Plantronics: Setting the industry standard for wireless office headset technology

Posted on July 12, 2012 by telephonewreckers

New wireless Plantronics headset: CS530

Plantronics have just released a brand new wireless office headset system – the CS530. It is designed to replace the popular CS70N, which will be discontinued this July. The Plantronics CS530 headset is a redesign on the over-the-ear style like the CS70N but has new features including:

Super lightweight design – weighs just 21 grams
Wideband audio – enjoy quality audio for crisp, clear calls for your and your callers
Hands-free for up to 100 metres
Magnetic docking – ensures your headset is sitting in the dock correctly for charging
Answer calls directly from your earpiece – one-touch call control
Volume settings on the earpiece – control your call volume even when away from your desk
Pairs with the Plantronics electronic hookswitch cable or headset lifter
DECT technology – eliminates any Wi-Fi interference

Plantronics Developer Community

Aware of the incredible potential and opportunities available, Plantronics is creating their own developer community which is open to anyone who would like to try developing context aware apps for Plantronics devices with “Smart Sensor” technology. More information on the developer toolkit and downloads can be found here on the Plantronics website.

What is a UPS and how can it protect my computer from electrical damage?

Posted on June 18, 2012 by telephonewreckers

UPS is short for Uninteruptable Power Supply and is used to protect electrical equipment against a variety of power supply issues such as total power loss and dips and swells in voltage by providing a clean, stable flow of power. Things such as over-voltage and brownouts (which can happen several times a day) cause unnecessary wear and tear on electrical equipment, including computers. However, UPS’s are primarily used as a power back up for a short period of time in a blackout or total power loss. Some UPS’s have software which can instruct a computer to save any open files and shut down safely without any human intervention. This can prevent data loss as well as damage to electrical equipment in the event of complete power outage.

Each UPS provides a different level of protection, so ensure you pick a UPS which can adequately meet your day-to-day and disaster needs. There are three types of UPS:

Off-line UPS system

An offline UPS is simplest power supply system. The power is supplied by the mains until total power outage or other set voltage level at which time the UPS would support the computer systems or electronic equipment with its battery.

Line interactive UPS system

Much the same as an off-line UPS system, a line interactive UPS provides power via the mains but with the assistance of a microprocessor which increases or decreases the voltage supplied based on the flow of power in order to continue providing stable, clean power without the use of its batteries which are used for total power loss.

True on-line double conversion UPS system

Suitable for all settings where a high availability of a clean power supply is required, a true on-line double conversion UPS system provides an independent stream of power which does not flow directly from the mains unlike off-line and line interactive UPS systems.

A few points to consider when purchasing a UPS are:

Scalability of the UPS system

Be sure to consider the rate of growth of your business or office set up and if there are situations where the demand for power may be increased in the foreseeable future.

Parallel redundant UPS systems

A parallel redundant UPS system or UPS redundancy is when two or more UPS systems are running together (sharing the load) in case of the failure of a UPS. This is an important consideration for those with critical systems.

What kind of power problems can affect my computer and its hardware?

Posted on June 18, 2012 by telephonewreckers

As we all know, computers are incredibly sensitive pieces of electronic equipment and require a consistent flow of power to function. While there are many reasons that can lead to data loss, the largest percentage of data lost or corrupted is due to power problems. Issues with power quality can affect the reliability and performance of electronic equipment as well as causing unnecessary wear and tear on it.

The following power problems will affect your computers performance:

Surge / Spike: A temporary but very rapid increase in power supply. This is the most destructive problem as it is a large source of electrical distortion.

Brownout / Sag: A temporary dip in voltage levels. This is the most common power problem and often occurs without ever being noticed.

Electrical Line Noise: Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) which affects the electrical circuit by interrupting or reducing the effectiveness of the circuit.

Blackout / Outage: A total loss of power supply.

Swell: An increase in voltage.

Overvoltage: When the voltage has swelled above the designed voltage.

Issue with power are linked to corruption of data files, keyboard lock ups, unnecessary wear and tear on computer hardware and other electronic equipment and the most frustrating power problem of all – work and data completely lost.

To protect your electronic equipment, you should consider installing surge or overload protection power boards however these are only part of an effective consistent power supply solution. The installation of a UPS provides many advantages.

Phone system data cabling

Posted on April 13, 2012 by telephonewreckers

It’s interesting the number of times I have heard customers getting a Cat 6 data network installed in their offices only to discover that Cat 6 cable was used and fitted with Cat 5e parts. This can cause a number of problems such as being unable to achieve Cat 6 bandwidth and other cabling faults which will affect the effectiveness of the solution.

What is Cat 6 Cabling? Cat 6 is the newest and most advanced category of cabling and provides the best performance. It is capable of up to double the bandwidth of Cat 5 and Cat 5e cabling.

We have been getting positive feedback about a few phone system data cabling companies. Each company is offering unique and innovative solutions tailor made to fit their clients. Consider using one of these companies for data cabling:

http://www.hitecphonesystems.com.au/
http://www.phonesystems.com.au/
http://www.btelco.com.au/

5 Reasons to buy a second hand business phone system

Posted on April 2, 2012 by telephonewreckers

Big Dollar Savings! If you’re just starting out in business, then making some substantial savings can help kick off your business without unneccessary heavy start-up communications costs. Used phone systems start from as little as $550 AUD (including GST)
Earth Friendly. Do your bit for Mother Earth. Used phone systems often end up as land fill. Sad but true. Help reduce waste.
Rent to Buy. We can offer you a “rent to buy” plan to help spread the cost of paying for your used phone system.
We’ve cleaned and tested the system. Any used phone system that arrives at Telephone Wreckers is always cleaned and tested ready for your installation. If it needs any new parts, like phone chords, buttons, rubber feet etc., we replace these.
We give you a 90 day warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee* on all used phone systems.

Browse our second hand business phone system bundles below or request an obligation free business phone system quote or call us for help over the phone on 1300 665 970.

* excludes cabling costs

Phone systems and the Australian NBN: A case of buyer beware

Posted on March 28, 2012 by telephonewreckers

I had a customer call me today asking if they needed a new phone system as he was told this was the case due to the National Broadband Network (NBN). With fibre optics being run throughout the south side of Brisbane CBD and Telstra’s proposed FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) network, we must ask ourselves if this is a clever sales pitch or do customers really need to change their phone systems? So far it looks like they don’t need to replace their phone system but it may be time to start considering what upgrades could be made to your current phone system with changes in phone system technology such as VoIP. I may be wrong but it reminds me of the sales pitches from the Y2K era where half the people updated their technology out of fear that their phone systems or computers would not display the correct date or become obsolete because we were changing into a new century. Alarmingly, many major service providers will begin pushing contracted sales teams and targeted advertisements into areas of Brisbane as the NBN expands.

To avoid falling victim to the hype and purchasing a new phone system or switching providers ensure that you do your own independent research (get several quotes for a phone system at least) and be aware of scare tactics and sales pitches.

Missing Avaya Business Phone Equipment

Posted on March 2, 2012 by telephonewreckers

It’s been just over 2 years now since the theft of a shipping container full of Avaya phone equipment from our main office premises in Loganholme, Queensland, where we sell our business phone systems, data cabinets, headsets, cables and spare parts for phone systems.

It was any interesting start to that morning of discovery after the theft. As I sat to have coffee in the office, one of my staff asked “What have you done with the container?” Initially, I was thinking they were referring to a food container of some type, not realising they were talking about the “shipping container” outside our office full of Avaya stock. Immediately I wandered out side to take a look as I was thinking it was some kind of joke. To my alarm, this was no joke. An entire 20 foot shipping container full of Avaya telephone equipment was missing from the delivery location.

My first reaction was to think that I had sold the Avaya phone equipment, but increasingly as the minutes passed I realised the container of stock had been stolen. Immediately I rang the local police who guided me to call their main operations centre. In turn they referred me back to the local police! So bundled into the car and off to the local police station to report in person about the missing shipping container of business phone stock. The police arrived at our premises to view what was now called a “crime scene”. Their questions included “What would anyone do with an entire shipping container of phone stock?” My response was that the stock would be completely useless to any individual who did not have extensive industry knowledge about the shipping container goods.

As the police investigated the situation they found no evidence at the time. Their advice to us was that our own company had a better chance of locating the missing stock due to the unique contents of the container — Avaya phone equipment.

Time has passed and we have shared the knowledge of our loss with some other key phone dealers in Australia. Still no resolution.

Consider the following points ~

One of the larger items that were in this container is not an everyday / common Avaya product. To my knowledge, only 6 of these larger systems have been sold in Australia.

We did have a witness come forward two weeks after the theft to report that he saw a large white tilt tray at our premises at 6:30am on the morning of the theft, loading the shipping container.

Another lead came in telling us that items were appearing on eBay. This was investigated by NSW Police, however no luck.

We did make an insurance claim on this loss; however I have taken the opportunity to post this here in our blog in the event that somebody may know something, seen or noticed the Avaya stock. I would appreciate if anyone does have any information that they come forward and let us know confidentially or even anonymously. Today in business none of us need to suffer theft, unnecessary loss and increased insurance premiums.

We use a Nec SV8100 Phone System

Quote

Posted on February 21, 2012 by telephonewreckers

At Telephone Wreckers we use a NEC SV8100 business phone system. The phone system is configured using PSTN lines for incoming lines on Telstra and outgoing lines uses VoIP. We selected Engin for our VoIP lines, as the configuration for this provider is a little more advanced. We use 24 button display DTL handset in our main office and ITL 24 button IP phones in our Gold Coast Office.

NEC SVC 8100 Phone system

VoIP proves to be a bonus for Telephone Wreckers

Using VoIP has provided so many benefits to our business.

We recently had a truck drive past and rip the main phone and ADSL cable from our building. Having no Internet service or telephone left us with a major problem!

After a quick chat around the office we sourced locally 2 x Netcom 3G four port switches and 2 x Optus prepaid data modem dongles.

Using the above parts, we quickly configured a unit for full Internet and email back up and managed to achieve this in less than 30 minutes for all users on our network. Once access to the web was established, we had our VoIP services running on our NEC phone system. We could not achieve this without a VoIP SIP phone line option.

“It’s funny how technology is making life so simple that you can have the power to see a person is on the phone in another part of the country.” ~ Mark Prieditis

Looking for a business phone system for your office?

Try considering these easy to follow points when looking at a business phone system for your office.

One of the most common responses pointed out to me by clients who have purchased a new phone system ~ “The IT dept picked this system but we can’t use the thing!”.
How simple is the business phone system to use?
Can all your staff easily navigate the phone system on their desk without hassles?
Can your part-time or casual staff who don’t use the system every day carry out easy functions like putting a call on hold, transferring a call to another user?
Can all staff see who’s on the phone from any location in your office? Some staff may not be in line of sight and being able to see who is currently on the phone without a visual is very advantageous. Think about a warehouse or packing store team member trying to see if someone in the front office is on the phone.

Choosing a business telephone system

Posted on February 14, 2012 by telephonewreckers

Whether you’re searching for your first small business telephone system or perhaps you’re a corporation or company with larger needs, you need to find a company that can assist you with making the best decisions for your phone system when it comes to sorting through the thousands of brands, models and makes.

Making the choices with a new business phone system

When scoping your needs for a business telephone system, before speaking to a supplier, try to make the first step decisions on ~

What type or brand you prefer? Perhaps you would like a brand to be recommended to you based on the supplier’s experience? Have you seen another phone system at another business location that impressed you?
What time-frame you need the business phone system delivered – some suppliers can provide immediate delivery on most reputable brands. Or it may take longer. Are you simply in the planning stages and have plenty of time to shop around?
Do you need a new business phone system? Or perhaps a second hand, used or pre-loved business phone system will suffice? There are some substantial savings to be made on used phone systems.
Do you need music on hold?
Do you need help with installation?
Do you need help with cabling?
What sort of headsets should the phone system support? Wireless Phone Headsets or Wired Phone Headsets?
What sort of ear piece should the headset support?
How many users will operate on the phone system?
Is your installation for a new site? Are you upgrading your old phone system? Are you moving your business from one site to another?

Telephone Wreckers are market leading experts and Australian authorized dealers NEC business phone systems, LG Ericsson, LG Aria, and Aristel business phone systems. We’re also resellers of Plantronics, Commander, Panasonic, Engenius Long Range phones and Samsung business phone systems and parts.