PA System?

[jcasanova]

I have a client that would like to take the paging capability one step further.

They'd like to have speakers in a high ceiling in a gym and other places in their location to be used as a paging system. I've looked a bit online and found a couple of VOIP PA Systems but most of them seem proprietary and unlikely to work with 3CX.

Has anyone here found any good solutions to a challenge like this?

My thoughts were to take a VOIP handset and wire the leads into an amplifier and then out to several speakers, although that seems unprofessional to me.

 

[leejor]

Years ago we put together a circuit for a customer that wanted to do much the same but in the PSTN world. It had a relay that tripped and latched when it detected ringing current. The audio was routed through a couple of capacitors and a transformer to the input of an amp. It relied on the (CPC) called party control (momentary open) that is usually sent on phone lines when the called party hangs up, to drop the relay. An ATA could be set up to do the same thing. Just make sure that you restrict who can dial the extension that you put the PA system on. There were a lot of wrong numbers and unintentional announcements made over the speaker.

Here is a link to a couple of circuits. I'm sure if you do a search you'll come up with a lot more. http://www.phrack.com/issues.html?issue=35&id=9

Or....You might want to buy one of these...http://www.twacomm.com/catalog/model_RAD-1A.htm?sid=40D5D7A285A9CB2567E324673EAC6D10

 

[Discovery Technology]

We've set this up for a number of sites which works very well with a lot of conventional hardware.

You start with a Linksys PAP2 ATA to convert Voip call to a standard line

We then use a line interface unit (LIU) connected to a call through unit (CTU - about the size of a cigarette box) available from a company called National Communications in Aust. (Should be available in other countries as well I would imagine).

The LIU converts the signal from RJ11 to stereo audio.

The CTU is programmable by dip switches so that it disconnects calls after a set amount of time (avoid the disconnected tone) calls can be cancelled by DTMF tones (dial 5 on the keypad for example)

What these two do is auto-answer the call and convert it to an audio output - you then connect up a PA system and wire up your speakers and you're good to go.

cost of ATA - approx. $50 - $100
cost of LIU and CTU - approx. $150
PA system and speakers from there.

Let me know if you need any more info.

 

[mhanson]

Cyberdata products work great with 3CX.

I actually did a blog about it.

http://www.voipstore.com/cyberdata-review