3CX Emergency Broadcast with Online Hosted 3CX Advice

[Darkneopulse]

Hi All,

I have a new client that have only just made me aware that they require some form of emergency notification or paging for 30 local handsets. I have found that adding that many handsets to a paging group introduces roughly a 10 second delay before all the handsets connect which I suppose is to be expected but the client is looking for something effectively instant.

I have seen multicast paging can't be used if the PBX is hosted so I believe that is off the table.

I believe just playing a pre-recorded message would also be acceptable but I'm unsure on how this may work.

If anyone can provide info on the above or an alternate solution I would really appreciate it, apologies if this has been asked before but any threads I found were old and didn't contain a solution for this scenario.

Cheers.

 

[bigdessert]

Algo can take a sip page and then multicast it out.

 

[RJansen]

You can do this with setting -> emergency numbers and then a pre-recorded announcement.
I got this working on Snom PA1's or the Snom phones themself on a hosted 3CX.
Only problem we can only add one optional audio announcement for all the emergency numbers listed.
It would be very nice if we can make up some "emergency" numbers like
Fire alert number 1234 - audio message slow whoop sound with evacuate building message
Tornado alert number 5678 - audio message to seek shelter
Panic button 5555 on phone in a doctors office to alert a colleague

And select a different pre recorded announcement per number.

With the Snom PA1's connected to ceiling speakers when i pressed my BLF key with madeup emergency number pre recorded message played over al 6 PA1's was instant.

 

[VoIPTools]

You could set up a VPN between the office and the 3CX server. Then the phones essentially become local to the PBX and multicast paging will work. Otherwise, setting a large number of phones in a paging ring group will, as you discovered, introduce delays.

Expanding on RJansen's suggestion, you could use a paging device (like the PA1), but that's not going to send audio through the phones, rather, this would send audio through horns or speakers and would require additional investments in hardware.

But audio is only one approach to notifications. You could also send emails, SMS texts, and even desktop alerts if you use our 3CX Emergency Notifier tool. By the way, our tool includes speed-dials for panic buttons. That includes one-time and continuous alarms. So, if you have enough BLFs, you could have dedicated buttons for fire, tornadoes, active shooter, etc.