Buyers Guide to Conference Phones

1. Phone Conferencing Buyers’ Guide
Choosing the right conference phone for your business can be tricky – making
the right choice depends on having the right information at your disposal.
Here is Best4systems’ guide for customers to help them choose the ideal
conference phone system and equipment. Best4Sytems has also produced
a glossary to help demystify industry jargon.
We have split this guide into a number of sections to make it easier to digest:
Audio conferencing
Audio conference systems using VoIP/IP
Audio conference systems using analogue PABX
Video conferencing
Video conferencing with ISDN
Video conferencing with IP
For more information please feel free to make the most of our expertise
by either contacting us, or get us on the phone on 0844 824 6664.
Audio Conferencing
There are many advantages for a business to use audio conferencing – saving
the time, money and inconvenience of trying to get a lot of busy people into a
physical meeting, but some basic information is needed to inform a purchase.
Network
The type of phone network available will influence your choice of system. Your
business will most probably have a VOIP/IP based phone system or an
analogue PABX. In general, VoIP/IP systems will deliver a better solution, with
the right equipment.
See our Telephone System’s buyers guide for more information about these
two kinds of network and how they will influence your decision to buy.
Conference systems for VoIP/IP
A VoIP/IP system is basically a phone system using internet protocols to carry
the phone call signal. If your business uses a VOIP or IP network, then an IP

2. Conferencing Unit such as the Polycom SoundStation IP6000 will be ideal for
most situations.
Conference systems for analogue PABX
Alternatively you may operate over a normal Analogue PABX system, in which
case there is a great variety of 'plug and play' conference phones available
from Polycom,Mitel, Jabra, Konftel and Avaya.
Need further help, or ready to buy?
Confused by any terminology used above? Skip to our glossary
Options based on room size
Once you know the network you’ll be using, a good way of choosing a
telephone conferencing system is to base your decision on the size of room
you will be making conference calls in.
Small Meeting Room
For a small meeting room, Best4Systems suggests taking a look at
the Polycom VoiceStation 500 – this model is very keenly priced and is
suitable for three or four people, with a range of about two meters. The system
can even be set up using Bluetooth.
Medium-Sized Meeting Room
The Konftel 55 Conference Phone or the Polycom SoundStation 2, are ideal
for slightly larger conference rooms – with an increased audio range and with
speakers clearly audible up to three meters away. The higher quality
microphones and speakers also make these systems ideal for this scale of
conference call.
Large Conference Rooms

3. For very large conference calls with 16 people or more involved then you
cannot settle for anything less than a a top of the range model. The Konftel
300 IP Phone which combined Wideband sound and a recording function and
the option of additional microphones or, for the non VoIP enabled meeting
room a Polycom VTX 1000.
For more information please feel free to make the most of our expertise
by either contacting us, or get us on the phone on 0844 824 6664.
Video Conferencing
There are three main types of video conference solutions: point-to-point,
multipoint and streaming.
Point to point
Point-to-point is a direct connection between two locations. It’s like a telephone
call but with video.
Multipoint
Multipoint lets more than two locations take part in the same video conference.
Both of these video conference solutions for business can take place in a
meeting room, your desktop at work, your home computer—or even over your
smartphone or tablet when you’re on the road.
Streaming
A streaming video conference uses software instead of hardware. With
software, your mobile device connects over the Internet to any other video
conference users, even if the people on the other side of the connection are
using hardware.
Getting started
Most companies start with at least a point-to-point, room-based system that
connects their headquarters to one other location.
For that, you’ll need a video monitor at each end, a connection to the Internet

4. and whichever video conferencing system you choose.
Need further help, or ready to buy?
Confused by any terminology used above? Skip to our glossary
Types of network
There are two general network types that video conferencing works over: an
ISDN or circuit switched network, and an IP network.
ISDN network
ISDN, or Integrated Services Digital Network, has been around since the early
1990s, and is becoming less and less common – it is what’s known as a circuit
switched network. In other words, when you make a call over ISDN, the circuit
you create is locked for your application. This is a high quality service, but it
can be quite costly as you usually pay a fixed fee per month for each ISDN
line, and a per-minute usage charge.
IP network
Most video conferencing systems purchased today include an IP interface with
ISDN as a separate option.
Cross network conferences
There is no need to worry if you need to make video conference calls across
these networks, either, as technology can be included in the infrastructure
which enables IP and ISDN video conferencing systems to communicate with
each other.
For more information please feel free to make the most of our expertise
by either contacting us, or get us on the phone on 0844 824 6664.