sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems ESI Telephones & Systems Lobby Page problem

Did you pass it along to your ESI reseller??

BCHD
I believe we have answered many of your questions in the ESI forum and even a few that have gone beyond the user level. I personally would appreciate you converting a theory I have into fact by honestly answering a question I have. When you provided the scenario here that you were looking for options to pass on to your ESI reseller It made me wonder what kind of ESI reseller you had. I consider it my job and responsibility to my customers to provide options and solutions to scenarios as opposed to my customers obtaining information from other sources and delivering them for me to implement. It is at that point that a little light bulb in my head went bright yellow along with a loud "DING DING DING!! My deductive reasoning is there isn't really a certified ESI Tech in the scheme of things, is there? Now don't panic, this board isn't going to ban you for telling a little white lie in order to get information on your telephone system. Depending upon how you answer all future questions (you might have) will be treated accordingly but there won't be any bloodshed. What I am most curious about is if the administration of the phone system was dumped on you and possibly you are in between a rock and a hard place just trying to accomplish results. If so then say so! If you or someone else in your organization has decided that the 1 hour a month labor rate from your local ESI reseller is too much to spend then your continued appearance here on this board asking installer level questions will be evidence to the outside world that tripping over a dollar to pick up a dime ain't good business.

Now I'm just a phone guy and you are a compuer administrator. Please clear these confusions up for me.

Thank You

I tested the paging output on our Comm server and it does output the DTMF needed for a multizone paging system. I assume the X-class is probably the same. If your multi zone paging system will take an input without talk battery, you should be using the overhead paging port. You shouldn't be using CO lines for paging if you don't have to.

My ESI Reseller is certified by ESI, and knows the system very well. My paging system is an odd situation. Prior to our ESI system, we had a Valcom 6 zone page control unit, but when Sprint installed our original Nortel phone system in this building, they chained all 6 page zones into a single zone and I did not want to go through the trouble of unchaining those zones and then having to re-configure which speaker was in which zone, and then have to deal with re-training my staff on how to page, so we left it alone. We just added a new single zone page control to the system for a "lobby page" speaker to use for our Flu Clinic, which is where this gets interesting. The lobby unit was put on a CO position primarily to save time for the initial install due to the time frame we were looking at, but rest assured, my Certified ESI Reseller is working with ESI Tech Support to find a resolution to this situation, and it has even been discussed regarding completely re-configuring the page zones so that each "area" of the building would be it's own zone, but they would all be tied into the same page control unit so I could selectivly select a page zone, or continue to page all zones. We also wanted to exclude this lobby page from all "normal" pages as well because we didn't feel that our clients should know every time Joe had a call holding on line 17 either. My reseller is supposed to contact me today with an update from ESI, but I will surely pass along this information to him. Thanks Everyone!

In that case here is the info your ESI reseller needs. Connect the independent lobby zone to the page port pair. If you have a PRI card in slot one then the page port pair will be in slot two, otherwise it is in slot one. Reprogram all those extensions where you had CO25 to be 199. If the lobby needs to be paged then it is a single key press and talk. This will eliminate the previous problem of tone transmission to the lobby. Follow up by defaulting the CO25 programming since no activity will be there.

TIP: When you train the staff to page by pressing the desired key (199) have them pick up the handset first and after the page is completed they should press the key again to terminate the page. This eliminates the nasty sound made over the speakers when the handset is lifted and hung up.

I'm not critisizing your ESI reseller. I do think that there are times when simple solutions get overlooked because they are "simple".

Thank You for clearing up the confusion.

I didn't realize the page port would pass DTMF. It's not always been this way, has it?

So, Brian, you're having to add battery when you connect it that way, right?

SST mentioned the Viking ZPI-4 which i think will take a line level input wthout talk battery. The data sheet seems to imply that it will.

The page port does pass dtmf. I've got an ZPI-4 at a restaurant that uses the zones for paging customers in different areas on an S-class GEN I. The ZPI-4 can be strapped to another to create an 8 zone unit.

I know for fact that the page port also pass's dtmf, I installed a CS-200 about 3 months ago at a car dealer(took out a Comdial DXP)and I was out there today, every time a certain person would page, just before they spoke, you would hear them dialing (probably 70)...I can't figure out 'who' it is...:>)

Do you have to provide battery on the page port in order for it to pass DTMF? I don't think you would, but thought I'd ask.