Conference Phone: The Gold Standard

[Reddog]

Hi All,

After months of testing we finally have a PiaF appliance designed. All thats left is the conference phone.

I have looked at the Polycom Soundstation 7000 and the Polycom Soundstation 4000 but I have not used them. I have heard that Polycom produces the gold standard in conference phones but I am not sure which model people are talking about. Are the above models the Gold Standard? Is there another conference phone that is of similar quality?

 

[jwells]

We use the Polycom 4000 no complaints

 

[TheShniz]

One thing I feel compelled to mention, is that no matter what you're looking at... all late IP-based Polycom/Cisco conference phones are in the $750~1,000+ range. These days, it's not difficult at all to find brand new Soundstation 2's (the de facto standard) for below $400... slap on an ATA, and you will have bought the phone at a 50% discount! There is functionaly no difference.

 

[euser4life]

Awesome advice on the Soundstation 2

TheShniz is right on... Stick a $40.00 ata and you have given your customer a fantastic bargain......

 

[kevinfvc]

we installed the 7000 in the conference room about a month ago. Huge improvement over the desktop phone we had in there...

I've been on conference calls on both sides, my observations:

1. sound. I'm not sure how PLCM does it, but their speaker phones sounds like there is a subwolfer or something. Rich and deep. I'm not sure how to describe, but their phones sounds great.

2. backlight. Nice backlight looks nice and is useful when the room is dark.

3. no background noise. I'm not sure if our other conf phone was faulty, but it picked up the A/C fan and drove me crazy when I was on the remote side of a conf call. The 7000 is crystal clear. Seems like you just hear voice.

 

[Fortel]

Our experience with the Polycom IP 4000 has been excellent! It's hard to imagine a better sounding conference phone. But I haven't tried the 7000. The "Gold Standard?" Yeah, I'd say so.

Peter

 

[Reddog]

Thank you to all of you who replied, very much appreciated.