About two years ago our church decided to finally begin the building project they had been planning for close to 8 years. As I had just completed my first couple of Trixbox installs, I realized that trixbox would be an ideal system for them (they were then using a Toshiba PBX), and approached the building committee with my idea.
Initially I thought we would have approximately 50 extensions, but this quickly ballooned. When the children's educational wing was considered, they requested that each room have an extension, and that we would have paging capability for each (no overhead paging was included in the building design).
Looking at what the church currently had (Older PBX, analog lines which were shared with the Christian School co-located at the building), it became quickly apparent that they were spending a lot of money to have available dial-tone, while not really using the extra capability very often. I proposed that we reduce their analog lines to 3 (later changed to four) and make up the shortfall with SIP trunks. Doing a rough analysis, it looks like they will save about $2000 per year on telephony costs. (Interestingly, my competitors all declined to offer any use of VoIP, most saying it was unreliable and had bad audio. One proposed that that their system be used with a PRI, and that this would cost them additional $2000 /yr!)
One feature that was a non-negotiable for the church was an emergency notification system. In that, I mean that if an after hours emergency message was left for one of the clergy, the system would have to dial out to a phone list to alert them. Findme/Follow-me was not an option. The Toshiba had this feature and this is what they wanted. Starting with the script described in http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+Voicemail+Notify+for+..., I modified this so that 5 extensions would be dialed. I then added findme/follow-me to each extension. The reason for this is that it makes it easy for the customer to change the notification numbers (simply change the follow-me number) Interestingly, the customer indicated that the Cisco reseller wanted $8000 to provide a similar option!! Now when a message is left in the emergency voicemail, each person is dialed in turn at 10 minute intervals. When they answer, the system self announces who is calling, and transfers them into voicemail. Using the call back feature, they can also call directly back to the person who left the voicemail while connected.
I quickly settled on the following design --
Trixbox CE 2.6.3 (basically I felt 2.6.3 is the most stable I had worked with), on a RochBochs Phoneboch. Sangoma A200D 4 port FXO card installed. The customer was insistent that a prebuilt system be utilized. I originally was going to use a trixbox Enterprise appliance, but have been convinced that this item is near end-of-life.
Aastra XML Scripts, v. 2.3
Phones would be Aastra 6755i or 6731i, dependent on users (All office space had 6755i's, all public / classroom spaces ahve 6731i's) I chose these based on several reasons -- 1) Good history with them; 2) Aastra XML Scripts make changes very easy, and give advanced features to the users and 3) I chose the 6731i's over the 6730i because they were the lowest model that supported PoE) Originally I had thought to use 6751i's, but these were discontinued. Reception was equipped with a 6757iCT. (requirement for wireless extension for receptionist) iSymphony was provided for receptionist control and view of extensions.
Networking was integrated into the data network designed by their IT consultant. Dell PoE switches were utilized, these were configured for a separate VLAN for voice. IP connectivity was provided by Comcast Business, with an instaGate firewall.
Phone service consisted of 4 POTS lines, with 3 on a hunt group, and the final hunt group number call forward on busy to a 4channel SIP trunk. Additional outbound SIP capability from an outgoing only SIP trunk from callwithus.com
Installation was done over 4 days. Because of late completions, testing was minimal before going live. That said, very few problems were encountered. Why?
-- Preplan, preplan, preplan! I had all extensions, Aastra .prf files, MoH files, etc. preloaded and tested in my lab. POTS lines were simulated using ATA's off my company trixbox.
-- Assume the worst! I ended up having to handle most of the coordination with the telco (Frontier). If I hadn't gotten involved, the lines would not have been provisioned in time.
-- Be honest with your customer -- Let them know limitations, why and when they will be resolved.
Overall this has been a rewarding project. Not only did the church save on the cost of new PBX (estimates were at least $10000 to $20000 over what my charges were), they have all the features they wanted, and their phone service bills are lowered.
Special thanks to several members of this forum who provided technical and commercial advice to concluding this project
Member Since:
2008-01-24