Walkie-Talkie and Intercom Together
Singlewire Software’s PushToTalk is a walkie-talkie and/or intercom application designed to facilitate quick, easy, and immediate communication between multiple parties or on a one-to-one basis. The walkie-talkie functionality was designed mainly for the Cisco 7921 and 7925 phones, but also works with most Cisco IP desk phones. Simply press the PushToTalk side button to begin your PushToTalk session.
“Since we just travel over the network, the message can go wherever the network goes. So much more efficient, much more productive use of technology.”
- Ken Bywaters – Executive Vice President of Product Management at Singlewire Software
Transcript
SINGLEWIRE: We are talking with Ken Bywaters, Executive Vice President of Product Management,
SINGLEWIRE: Ken, could you give us some background information on the application PushToTalk?
KEN BYWATERS: Certainly. Our PushToTalk product has been out for a number of years and it was initially developed as, for lack of better term, a walkie-talkie product for wireless phones. That way it was used primarily with Cisco wireless phones.
Now, the deal is, you push the button and talk to a group and than when you let the button go and someone else gets the chance to talk. Fairly traditional push to talk functionality in that regard. But we have seen people using them in a number of different ways. For one thing, it works not only with Cisco phones, Cisco wireless phones, it works with pretty much all Cisco phones, whether they’re wired or wireless. So we saw a lot of people using it, maybe initiated form a desk phone to talk to PushToTalk groups that might include other desk phones and people walking around, those types of instances.
And then the other thing. We have just released a new version which includes a little different twist on it, which is intercom functionality.
Intercom functionality being more the one to one communication, very commonly used in K 12 for instance, with the principal wanting to talk to a teacher in the classroom The principal can hit the intercom button on the desk phone, it is prompted for DN, phone number, type that in. That DN is immediately placed in a one to one intercom session, handsfree, without having to do anything. It is full duplex communication and simply built in with PushToTalk, it offers some additional advantages of being able to change the volume of the other phone, the teachers phone. So, if the teacher turns the phone way down, when the intercom session starts, it is at a normal audible volume.
You can also have a pre-tone, to announce that an intercom session is starting. And that is a configurable tone. You can put it to anything you like. So, that way, when a particular tone comes accross the phone the teacher or whomever is on the intercom session knows that a session is starting and can talk handsfree.
And then the last part of it is, you don’t have to do anything special to the Cisco phone. You don’t require a shared line or a any configuation or CallManager to allow for this, so it’s very clean, very efficient, and you not only get intercom, you get all the push to talk walky-talky functionality, all in one product. So this has been a big, big hit with our customers as we’ve released this product.
SINGLEWIRE: Ken, you mentioned seeing customers use the application in different ways. Could you mention some of the different ways different industries are using this application?
KEN BYWATERS: Sure, the regular PushToTalk from one to many is used primarily in retail situations or health care or manufacturing. That is where we see it primarily.
Retail is a good example, because everyone has been through it. You are in the store, you’re looking for an item, you can’t find it and you ask someone at the store if they have this item in stock. First thing the person in the store does is grabs usually is a hand held radio and starts a PushToTalk session and talks to other people in the store to find out if they have it. But what our PushToTalk and a Cisco wireless phone, that store employee doesn’t have to carry two devices, he doesn’t have to carry a phone and a radio, he can carry a single handheld phone, a Cisco wireless phone, and not only start a push to talk session with other employees, they could start a session with other employees in other stores. Since we just travel over the network, the message can go wherever the network goes.
So much more efficient, much more productive use of technology.
SINGLEWIRE: Ken, how would someone who is interested obtain and install this application?
KEN BYWATERS: Well, the application is downloadable, and the best way to get it is to contact your salesperson, or contact us directly at Singlewire and we can send you the application and the documentation and a license key for trial. We are also happy to do web demos or talk to other customers that are using it.
SINGLEWIRE: Thank you for your time.
