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Ringing mutiple analog devices with one number

sbray
Level 1
Level 1

The way our current paging system is set up is we have 3 different numbers for 3 different buildings and one number for all buildings. I am unable to figure out how to duplicate this using Callmanager. Is there some way you can dial one number and have 3 analog devices pickup.

2 Replies 2

dgoodwin
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Although you can configure shared line appearances for POTS (FXS) ports on some gateway types, they can't all pick up that shared line at the same time. The best way to accomplish this is through the use of a zone-based paging system such as one from Bogen or Valcom. The numbers to page a particular zone (building/floor/etc) or multiple zones are configured with that unit itself.

The only other way to have multiple analog devices pick up at the same time is if you somehow split and extended the same physical pair to multiple buildings, which may or may not be possible in your scenario. It would require battery boosting and possibly ring generators from 3rd parties. I don't have experience with this personally, but I am sure it's been done before. If you need to look into this method, try contacting Viking Electronics to discuss it. http://www.vikingelectronics.com/

gary.shaw
Level 1
Level 1

As dave says you can use a gateway, I thought I'd give you my experience of doing this on a VG248.

Basically you have two options that dave has covered, you can use three analogue devices that are actually physically wired seperately but share the same number. If someone calls the number all three devices will ring, if this is all you want to achieve then CallManager can do this easily. But in this set-up if one of the three devices is active on a call and another one of the three picks up they will get dead air and wont be able to get a line or be able to listen to the active conversation.

The other option is to create one extension but physically hang three devices from it using your buildings telephone wiring, this will mean that all three devices will ring and if a call is active and another one of the three devices picks up they will be able to hear the conversation.

But in our tests the latter option provided mixed results, when using three handsets the volume of the ring and conversation was reduced quite a bit when combining handsets of different vendors, so if you do go down this route I'd recommend testing it out before hand.

Gary

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