Been retired for a while but the former employer asked me if this could be done

They have an older IP office (on 5.0 last time I saw it) it has 4 locations connected as a SCN over fiber

They need to create a nailed up audio connection for a radio monitor speaker at 1 of the remote sites.

Is their a way to connect 2 ports together (nailed up) to pass audio ? at both sites they have spare trunk ports and Pots station ports that could be used.

I was thinking something like using a station port at the remote site with a matching transformer, this would draw loop current and with the proper programming could direct dial an outside line short code for a dedicated trunk port at the main site. The trunk port would be connected to the radio system and the Avaya would pass audio from end to end.

Questions:
Would this arrangement stay linked 24/7, I know a reboot would crash it and may need a unplug/replug of the remote to restart the connection, this would be no problem once in a while

One of my thoughts was to make the main site trunk port a PA port so it would not care if it did not see the expected loop current from telco.

Any thoughts if this would work or a better way to do this, At 1 time they had an Adtran Atlas at each site and this would have been used but no atlas anymore.

This audio is not critical to the operation, just something they would like to have to monitor the area

Thanks for any incite any of you may have

I think that the side with the speaker would need something like a Centrex paging adapter, with no VOX or timeout enabled.

A transformer on a S/L station port programmed as a hotline at the source side sounds like it would work.
Have it call a S/L port at the other side, the Centrex paging adapter answers and broadcasts the audio over a speaker.

Thanks Touch Tone Tommy

Thats almost the reverse of what I was thinking but sounds like it would work

Do you have a centrex paging adapter you would recommend ??

Do you think this will remain "nailed up" 24/7, They will not mind pulling the plug on 1 end or the other for a random lost connection. They have UPS power on both sides and dedicated leased fiber so system connection drops should not be a problem

The more I think about it, instead of a Cenrex paging adapter, use a S/L station port but program it as a paging port. Use a matching transformer on this end as well, or Viking AIB-1 audio interface board. Then the source only needs to hotline dial the extension number of the paging port at the far end, which will open up the "paging" port, and the call will stay connected until something physically interrupts the connection - no VOX or timeout in the paging adapter to worry about.

Thanks Tommy

It cannot get much simpler than that, even I understand it Lol

Going to give it a try after new years and will check back before then in case you think about it some more and have any refinements

Touch Tone Tommy, and others I was wondering if a SL port set up as a paging speaker will pass audio in both directions, this of course is assuming that none of the external devices are amplified and one way only as in using 600 ohm matching transformers on both ends.

The reason I ask is we may reverse the direction of the suggestion Touch Tone Tommy had and have the SL port (set up as paging) located at the radio location and the SL port that hot line dials at the remote site. This way if the remote site looses connection they can just unplug the RJ plug and reconnect it to redial the radio system.

Having it the other way would require the radio tech to go to the transmitter site to restart the connection, it's much easier for the remote site to access the connection (and they Know it failed as they no longer have radio audio) if it needs to be restarted.

We are going to test after newyears and will do the testing from the main site as we have 2 unused SL ports that we could set up the link on.

Thanks for all the help so far, it's a work in progress

You say you have 4 sites in the SCN - what is connecting them? Do you have site to site VPN's that you could do something IP based that could route across sites? Might be more reliable.

Touch Tone Tommy, the 3 remote sites are connected to the main site via private leased fiber.

All the remotes are in the same IP subnet, no routers the fiber is just like a really long network cable.

As I said before they used to have Adtran Atlas with voice cards at the sites but they are gone or they would use them.

This 4th site is a temporary arrangement and the radio traffic they would monitor over this connection is not critical to the operation or it would be something that was 24/7/365 reliable

Thanks for your help so far