atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information POTS PROBLEM

Hi im a newbie. I would be grateful for any help. I need to set up a phone system whereby a user needs to be able to simultaneously listen to 4 POTS lines and then be able to selectively pick a line for which he would be able to speak into. This should be heard by the users at the other end.

For example if the user had 4 lines numbered 1-4, all coming from 4 different offices. He would want to be able to listen to all the information coming from each of the lines and then he would want to speak to the people at the end of line 2 to relay information.

How would i go about setting up such a system, and what kind of equipment would be required to do this.

Thnks

Hi Regie. Welcome to the board.

Your issue isn't that difficult, but pleae understand that you are a new user and your request borders on some delicate issues. Please finish filling out your profile and give us a little more background. Doing so will increase the response to your question.

Due to the nature the responses may come to you via PM to keep this out of the open forum.

Clarification please.

You have The Man. He receives calls from Line One, Line Two, and Line Three. He can listen to all three at the same time.

Question: Can Line Two and Line Three hear what Line One is saying (bridged in) or can only The Man hear each line (non-bridged in.)

Da Man speaks to Line One.

Question: Can Line Two and Line Three hear The Man talking to Line One (bridged out) or can only Line One hear The Man (non-bridged out.)

Bridged in and out is easy -- a standard conference setup.

Non-bridged in and out is easy -- speaker phones with push-to-talk on each.

Non-bridged in and bridged out is ridiculous.

Bridged in and non-bridged out can be done by a setup to allow The Man to take a Line off the bridge for a private conversation, which leads to another question: can The Man still hear Line Two and Line Three while privately talking to Line One?

Thanks a lot for your response mike, very much appreciated.

ok for your first question :
"You have The Man. He receives calls from Line One, Line Two, and Line Three. He can listen to all three at the same time.

Question: Can Line Two and Line Three hear what Line One is saying (bridged in) or can only The Man hear each line (non-bridged in.)"

Line 2 and 3 should not be able to hear what line 1 is saying.

For your 2nd question:

"Da Man speaks to Line One.

Question: Can Line Two and Line Three hear The Man talking to Line One (bridged out) or can only Line One hear The Man (non-bridged out.)"

Line 2 and 3 cannot hear Line 1 talking.

So i think that i would be looking for non-bridged in and non-bridged out system?

If so could you recommend any makes or models that would do this or of any companies that would sell these devices?

I have no recomendations, other than a deskfull of speakerphones. What you were asking for needed to be clarified so that others could answer.

What you are requesting sounds similar to what radio stations use. My suggestion would be to try to get in touch with the operations manager for a local talk radio station and ask them if they will tell you how they are doing it.

I know that a company called Plant Equipment www.peinc.com made specialty equipment for unusual applications. You may want to contact them with your application and see if they have a solution.

I puzzled this sort of thing out once, as a concept to allow me to win a radio contest....

Using a call center type dialer, I would dial the radio station, on like 10 lines. They would all be in a conference with my line, I could hear all of them, but each line couldn't hear the others. Listening to all the lines, I could (somehow) choose the line that had been the correct caller number and talk back to the station over it, in order to claim the prize.

I can understand the original question, and based on my experience with call center type dialers, I know how I could solve the problem. But I don't know of anything off-the-shelf to do it.