Polycom is introducing an upgrade to their entry level IP320 / IP330 telephones. The new models, dubbed the Soundpoint IP321 and IP331, will replace and are virtually identical the old. However they will feature more memory and processing power under the hood to accommodate the ever growing Polycom SIP stack. Ship date for the new phones should be sometime in late July. Rumors of an HD version being released in the near future have also been heard.
Polycom to Release SoundPoint IP321 / IP331
June 23rd, 2009Chromis becomes a Digium Select partner
June 1st, 2009
I don’t know why I haven’t made a bigger deal out of this before today, but it’s been about a month since this announcement took place. Digium, the Asterisk Company, and Chromis Technology have announced that we have moved from “Registered” to “Select” level partnership.
“We are thrilled to have moved Chromis Technology up to our Select Reseller tier,” said Jim Butler, director of global channel sales for Digium. “They have proven that they are dedicated to their clients and provide excellent customer service.”
Our own Jonathan Rusk had this to say: “Chromis Technology is passionate and dedicated to answering our customer’s need for modern communications and simplification of inter-technology connectivity. It is our desire to spread Digium’s message of alternative, innovative, affordable telephone solutions to the Southwest.”
Go Mobile For Less with Polycom Wireless Office in a Box
May 26th, 2009
The Polycom Wireless Office in a Box consists of one Polycom KWS300 base station and three KIRK 2010 wireless handsets. A repeater can be added to expand wireless coverage.
Introducing the newest member of Polycom’s KIRK wireless handset portfolio, the KIRK 2010 is a sleek, lightweight, easy-to-use, handset that offers 12 hours of talk time and 150 hours of standby time. Enable your users to move about the office while always remaining in touch with customers and colleagues. It offers hands-free speakerphone, caller ID, call timer, a 40-name phonebook, as well as a headset jack and a choice of 13 menu languages.
The KIRK Wireless Server 300 is a single cell solution that can support up to 12 mobile handsets and four simultaneous calls. The infrastructure of the KIRK Wireless Server 300 consists only of the server itself and the KIRK Handsets, making it very simple and secure to get the business wireless. Businesses with large geographical areas and multiple floors can extend radio coverage by adding one or more KIRK repeaters to the KIRK Wireless Server 300. The KIRK Wireless Server 300 not only eliminates the need for non–standard cabling, getting its power from a single PoE supply, it also simplifies administration and maintenance, reduces costs and improves employee mobility and remote connectivity.
Reverse 911 is put to the test in Gilbert, AZ
April 30th, 2009
The City of Gilbert "End of Summer" Event at Freestone Park.
ChromisZach here. I live in Gilbert, AZ, which is a suburb in the East Valley of Phoenix. It ranks number 23 among the safest cities in America according to the results of CQ Press’s 15th annual Safest City Award rankings. The report ranks 397 American cities in six different crime areas — murder, rape, burglary, robbery, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft. The end result of these rankings are used to compile the list of the safest cities in America. So when I received a “Reverse 911″ call yesterday afternoon, I gotta say I was both shocked and impressed.
I was shocked because a shooting had taken place around 11:30 a.m. yesterday morning in the affluent subdivision which I happen to live next to. (VoIP has been good to me, but not that good.) Click here if you want the details of the shooting, I won’t go into it any further, it’s getting more strange by the hour. The house where the incident occurred is about 2-3 blocks from my home, and I drive by frequently as it’s off of one of the main arteries that leads you out of the subdivision to the main road. I had initially heard about the incident from my next door neighbor who called me after he had spoken with his wife who had driven down the street after picking up their kids from pre-school around noon. She saw Police cars and firetrucks and was pointing them out to her 3 year old son when she saw a Policeman running down the street with a shotgun. She quickly turned around and made it home shortly after using another entrance.
Shortly after I heard from the neighbor, our phone rang with a strange caller ID name: “REVERSE911 CALL”. Obviously I was a little taken aback and anxiously answered the call. A prerecord announcement played: “This is the Gilbert Police Department with a safety announcement. We are working a shooting in the area of Arroyo and Pinion. Please remain indoors at this time and report any suspicious activity to the Gilbert Police Department.” Not a great feeling to be cooped up with little information in your home with the surrounding streets blocked off. So my wife and I had lunch and went about our day. Shortly before 2:00 p.m. we received another prerecorded message giving us the all clear, letting us know that it was now safe to go outside.
I was impressed because the Reverse 911 system that the city employed worked and moreover worked well. We weren’t fed a whole lot of information, but it was reassuring to have even that small little nugget. Since I had never heard of this service before, I went to my good friends over at Google and they did a search for me. 
According to the REVERSE 911 Website: “The REVERSE 911 Interactive Community Notification System is an outbound notification system used for time-sensitive mass distribution of messages. The system is particularly effective in times of crisis when rapid communication to a targeted group of citizens or emergency responders is critical.”
Being the kind of guy that I am, I was curious to know what kind of technology is under the hood… Just what are my tax dollars paying for? But after a few minutes of poking around the site I thought to myself, do I or should I care? Because really, it was effective in this situation, and has proven to be in others as well. (The website also lists a gaggle of “success stories“.) So I abandoned my search and let a sleeping dog lie. But as a taxpaying resident, kudos to the City of Gilbert and their choice to use those tax dollars towards something useful, a service that could potentially save lives… Even though the city is one of the safest, I’m still glad to know that when it all goes down, my phone will ring…
The iChromis.com blog is now optimized for mobile touch browsers
April 23rd, 2009
This screen shot taken on my iPhone shows the current content of iChromis.com/blog using the WPtouch theme on the Safari Browser.
The iChromis.com blog is now optimized for mobile browsers on the iPhone, iPod touch, and Android thanks to the team over at Brave New Code and their WPtouch plugin for Wordpress. WPtouch is a lightweight, fast-loading, feature-rich and highly-customized theme application modeled after Apple’s app store design specs. WPtouch makes our blog pages load lightning fast on touch mobile devices and shows our content beautifully, all while not interfering with our regular theme for “normal” web visitors. There is even a way for mobile visitors to switch to our current theme giving them control to switch between the two site themes easily. So keep in touch with the iChromis team on your mobile browser, add us to your bookmarks today!
Digium “Officially” Kicks Off Planning for AstriCon
April 20th, 2009
As I reported a while back, (in my “Astricon 2009 will again be held in Chromis’ backyard” blog post) Digium’s AstriCon event will again be held in Phoenix for 2009. A press release this morning validates that post and provides vague details about the sixth annual Open Source Telephony Conference and Exhibition. Digium invites those who would like to speak at AstriCon to submit information for consideration by June 1, 2009, at www.astricon.net.
AstriCon will take place from October 13-15, 2009, at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel and Spa near Phoenix, Arizona. Registration is now open and early bird rates are available until July 1, 2009.
Will we laugh at this in 20 years?
April 17th, 2009So I’ve seen this a few times in the past couple days and every time I see it I can’t help but think that this is going to be hilarious when we look back on it in 20 years. Polycom has produced this 3:30 minute video for their VVX1500. Take a look and let me know what you think in the comment section below or via @chromiszach on twitter.
Polycom VVX1500 gets hacked for Switchvox
April 17th, 2009
Garrett Smith of VoIP Supply doing his "Fonzie" impression on the Polycom VVX1500.
The boys in Buffalo over at VoIP Supply have figured out a way to get the “quietly unsupported” Polycom VVX1500 “business media phone” working with their Switchvox 4.0 server. I say quietly because I haven’t seen either Polycom nor Switchvox publicly come out and admit that the device is unsupported. I’ve talked to both Polycom and Digium about it and in typical fashion they both blame each other for the incompatibility.
The VoIP Supply setup makes sense if you know Asterisk at all and also the way Polycom provisions their phones. The VoIP Supply provisioning method provides caveats that they’ve worked through which could save a lot of time and frustration. Here’s a link to the workaround courtesy of VoIPSupply.
Polycom Experience HD Voice Rebate Offer
April 15th, 2009
Do you remember the first time you listened to a CD player? The difference in clarity and the overall listening experience was truly amazing. Chromis Technology, together with Switchvox and Polycom, are bringing this same dramatic shift in clarity and experience to VoIP telephony. Polycom’s SoundPoint IP phones with HD Voice Technology significantly increase call clarity and enable much more natural conversations. It’s like being in the same room with the other participants on the call. You can hear every word without repeating, which saves time and cuts down on misunderstandings, significantly boosts recognition and enhances productivity. Leverage this rebate program to give HD Voice a try and hear the difference HD Voice can make to your productivity.
Click here for an audio sample of a Standard Voice Call vs. an HD Voice Call.
For a limited time, End User customers can receive a rebate of up to $150 for a SINGLE purchase of TWO new HD Voice equipped SoundPoint IP telephones from iChromis.com. This offer is valid on new qualified SoundPoint IP products purchased from April 13, 2009 through September 30, 2009. Customers are limited to one rebate claim during the rebate period. Click here to download the rebate form.
Switchvox SMB 4.0 upgrade now available
April 7th, 2009
Digium quietly released the new Switchvox SMB Edition 4.0 yesterday. It features Fax integration, H.263 and H.264 Video support, Instant messaging, Call queue improvements, better auto provisioning which includes support for snom telephones, and G.722 HD Voice support, just to name a few of the enhanced features. Something I never noticed until I looked at the release notes this morning was that they’ve added 6-digit extensions – Extensions can now be 3, 4, 5, or 6 digits. Current support customers can go to Machine Admin: Updates to upgrade their Switchvox SMB to release number 17053.