Recommended IP Conference Phones

[ziptalk]

All,

I've been put in the direction of the Polycom IP 6000, and sense that is probably the best in class for a conferencing solution.

However the price-point is quite prohibitive for the size of client we do installs for. The best prices I've seen are £400-£500 mark.

I was wondering whether there were any alternatives I could consider with the same functionality, but maybe in the £200-£300 price point ?

Thanks for any suggestions, the requirement has come like a bolt out of the blue, so I'm trying to find the best compromise in performance and price (a common requirement )

Cheers, Lewis

 

[discovery1]

My recommendation would be
http://www.snom.com/en/products/snom-meetingpoint/

 

[ziptalk]

Thanks for that, that would be the perfect solution considering i'm deploying SNOM 300s, so nice to keep it simple with a single manufacturer.

I had a look at it, and it's £645 ex VAT, which is a bit steep. I need something half the cost. What I don't understand is, you can buy the same unit for $700 in the US, which is equivalent to £423 here, why there is a huge price discrepancy I don't know, but I think one thing is clear, these IP conferencing units are not cheap!

Thanks for your recommendation, it's between the PolyComm and the Snom for me, provided the client will part with the cash.

 

[houston]

Thanks for your recommendation, it's between the PolyComm and the Snom for me, provided the client will part with the cash.

I find that folks are often willing to spend when they really see the need to do so. Start them out with a regular phone on Speaker, thats the $150-200 solution. Thats the voice quality they get. Let them decide if better voice quality is worth the extra cost. "Don't trust me, trust your ears." The conferencing itself is done by 3CX, all you are paying for are different levels of call quality.

I think it also helps to remind them that 3CX and a nice SNom (or Polycom) conference room phone is a good long term investment because its STANDARDIZED. It's reasonable to expect phones to be working in 10 years, buying better quality now means less expense later.

I would reccomend staying with Snom if you can, as I have stuck with Polycom, it just makes life easier for everyone to have consistancy across the whole system.

 

[ziptalk]

Thanks for your recommendation, it's between the PolyComm and the Snom for me, provided the client will part with the cash.

I find that folks are often willing to spend when they really see the need to do so. Start them out with a regular phone on Speaker, thats the $150-200 solution. Thats the voice quality they get. Let them decide if better voice quality is worth the extra cost. "Don't trust me, trust your ears." The conferencing itself is done by 3CX, all you are paying for are different levels of call quality.

I think it also helps to remind them that 3CX and a nice SNom (or Polycom) conference room phone is a good long term investment because its STANDARDIZED. It's reasonable to expect phones to be working in 10 years, buying better quality now means less expense later.

I would reccomend staying with Snom if you can, as I have stuck with Polycom, it just makes life easier for everyone to have consistancy across the whole system.

That's a very good sales technique I think, I like that approach and will try that. Fortunately i'm not in Sales and aiming for the sale, so i'm not really that fussed either way, but agree, ultimately it's just a better microphone and speaker. Also it's a bit of a fad as well, I think small businesses feel big when they have things like a 'conference phone', 'meeting room', etc.

 

[tpinnovations]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16876113077 + ATA = Cheap Conference Room Solution

 

[tpinnovations]

It's very good advice, But I'm sure all of us have that customer who sees IT as a cost center, and learns the hard way that going cheap is not always the best solution.

 

[jharrell]

After much research we settled on the Polycom 6000 for our conference room, it sounds amazing. For less money you could try just a Polycom desk phone as the 670 speaker phone is so good it would probably be fine for a smaller conference room, we almost didn't go with the 6000 because of this.

Polycom has quite a few patents on speaker phone technology and it's clear they put it in their deskphones as well.

A 450 or 560 might be just fine, I think it's audio components are the same as the 650/670, they all have HD voice, which not only means supporting the G.722 codec, from what I understand they have upgraded speaker/mic and other audio components.

BTW anyone compare the 6000 to the 7000, just curious if the 7000 is worth all that extra $$$.

 

[ziptalk]

After much research we settled on the Polycom 6000 for our conference room, it sounds amazing. For less money you could try just a Polycom desk phone as the 670 speaker phone is so good it would probably be fine for a smaller conference room, we almost didn't go with the 6000 because of this.

Polycom has quite a few patents on speaker phone technology and it's clear they put it in their deskphones as well.

A 450 or 560 might be just fine, I think it's audio components are the same as the 650/670, they all have HD voice, which not only means supporting the G.722 codec, from what I understand they have upgraded speaker/mic and other audio components.

BTW anyone compare the 6000 to the 7000, just curious if the 7000 is worth all that extra $$$.

Thanks for that reply, that's very useful. Although I have standardised on SNOM phones, I think that the Polycoms clearly have the edge and reputation for being top-quality call conference phones. Whichever works best for the best price is the one I'll probably settle on. Thanks again for that nugget of wisdom. Lewis

 

[ziptalk]

Hello,

If you like snom, you'll like meetingpoint.
I just got one and did a quick video review that might be interesting to you:

http://dynamicssmallbusiness.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-snom-meetingpoint-conference-phone.html

matt

Thanks Matt, looks like a quality unit, good to see first-hand reviews of hardware.

I think the approach of huddling round a 320, and experiencing that, and then they will want a better solution, and as the need is there, the SNOM meeting point would be the natural product for them - i'd actually prefer to stick to a single vendor - it keeps the support overhead simpler, cross-training support engineers etc.

Turned out to be a good little post this - 3CX should make these product reviews stickies.

PS forgot to ask, how was the quality eventually when you use it for live conferencing ? be interested to hear about that. Lewis

 

[Discovery Technology]

Have you looked at the "MAX IP SIP Expandable Conference Phone" ?

ie: http://clearone.com/voip-conference-phones.html

Might be a bit cheaper than the other options you were looking at.