What intercom systems are out there?

[cyr0n_k0r]

I am not sure if this is in the right forum so please move it if not.

 

My district currently has very old Telecenter ICS intercom/bell systems and I desperately want to replace them. My previous district was using dukane systems and I have heard they are pretty good overall.

 

Can anyone make any recommendations? Also, can intercom replacements be e-rated?

[netadmin]

We use Bogen PCM2000 intercom equipment at our campus. Ours is only a one-way audio broadcast (no talkback, call buttons, etc). It has worked well for us, and the rare times that problems did occur, Bogen support has always been very helpful in giving us guidance on troubleshooting.

 

I was able to design a fairly impressive system setup for us where we have a general paging zone for the whole building, but the classrooms that have projectors have separate amplifiers connected to both the building paging zone and the projector. If the projector is sending audio and a page goes through the building system, it automatically mutes the projector audio, broadcasts the page, then unmutes the projector. (I am using Atlas AA35 sound amplifiers to the projector classrooms, as these need half the rack space and are a bit cheaper compared with the Bogen amplifiers.)

 

If you are needing two way audio (with talkback, call buttons, etc), Bogen makes a system (SI35A) that can do this. I've seen it in use at another company and it seemed to work well for them. However, when I priced it up for our campus, the cost was significantly higher than the one way audio system, as individual wires had to be run to each room, verses a "daisy chain" wiring style that we were able to use. The SI35A also would likely not be able to accomodate the projector audio inputs easily.

 

We did look into Dukane. Their products are very good, but it seems to be harder to get parts for them compared to Bogen.

 

Hopefully this helps. If you decide to look into Bogen paging equipment and have questions on how I setup our system, feel free to PM me.

[cyr0n_k0r]

I'm not a fan of Bogen products. 3 of our old schools at my last district had Bogen systems and they never worked properly. We eventually replaced them with Dukane.

 

Either way though I am not going the amplifier in the room route. Ideally I want an intercom system that integrates easily with my Cisco VoIP phone system, and can also use Cat5 instead of speaker wire. I have heard some intercom systems are moving to this type since cat5 is usually already present in the rooms so the vendor doesn't have to run all new cable.

 

The big names I know of are Dukane, Rouland, and Bogen. Do you know of any other bigger vendors?

[plexer]

Why not install some VOIP ceiling speakers then?

 

Ben

[plexer]

CyberData - Singlewire-enabled VoIP Ceiling Speaker

[cyr0n_k0r]

I've been talking with our A/V vendor and they have said the Bogen Quantum product is great. It can use our existing speakers and wire, the only thing we have to replace is the amps and such at the head end.

 

It's web based zones and scheduleing and can integrate with our Cisco voIP. Does anyone have this system?

[mikeruelles]

I want to recommend Virtual PBX, VoIP phone systems or Hosted PBX systems as a replacement for your old intercom system.

[cyr0n_k0r]

Morning everyone. Looking to re-visit this thread.

 

We have decided we are interested in trying to move to a VoIP based intercom system. We would already have Cisco IP phones in the classrooms, so we won't need talkback. We are looking for a speaker that can ideally use Cat5e cabling as the speaker wire and supports PoE for any amplificiation needed.

 

Again the big names I know of are Bogen, Dukane and Rauland. But I'm sure there are other companies out there that are doing this. And it seems this entire website everyone on here is based in Europe (not sure why that is) but I am hoping some Americans can chime in and let me know if they have had any success in getting VoIP based intercom systems e-rated. I am hearing different stories about the rules surrounding it.

[dhicks]

We would already have Cisco IP phones in the classrooms

 

Do those not already have a broadcast option? Ours do, and it gets used every day. If you've not bought the handsets yet you could check and see if the handset's you're going to buy support a speaker-phone / page-all feature, and if not maybe the next model up will.

 

--

David Hicks

[cyr0n_k0r]

Paging from the phones is not ideal. They have horrible speakers and can not be heard throughout the classroom. We need an actual paging/intercom system.

[dhicks]

Paging from the phones is not ideal. They have horrible speakers and can not be heard throughout the classroom.

 

Are any phones that can take external plug-in speckers available? Could you physically wire in proper, heafty speakers to a phone?

 

--

David Hicks

[cyr0n_k0r]

I'm not sure how your teachers use their desks, but ours always have loads of papers, and piles of other misc junk. There is not room for external speakers and the like.

 

We are looking for a ceiling or wall mounted professional solution. We are NOT interested in using the phones.