sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Other Telephones & Systems Grandstream's IP phone system

Well after more experience with it, the Grandstream is truly an amazing system for the price.

Their new GXV3240 video phone is a marvel. Audio quality is the best I've ever heard. HDMI port on the phone, out to a TV.

All for less than the 'basic digital' phones we used to carry.

The built-in 32-party call-in conference bridge - all in an extremely cost competitive package the size of a doorstop.

Are they perfect? - no - they have their issues and obstacles, but I just do not see losing many bids to proprietary IP PBXs.

So, almost a year later - how is the Grandstream line holding up? Have you installed many of them?

Good question, would like to know too.

HI! Noisycow ,, can you make some logistical noise on the Grand stream ,, i'm about to buy a system to train with and offer . Thanks for any pros and cons .

Since Noisycow hasn't made any noise, here are a few of my observations.

Pros:

CHEAP! very reasonable pricing. They offer a basic phone for less than $50 MSRP. Android Softphone app is FREE.
Small form factor. The 6102/6104 is about the size of a home router. The other models are 1RU rack mountable (with wall mount holes on bottom)
Most all of the features you could expect from a small PBX mode system. Queue's, ring groups, auto attendant, VM, call recording, parking, forward, etc etc
SIP and IAX trunking/extensions. Easy to link systems and/or remote workers.
"Zero config" extension provisioning for their phones. Set up a template and plug in the phone. (almost that easy but much better than manual xml files or web gui on phone)
Integration with their IP camera's. Allows users to "call" the camera and have video on phone and/or pass audio to/from camera.
Multiple sizes to choose from depending on number of analog or digital trunks you need. 2,4,8,16 FXO or T1/PRI
And many more I can't think of at the moment. Did I mention CHEAP? for a couple of hundred dollars get yourself one to try out.

Cons:

The name recognition. Either people don't know it, or associate it with Grandstream of earlier years (3+ years ago) when their "cheap" equipment meant HORRIBLE equipment
Lack of custom "xxx.conf" files. Not a huge deal to a new comer to Asterisk or VOIP, but a real pain to be limited to only the features they decide to include.
NOT a KEY system. There is no good "line appearance" option. They do offer "SLA trunks" but it breaks virtually all of the other features you might want.
Not expandable like traditional systems. If you want to add a 5th analog to a 6104, you need an external SIP based adapter. (they are really designed for SIP trunks)
Like most systems, different firmware versions present their own quirks. (some versions allow single button parking, others require transfer to park)
No built-in external paging interface. Sure you can use plenty of ways to connect a paging controller, but a good old audio out line is handy.

Noisycow isn't active in the phone business anymore, but he still checks in from time to time. That would explain his not having responded to your questions for follow-up, but I'm also anxious to hear from others about their experiences.

My 6102 arrives tomorrow (Friday). I did an Ipitomy and I have to say, I'm impressed. It reminds me of the passion I had in the early Mitel days (1982) where you learned and applied some really neat technology. I have a Yeastar and Grandstream IP system and trunks from my friendly SIP provider. The 6102 is going to end up in my office where I have a 2-line sip trunk connected to an ATA that I'll bring in on the 2 FXO's, and a SIP trunk group from Flowroute that's costed per minute (less than 1 cent) that I'll configure to the SIP ports. The 2160 phone will be my main station and the handful of VoIP phones will act as backup. I'm most excited about using an external USB memory stick and the IP cameras to see if it really integrates and I have a new iPhone 6 coming tomorrow to try remote viewing.

I bought a Yeastar MyPBX a year ago, but I could never get the SIP trunks working. It turns out that my OpenDNS was not resolving the SIP address. I can fix that :-)

The usability is going to be how well IP systems adapt to Hospitality, both flags and non-flags. The Grandstream non-flag solution looks to be plug and play, without PMS and Check-in check-out. The Yeastar soluton has a price that no one seems to be able to give me. Ebay has been my friend for both PoE and FXS switches. Someday, I'm sure I'll have to pay the piper and buy real products.

This won't happen. Their IP cameras save to either their NVR boxes or a server of your choice with their software.

The USB and SD card slots are for vm storage, backups, prompts, etc.

The integration part is where you can setup an IP camera as a SIP endpoint and make/receive calls to/from the camera. So if you have a GXV3240 for example, you can place a video call to the ip camera and see it right on the phone screen.

Well my bad luck, but I need to learn to walk before I can run so maybe the motion detection can call my iPhone? I'm a couple of weeks out from buying an IP camera, I have several analog cams and 2 four and 1 8 port security system so it's not likely that I'll be hurrying to make a change.