this is what is coming out very soon and that we can accomidate there needs, and then hopefully by the time they purchase it we will have the stable issue. Thanks for your help i think you have my email address if you need adam@biztronics.com.au (adam@biztronics.com.au) or my Epygi SIP Ext are in the above posts

[davrays]

Hi Adam,


right now the Key System Emulation feature is not in the beta stage, it is more like "alpha"-stage, so we normally don't give that out of the Epygi. But if you would like however to take a look at that, and is ready to some surprises using that feature, we can give you a 4x image (5.0.0). 2x image is not ready yet, and we are waiting for the results of 4x image testing before preparing 2x one.


Best regards,


David

[baccpbx]

David,


This would be great, i have a 4x in the Demo room so can install it on this. how will you get it to me my email address is adam@biztronics.com.au (adam@biztronics.com.au) hope to here form you soon.


Thanks Adam

[ssteiner]

Is there a rough timeline for this feature to become available?

[KSComs]

To be honest I find the PARK key more useful than line keys for emulating Key Phones ( which these days are dropping PSTN/ISDNline appearances and using call appearance and park keys only)


I have been installing telephone systems of varying sizes for 30 years.... Samsung, Siemens, Aria, NEC all are heading away from PSTN/ISDN Line Appearance keys and using PABX methods.


The reasons why are two fold... It is far better to use a PARK position to park and page to notify people of callers than it is to hold a call, transfer it to an extension only to have the call bounce back to you after the timer and you having to remember what the call was about ..


Secondly telephone handsetscan beexpensive, display, handsfree plus multiple keys all come at a cost.... The standard Aria handset has only 8 programmable keys, 2 of which are call appearance keys, 4 usually are programmed as Park keys and the last 2 x feature keys... This in practise is the norm and what is programmed for the majority of situations in the field.


Regards


Kevin

[ssteiner]

This thread has been idle for quite a while. I just upgraded to the release 5 thinking we'd get SLA but apparently that's not the case. Seeing as the 6L has firmware 5.0.10 shouldn't the 2x/4x/16x have gotten the same feature with the 5.0.11 firmware? Is there a timeline for the SLA feature?

[davrays]

Well, if you look to the 5.0 announced featurelist, you'll see that there is no SLA there.
SLA was developed for 2x/4x/16x, but is not included there mainly because of the marketing reasons (and also some performance reasons too). I don't think we will enable SLA support on those models in the nearest time. No plans so far (and actually no demand, when it comes to a real market).

[ssteiner]

I realize it's not in the changelog so after reading that I didn't really expect to have it. My expectations mainly came from reading the responses I got with regards to SLA when I started out.. the way I undestood them, having SLA wasn't so much a question of if but rather when (and hence my asking about the timeline)

Can't say how much I hate the because of the marketing reasons response.. to me marketing these days (not specifically Epygi.. it's a first for me as far as your company is concerned, but I see so many products limited not because of engineering but purely marketing reasons) has reached the evilness level of lawyers.

Where I hang out most (forums geared towards small systems) people deal with SLAs quite a lot and I've seen a few requests plus one thread about shared voicemail boxes (actually my main concern.. SLA is a feature I don't really need but I'd like to have shared mailboxes). Isn't SLA a feature that would help in the US market where people often come off key systems?

@KSComs: I'm with you on the reasoning - we're seeing that too (in fact we don't really have any keysystem setups.. private extensions is the norm plus BLFs to monitor other extensions, or parallel huntgroups to have a group of devices ring) but that's the European market, which telephony feature wise is more evolved than certain other parts of the world. We do however use group mailboxes quite a lot (e.g. an overflow of a huntgroup). I think given the proper devices (those that support BLF.. and now with the new firmware we can even program buttons from the PBX), plus the MER Feature, plus parking/transfer, we can pretty much do everything except for the group mailbox (actually that's possible to.. it's just the MWI that is really missing.. phones can be programmed to dial into the appropriate box when the message button is pressed after all given the appropriate dialplan entry).

[davrays]

Where I hang out most (forums geared towards small systems) people deal with SLAs quite a lot and I've seen a few requests plus one thread about shared voicemail boxes (actually my main concern.. SLA is a feature I don't really need but I'd like to have shared mailboxes). Isn't SLA a feature that would help in the US market where people often come off key systems?

We'll see. The 6L with SLA (actually that is the Key System support) will show if there is a real need and a real market for that feature in the US and elsewhere. Only if we feel real demand, we can think of investing time and money on adding that feature on other products (as this may need some redesign/reinforcement of existing hardware).
When I talk about "marketing" reasons (and that is true at least when it concerns Epygi), I talk mostly about decisions whether or not something is really needed somewhere to justify the efforts (and there are other efforts involved except just the development of firmware), but not about 'malicious' hiding an existing feature just to create a trouble for users and "reach the evlness level of lawers" :D

Best regards,
David

[ssteiner]

So I take it then that the 6L is based on a significantly different firmware from the other devices? I thought looking at version numbers and such it would probably be mostly the same with the main difference being the larger number of lines (which doesn't make the device more attractive to me... 2+ channels pretty much imply BRI around here.. or PRI depending on how many the plus is). Having a similar version number also seems to hint at that, and of course the less differences the easier is the job of the firmware engineers.

Would you consider the notion if a group mailbox (with MWI) if SLA is currently not under consideration for the "regular" Quadro boxes?