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Tom Keating
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Asterisk Linux Based IP-PBX

AudioCodes enters IP Phone arena with 300HD Series

November 5, 2008

AudioCodes has now entered the IP phone arena with a phone that supports wideband codecs (HD) for superior sound quality. Seems a bit odd for a company that makes VoIP PCI and cPCI communication boards and VoIP media gateway modules (PMC form factor) and Analog Media Gateways (2/4/8/24 ports) to be entering the crowded VoIP arena, but enterprise IP phone market is expected to quadruple, from $2.1 billion in 2007 to $8.4 billion in 2001, with some 63 million endpoints being shipped by that time, according the Synergy Research Group. So there is a pretty big pie to go after. Traditional network hardware vendor Adtran has also recently entered the IP phone arena with their Adtran IP700 series (see Adtran IP706 review).

The AudioCodes 300HD Series includes three models: The 310 HD entry level phone with a basic display and interface; the 320HD premium endpoint with a larger screen, and the 350HD executive phone with a color LCD screen.

New Blackfin BF51x Processor Launches

October 27, 2008

Analog Devices unveiled the new Blackfin BF51x series, the newest members of their convergent-processor family. Blackfin processors are very popular when building Asterisk-based appliances, including the Digium Asterisk Appliance AA50 and Astfin. The Blackfin convergent-processor architecture offers reduced cost, power consumption, and software complexity. Although the processor is popular in creating Asterisk appliances, it can be used for a variety of low-cost, low-power consumption required applications.

The new Blackfin processors are the BF512, BF514, BF516 and BF518.

Use VoIP to Telecommute for a Merry Christmas!

October 24, 2008

How do save money in this worldwide tight economy so that you can have a Merry Christmas with lots of gift giving? (Not that gift giving is the main point of Christmas) Well, one way is by using VoIP to telecommute. Research done by Aastra found that commuters driving into the UK's largest cities could potentially save enough money by Christmas to buy more than half a kilometer of wrapping paper if they worked from home just one day a week. Based on commuters with 50-mile round trips, the average transit time soars in London to 111 hours - almost fourteen working days a year.

Analysis of a VoIP Attack

October 23, 2008

VoIP security is often overlooked by IT administrators as well as VARs and resellers that deploy VoIP in the enterprise. They do so at their own peril, however. One of the main factors behind using VoIP is to save money. Well imagine your IP-PBX has been hacked and you don't notice anything wrong until you receive the next phone bill with hundreds or thousands of dollars in phone charges.

Fonality Beats Avaya and Boasts 3,000 Call Centers

October 22, 2008


Fonality's CEO Chris Lyman spoke with me earlier today to talk about the strong inroads Fonality has been making in the call center market. Chris said, "Fonality has become a big player in what I like to call the micro call center market. We launched our call center product in 2005 and we have almost 3,000 deployed call centers now."

When asked to define "call center" since many people have a different definition, Chris responded, "Anybody who purchases Call Center Edition plus HUD Agent. We can't imagine someone buying barging, monitoring, recording, and queue reporting if you weren't doing call center activity.


TMC & Digium Announce Registrations open for Digium|Asterisk World

October 20, 2008

Registration to the upcoming Digium|Asterisk World conference is now open, according to an announcement today from Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) and Digium, the open source Asterisk Company. So you early bird types can now register and add it to your Calendar now, lest you forget. TMC and Digium also announced the launch of the new event Web site at www.digiumasteriskworld.com.
 
Digium|Asterisk World is collocated with TMC's INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO East 2009 and is a 3-day event commencing on February 2, 2009 in Miami, Florida.
 
According to TMCnet reporter Michelle Robart: Entering its third year, Digium|Asterisk World is the conference that educates business users, resellers and executive decision-makers on "Everything Asterisk."

Michelle also gives more interesting details about Digium|Asterisk World:
 
The conference will feature booth exhibition space and a Presentation Theatre on the EXPO floor where attendees can learn more about Digium's open source communications solutions. In addition, TMC and Digium will join forces to create the conference track agenda, which will be revealed in the upcoming weeks.
 
ITEXPO East 2009 is the world's largest and most significant communications technology event.








Aastra 57i and 57i CT Review

October 17, 2008


The Aastra 57i is one of my favorite VoIP phones. The 57i and its sister, the 57i CT (cordless telephone adjunct), offers some unique features and is undoubtedly one of the most flexible IP phones you will find. The 57i and 57i CT sport a large 144 x 128 pixel graphical backlit LCD display and 6 dynamic context-sensitive softkeys. Although the resolution isn't designed for photos, it's a very large LCD, one of the largest I've seen making it very easy to read the number of voicemail messages, the CallerID of an inbound call, and the one touch feature keys you've programmed.

AsteriskNOW 1.5 beta released

October 15, 2008

TMC & Digium Partner for Digium|Asterisk World at ITEXPO

October 6, 2008

I've had some big news I had to keep under wraps until today. My company, Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) and Digium, the Asterisk Company, today announced that they have partnered to host Digium|Asterisk World™ during INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO East 2009 in Miami, Florida. Having ITEXPO host Digium|Asterisk World is a huge win for TMC and further cements TMC's ITEXPO as the most preeminent VoIP and IP communications show. In fact, I recently came across this quote from Phonevite, "With the demise of the VON Show, the Internet Telephony Conference & Expo (aka ITEXPO) is now regarded as the biggest and most eminent show in the VoIP industry."

Digium|Asterisk World at ITEXPO will be the conference that addresses "Everything Asterisk" for business users, resellers and executive decision-makers.

Adtran IP 706 Review

October 1, 2008


Adtran recently launched their IP 700 series of IP phones in late April. Adtran sent TMC Labs the IP 706 model, which supports up to 6 lines, but the 700 series also includes the IP 712 which is identical feature-wise but supports up to 12 lines. Each line can be configured to register with unique SIP proxy/registrar servers. This allows a different line for every line key on the phone.
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