Digital phone systems in the broadcast world...

I am posting this to see how many of you have converted to PRI lines and how you are handling them in the studio. What we have is an Allworx digital phone system, connected to a PRI system for the calls. We use an interface to break the digital circuits into analog "fax" lines, and on to the studio on copper. Has anyone else had an issue getting them to ring properly in the studios like the old systems used to. Line one is busy, so it goes to line 2, then line 3, etc...rollover until all lines are full then deadend and busy signal the callers until a line opens. Ours likes to fill all lines during contests, then continue looking throughout the building to whatever extension is open and rings there. Nobody, including the installers or vendors, seem to know what a choke circuit is anymore, yet i have to think that stations in larger cities are using this type of set up.

zachmorton said:

I am posting this to see how many of you have converted to PRI lines and how you are handling them in the studio.

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Here's how we handle calls in our studios using PRI lines: http://www.telosalliance.com/Telos/Hx6

Zach,

NOONE in the Telcos knows about Choke Lines anymore...when I tried to get the lines for 1190 Dallas installed at KDMX's studio, Bell got 214-787-1190 line 1 in...then put the second appearance in...BUT when the 1st line was busy, it would not roll over....After 3 months of going back and forth with them, we finally told Bell to go screw themselves in a nice way...They never got it working right....eventually the lines were moved up to the Madison bldg where normal roll over lines were put in...NOONE at Bell in Dallas knew what the hell choke lines were...tried to talk to one CO foreman and was telling him to copy the programming on our Mix and Eagle lines...(someone pulled the bridge clips on the Mix's 4 request lines one morning just as we started a $150k local contest in 2001...I called a friend at SBC near Houston who was a high level mgr..I told her I needed to bitch at someone and needed a number...she said "you didnt get this from me" and then gave me the Sr VP's 800 number in San Antonio...by the time I was through talking with him (maybe 3 mins on the phone) he had a tech dispatched from downtown whose boss called him and was YELLING "Drop what you are doing, get in your truck and go north on the tollway! DRIVE NOW and listen!". In less than 15 mins, I was walking in the front door and he was already there and had fixed the problem...he jokingly said to me "I dont know WHO you called, but today was the FIRST time I EVER heard my boss curse!!! and he was screaming at me all the time I was driving up the tollway! BTW got anything else you need fixed??" LOL TRUE story!! and that was back in 2001.

You COULD use an Adtran 800 ahead of your phone system to break out separate DS0s for your fax and other dedicated lines BUT that would mean having to split the PRI where it is fractionalized...(not all 23 B channels are used as two ways trunks but most of them are while certain B channels are dedicated to certain numbers)....PITA.....but it does work...Adtran makes great gear....(you think you have problems now?? Wait for VoIP!!!)

I'll see if I can dig up someone who knows your phone system..if it was a Nortel like we had at ABC RN Dallas, I could easily help ya there....but not familiar with the system you named..wonder if its a Hybrid Key System like a Nortel MICS, Ayava Legend, etc (where you can have Key System and PBX features mixed in the switch...and have dial 9 access code and/or actual direct line access via buttons on the phones). Those types of switches USUALLY do not pass CPC (loop current drop or hang up) from the line to an extension...so running that into a Telos or similar system may not drop the line if the caller hangs up 1st....A lot of real PBXs dont do it either...it takes some trick programming in the Nortel PBXs to make it work..

Chris

Went to look at their web site (Allworx) and I see they ARE VoIP systems......but they use primarily PRIs into the switch and then support VoIP or analog out...(UGH! more conversion..just what fax lines do not like!)..

May have to get the local vendor to look at the programming...or do the Adtran break out but that will require your local telco to redo the PRI and thats a big issue right there!! (DO you really want them to touch it??)

I was afraid of that...we had an old nortel system that ran on windows 2000, and lightning and age finally got to it last year. The vendor that took care of the programming of that system was not consulted (don't even go into why that happened...my blood boils everytime it gets brought up), and these yoyo's that installed the system barely knew how to set it up for a business, much less a broadcast facility. The analog breakouts convert the pri into analog lines, which basically act as an "extension", so you tell, for example, 812-451-2104 to ring extention 2104. the next person that hits that phone number "should" hit ext 2105, and so on, until all extensions on the telos are full, then should busy out. There are all analog telos nx-12 systems, less than 3 years old, and the vendor of the phone system had the nerve to tell me i would have to replace every system in the building to accomplish what I wanted to do. This was after we had already gave them the specs and they assured us that it would do exactly what it should. Like I said in the first post, if we get a deluge of calls, the system just starts hunting over the entire building looking for open extensions, even the GM got listener contest calls at one time. Local vendor is worthless...they are idiots. Chris, the adtran idea may work...but then so would copper lines. might resort to just putting copper back in for the studios and be done with it. Lightning was the reason for removing it, but insurance will replace the telos units should they get hit. God forbid we should have a contest on our two major stations at the same time...it will completely freeze the phone system. Ugh, I long for the good ole days!

Good luck on copper...ATT has told the FCC it intends to sunset copper POTS by 2020 if not earlier...Most landline Telcos (Verizon, etc) have already started that...NEW orders for BRI lines are no longer being taken in a lot of areas...

The Allworx system seems to offer programming GUI software...at least on their web site...may want to contact the factory..
As to what you want, that should be an easy ACD setup..and according to their web page, they support it in the switch..but I could not see anywhere if the system did CPC on analog FXS /extn ports...I take it you have the big box they offer (which can take 2 PRIs....the smaller systems on their web site only take POTS or SIP trunking)..I take it the NXs are using analog connections to the Allworx and not VoIP? (which would be easier in some cases and keep the audio cleaner due to lack of hybrids required in the analog side)...

Lightning could take out the current system anyway....even with fiber into the switch, you still have power to worry about and thus lightning will find a way (been there, done that before I worked at ABC in Dallas )

Might try contacting Allworx's factory support and see if they can help...I bet it will be a simple programming issue...

ContinuousWave said:

Good luck on copper...ATT has told the FCC it intends to sunset copper POTS by 2020 if not earlier...Most landline Telcos (Verizon, etc) have already started that...NEW orders for BRI lines are no longer being taken in a lot of areas...

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And if the station is sold and you try to change the billing, the only thing they'll do is shut it off. If you move studios, bye bye ISDN. I'm using ZXstreams and have a couple of them talking using the Ethernet (SIP) (not real sip, just the protocol). At least it's not an anchor, like the Z Classics are becoming.

You'd be correct...the nx-12's are analog pots only, so we had to go with the breakout boxes on the phone system. I literally had to explain that it would be just "fax" lines for them to comprehend what was to take place. The situation, at least to me, is completely unacceptable for a radio station. After spending upwards to $30k plus for a phone system, you'd think it could do the basic things like our old one did...not make it more complicated.

I'm 99% sure the VOIP system supports what you want, you just have an uninformed technician. Do what you have to do to get someone who knows what they're doing.

BTW, for those with Nortel KSUs (CICS, MICS, and the older 824 KSU also known as Norstar system) as well as later IP capable BCMs and also the Nortel PBXs (the Options x1s as well as the later CS1000, a lot of former Nortel Engineers started a new company in Dallas...and have a very small VOIP box that talks to ALL the Nortel phones (or will soon)...including the Mxxxx and Txxxx from the Key Systems as well as the 2008/2616 digitals and the 1xxx/3xxx IP phones from the Option Meridian PBXs! For those who had a Nortel BCM IP system, this is a great upgrade.....as the programming is the same from what I understand and they can talk POTS/BRI/PRI or IP on the trunk side!! All the former Nortel systems (now called Avaya Blue) were discontinued when Avaya bought Nortel out of bankruptcy (shame as I LOVED the BCMs...especially when they went Linux and dropped Windows!)

As luck would have it, I cannot remember the name right now...I'll go search my archives from the Nortel remailer list and post it here...If you have any Nortel phone system, this will only require you to change the main system box and keep the phones...thereby saving a lot of cash!! (Phones at 100-300 a piece are the most expensive part of any phone system....even the PBX systems that sold for $20k were cheap until you added in 100-200 phones at 200-400 a piece!!)

Aah yes the good old days....Bell speaker phone wired to a sure mixer. with a RESPONSE Rate for level control. It was simple and sounded great. Same for the old symmetric T-? phone hybrid. Cpmprssion/EQ All calls were Clear and crisp and many are still using them.