Entry speakerphones

[signal15]

These things are spendy. I found a couple, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of a cheaper solution. VoIP preferred, but I can do ring-down using an ATA device if needed, so analog would be fine.

http://www.vikingelectronics.com/products/...uct.php?pid=336 (Can get for around $200)
http://www.provantage.com/cyberdata-010935~7CDAT00N.htm (supports VoIP out of the box)

My plan is to replace my doorbell with this. When someone presses the button, the following happens:

- My phone switch (http://www.freeswitch.org) plays a voice prompt that says to say your name and purpose after the tone
- The switch simultaneously rings several phone numbers where I or my wife may be at, including cell phones. Caller-ID is spoofed to a number that I know is coming from the front door, and I can put it in my contact list and assign a custom ring to it on my cellphone
- When someone picks up, it says "You have a visitor at the front door: <insert recorded name/purpose here>. Press 1 to accept, press 2 to ignore, press 3 if it's a solicitor"
- If 1 is pressed, the other lines that are potentially still ringing are hung up, and the front door is patched through to the phone that pressed 1
- If 2 is pressed, it waits for the other lines to pick up and potentially press 1, or if none of them pick up, then it plays a message that says we're busy
- If 3 is pressed, it plays a message that we are not interested, and that the person is trespassing on clearly posted private property (there is a sign posted at the entrance up the road)

All I need is a weatherproof speakerphone. Or at least something that can endure an outdoor environment under an overhang and work when it's -30F. But, I really don't want to spend several hundred dollars on it. I thought about getting a "hotline" phone with no buttons, but they look dumb, and I'd be worried about the neighbor kids seeing it and wanting to play with it, or someone leaving it off hook.

 

[jtalleymo]

I would make sure you look at the cyberdata dimensions before you use it. I just saw one the other day and it is a pretty industrial looking enclosure. If surface mounting, it will be obtrusive. We used to have problems with their early speakers, but I think they got the kinks worked out.

I just had to do a similar setup and ended up going with a linear controller/access device and I am very happy with it. I have it doing the ring-down to an ATA so it can hit my house phones (all VoIP endpoints) as well as cycle to various other phones if necessary.

-jason

 

[signal15]

I would make sure you look at the cyberdata dimensions before you use it. I just saw one the other day and it is a pretty industrial looking enclosure. If surface mounting, it will be obtrusive. We used to have problems with their early speakers, but I think they got the kinks worked out.

I just had to do a similar setup and ended up going with a linear controller/access device and I am very happy with it. I have it doing the ring-down to an ATA so it can hit my house phones (all VoIP endpoints) as well as cycle to various other phones if necessary.

-jason

It appears to be only 5" wide, I'm not sure where the studs are in the small section of wall where I would put it, so I'm not sure if it would fit recessed. It's only a couple of inches deep though, so I could certainly build a mounting box that blended in with the siding if I needed to.

What vendor/model of equipment did you end up going with? Do you have a link?

I like the idea of just having a fully VoIP capable device at the door so I don't have to mess around with more equipment and wiring.

 

[86turbodsl]

I have nearly the same needs for my new house. I'll be anxiously awaiting your findings...

 

[drozwood90]

Wow! Thanks for taking the ball and running with this. This is one of my pet projects.

I wanted the same, but did not want to spend hundreds on it.

So...

http://www.smarthome.com/110712/Surface-Mo...-28A00-1/p.aspx

Try that one. It would still have to be interfaced to a phone of some kind, but it's the outside speaker / mic. I'd say get a cheap Voip Phone...nothing fancy...heck...maybe one of the free ones that LynkSys used to give away.
The only thing then, is to hook up the door bell to some interface to your server.

Can you add more detail? I would really like to see what / how you are doing things.

Such as: How are you going to ring all the other phones at the same time? I can see all the phones in your house, they share a wire...but to also get say, your cellphone and another outside line? Do you "pull" multiple sessions or something?

--Dan

 

[signal15]

I have a VoIP phone system. I use Polycom IP320's and an IP650 for the phones. I bought them at ipphone-warehouse.com. For the phone switch, I used to use Asterisk. But now I'm using Freeswitch instead (http://www.freeswitch.org). I have a SIP trunk to Voicepulse Connect to provide PSTN connectivity.

As far as ringing all of the phones, I just created an extension that does a find-me type of thing on internal extensions and two cellphone numbers. All ring simultaneously, and the first one to pick up is connected to the front door.

However, I haven't purchased the phone/intercom for the front door yet, so I can only test with a spare phone in the house that is set to do a ring-down when picked up. I'm going to add the IVR stuff described above whenever I get some time.

 

[PaulD]

Can you squeeze a PoE IP camera into this mix? Every camera solution I have seen in this area ties the camera to a specific vendors product line. I am already using the DoorFon solution (tied to my standard telephone system) but I would like to be shift toward a door bell solution that includes a PoE IP camera. I know I can add a seperate IP camera but I would like one in the same footprint as the door bell.

 

[signal15]

Can you squeeze a PoE IP camera into this mix? Every camera solution I have seen in this area ties the camera to a specific vendors product line. I am already using the DoorFon solution (tied to my standard telephone system) but I would like to be shift toward a door bell solution that includes a PoE IP camera. I know I can add a seperate IP camera but I would like one in the same footprint as the door bell.

You could probably do this. But it would be easier to just put a small dome camera above the door.

 

[PaulD]

You could probably do this. But it would be easier to just put a small dome camera above the door.

I know but I would prefer something down about same level as a persons face rather than looking down from above. I could live with the camera above the door but it would be off the scale on the WAF metric.

 

[signal15]

That Viking Electronics company in the first post has some. But they are all analog cams. I spoke with them and they have no plans to go IP on anything. Their IP solution for the phone is an ATA box. If they want to stay in business, they're going to have to go straight IP at some point.