[VoiceOps] Grandstream VoIP phones

[Ryan Delgrosso]

I agree with polycom on the speakerphone quality front, BUT they are an 
absolute nightmare in most other aspects.

The time required to reboot a polycom is measured on a calendar, which 
can be infuriating when your support team is working remotely with a 
non-savvy customer.

Their web interface is notoriously riddled with security holes 
(customers do, against our advice place their polycoms bare to the 
internet and are always surprised when the sip credentials are harvested)

The provisioning settings for them are ONLY configurable from the device 
dialpad, meaning remote configuration is nightmarish. If you have ever 
listened to a support engineer try to talk someone non-technical through 
typing out a provisioning URL on that device dialpad you know that it is 
most certainly one of Dantes levels of hell.

I will sacrifice some speakerphone functionality to not place my support 
engineers in that kind of purgatory, especially compared to devices with 
reasonably decent management like the Cisco devices. Now if only they 
could get on board with a solution like Innomedia's DMS product which 
provides out of band management that punches through NAT, THEN you would 
have a  slam-dunk.

-Ryan

 From a support perspective
On 08/17/2012 11:26 AM, Scott Berkman wrote:
> If you care about speakerphone quality and clarity, you should be using
> Polycom as they destroy everyone else, especially on the models that support
> HD voice and therefore have the big speaker baffle and better microphones.
> This is pretty clear when you see that all of Cisco's conference models are
> just rebranded Polycom's with SCCP firmwares.  I'm a big Polycom fan in
> general, but the Cisco 7940/60 is a close second (just wish it supported
> more features like subscribe on the 3rd party SIP images).  The Cisco's do
> have some problems with the speakerphone (and handset) at high volume, such
> as sound still coming out the handset when it shouldn't and clipping.
>
> It's been a long while since I touched a Grandstream, but I like using the
> feel and weight of the handset as an indicator of build quality, and the
> older Grandstreams failed that test miserably.
>
> -Scott
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org [mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org]
> On Behalf Of Alex Balashov
> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 1:06 PM
> To: voiceops at voiceops.org
> Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] Grandstream VoIP phones
>
> It's been a while, but my issue with Grandstream has always been:
>
> 1) SIP interoperability & stack problems.
>
> 2) Low-end speaker phone hardware, thus bad echo cancellation and duplex
> handling.
>
> I mainly judge phone hardware by the quality of its speakerphone, since I'm
> a very heavy user, so it may be a personal bias.  However, by that metric,
> the Cisco 79xx's and Polycoms win, and Grandstreams, Snoms and Aastras lose.
>
> On 08/16/2012 08:07 PM, Carlos Alvarez wrote:
>
>> Who else on the list is using them, particularly in a hosted
>> environment?  We've just decided to transition to them as our primary
>> recommendation instead of the Cisco SPA series.  We did it because of
>> the value and feature set, like having an inexpensive phone with a
>> small BLF, which a lot of customers asked for.  I'm wondering if
>> others have tips they've learned along the way, or any advice they want to
> offer.
>>    Also anyone using the advanced features like the browser for
>> anything useful?
>>
>> For those who haven't tried them, or who like us, didn't like their
>> older models, take another look.  We have been surprised at the value
>> they give us.  The prices are low, but the functionality and quality
>> are high.  They aren't Polycom 600s to be sure, but they are nice
>> phones that have a huge set of features for a great price.  Customers
>> are liking them a lot.
>>
>> Has anyone used the new DECT phone?  We currently use the Panasonic
>> DECT phones but they are a nightmare to configure.
>>
>> If anyone wants to get in touch with them, our Grandstream contact is
>> Dennis Ryan, dryan at grandstream.com <mailto:dryan at grandstream.com> .
>>
>> --
>> Carlos Alvarez
>> TelEvolve
>> 602-889-3003
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
> --
> Alex Balashov - Principal
> Evariste Systems LLC
> 235 E Ponce de Leon Ave
> Suite 106
> Decatur, GA 30030
> Tel: +1-678-954-0670
> Fax: +1-404-961-1892
> Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/, http://www.alexbalashov.com/
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