OK ... I will!
BTW, watched many of your YouTube vids Joe ... they were very helpful! As a little background, we're a medium-size church, so we have employees scattered around several buildings on the campus. I think more of the questions I have are with wiring and with sets we can use than anything else. Here's what I've got right now:
1. Can the UCx support the answer DN feature from the Norstars or does the UCx have a feature comparable to it? This is absolutely essential. This was a big disappointment for the Avaya Partner ACS systems and Partner Messaging ... it could be done, but you had to use an AA to accomplish it, along with some crazy programming! We have multiple users who use Answer DN's, so we'd absolutely have to have this. This is our favorite feature on the Norstar.
2. Some of our M-series phones are starting to give up the ghost - have had them for quite awhile. What I'm thinking we might do is to shift the sets that are still working to areas on campus with phones that aren't used all that often, and upgrade the office sets. If we do this, some additional questions surface:
a) The M-series sets are one-pair sets. I'm assuming that most SIP IP phones, like all ethernet devices, operate on two pairs and also need either a power adapter or PoE. If we were to put some new IP sets in place of our existing M-series phones, can we simply rewire the jacks to accommodate two pairs (provided the needed cable is there), or would we have to run new cable?
b) I'm really new to PoE ... never used it before. For IP phones, does power get sent with the same two pairs that the phone uses to communicate, or do they use the "spare pair" on the cat5 to transmit power? That might mean the difference of having to pull new wire if we don't have three pairs available (if they only ran two-pair wires to the jacks). How do the sets get hooked up? Let's say that we've got a jack in an office. The wires going from that office go to a punchdown block which connects our buildings. If we threw in PoE, how does that look? Do the wires coming from the office jack come to the PoE switch, and then there's a port coming out of the switch that goes to the block and then to the system? Does any PoE switch work, or is there a special one that's needed based on the phones used?
c) What would you recommend for IP sets that we could use along with our M-series phones? I'm OK with having something that might be a little older as cost is a factor, but it would be nice to have something a little more modern for folks who use their phones regularly. I like Cisco sets, but maybe if we're using the M-series, we need to stick with Nortel brands?
3. How do our incoming lines (we have 4) fit into the system? Do they simply plug in from the CO?
4. How does the UCx integrate with our LAN? I have this image in my head that phone sets must be plugged into the UCx and data connections go to our ethernet switch. Does the UCx maybe plug into the ethernet switch and interface with it that way?
5. How about the voice mail features? I see that the UCx comes with voice mail. What are the specs? Number of AA's? Mailbox / storage capacity? Ports for connections? I really like the idea that you simply "get it" and don't have to keep unlocking different features.
6. How hard is the system to program? I'm assuming through a web interface? Would the system come pre-configured based on our needs and we could tweak?
6. How popular is e-metrotel? How many of these devices are out there in the field? Names like Avaya and Norstar have been around forever ... I want to make sure that we're partnering with a company that's going to be around for awhile and supports their products.
7. How much is the UCx 50 selling for?
7. Any reps in Wisconsin?
If you read this, Joe, can you do a YouTube video sometime about wiring, how the system integrates with the LAN, PoE, etc. Your videos are fantastic, and I think if I saw it, it would help me visualize this in my mind better.
That's what I've got for now. Thanks for your help!
