Paging group with 2 way audio?

[Nubbins]

Hi All,

New to the 3CX world having come from FreePBX and I'm loving it so far. I'm struggling with 1 thing though that could be a deal-breaker.

Can you page a group with 2-way audio (or intercom a group rather than 1 extension)?

We have a couple of FreePBX customers that use the 2-way page feature a lot. an example use case would be...

Bill the IT guy is roaming around the offices, under desks, plugging stuff in over the weekend. Bob has no idea where Bill is so he pages all phones 'Bill, Where are you?'.
Bill doesn't want to climb out from under the desk to answer the phone, he just wants to be able to shout "I'm in 201"...

Possible or not?

Thanks

Mark

 

[benjamin]

I am seeing the same issue. Strictly speaking from the manual, it refers to 'intercom' (2-way audio) only related to dialing a single extension. Then for 'paging' (1-way audio) as an option for groups or single extensions. I think this may be by design to avoid an audio feedback loop for groups of phones in speakerphone mode that are close in proximity to each other, but I would love to hear an 'official' answer. I would think the 'feature' you are wanting is a 'group intercom'.

-Ben

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

This is by design.You can intercom with one extension and have 2 way audio but paging is always 1 way audio. Paging is used for announcements and may involve many extensions so for everybody to be able to speak when an announcement is made would create chaos.

Bill the IT guy is roaming around the offices, under desks, plugging stuff in over the weekend. Bob has no idea where Bill is so he pages all phones 'Bill, Where are you?'.
Bill doesn't want to climb out from under the desk to answer the phone, he just wants to be able to shout "I'm in 201"...

With 3CX Bill can have a 3CX client so he is directly reachable anywhere. No hiding under the desks for Bill anymore

 

[Nubbins]

This is by design.You can intercom with one extension and have 2 way audio but paging is always 1-way audio. Paging is used for announcements and may involve many extensions so for everybody to be able to speak when an announcement is made would create chaos.

2 Way Paging (or forced conference, or multiphone intercom, or whatever you want to call it) doesn't necessarily cause chaos and in a small group is very useful. I personally use it to call around the office to see who's up for a pub lunch. As I say, some of our FreePBX customers use it extensively. As it's a missing feature in 3CX I'm not going to be able to convert them.

Surely this is something that could be added without too much difficulty?

 

[cobaltit]

Surely this is something that could be added without too much difficulty?

Yes, I'm pretty sure you can accomplish this with a custom template. The yealink forums can help with determining the config settings required.