AudioCodes HRS 458

I have noticed, over the last few years, that companies are spending less on the fancy Video TeleConference (VTC) rooms.  I have also noticed that in my project work, the same companies want the video in Skype for Business (SfB) enabled, but they also note that it does not get used as much as they expected.  Tie that fact with the expense of the VTC room equipment, and we see the rise of the small conference room (cue ominous/heroic background music).

Now, you would think that most folks would fall over themselves trying to get on camera.  I base this on the moonbeams on reality TV who will do anything for camera time.  In the business world, it seems that a bit more prudence takes precedence.  And it turns out most times that video is not the friend of telecommuters who work, like me, in their jammies sometimes.  Or coworkers who did not have their matching suit, their hair just right, or don’t like to be on camera for some other reason.  Bottom line, video use spikes up at introduction, then usage tends to fall off. Way off.  Or at least it does in my little world.

In recognition of this phenomena, companies are starting to use smaller conference rooms.  With Skype, anyone who brings a laptop to the meeting, or if there is already something in the room with a camera, you can stream video.  No need for the bazillion dollar wall unit in every room.

To facilitate this, there have been a variety of conference room solutions whereby the audio is presented both ways, but no video.  Video becomes an add-on for SOME meetings, but not all.  Audio reigns supreme, as it has since the first conference call in 1956.  If you are really interested, you can read some sycophantic stuff here, here, and here.

Enter AudioCodes

To link, somewhat nebulously to the previous paragraphs, these conference rooms need a “something” to sit on the table and provide audio, phone services, and perhaps even a data connection.  You could bring your laptop, and many people do.  But having a static piece of gear is the way to go.  And you need it to be somewhat cost effective, and usable.  I think some emphasis needs to be on “usable” because I have seen some setups that were a tad incomprehensible. I do this for a living and found operation difficult and sometimes tedious.

The fine folks at AudioCodes present the Huddle Room System (HRS).  Ta Da!  At the top of the HRS lineup is the 458 – designed for that mid-size room that holds about 10-15, has a table about 15 feet long, you know… the semi-exec room.  Here is the full AudioCodes IP phone Series so you can visualize where this product lives.

For that use case you need something that has great audio pickup, clarity, great audio delivery, and maybe more importantly, looks and acts like a traditional handset.  I know, that is really counter to popular thinking.  But, you know, maybe the pundits who are not spending their own money might just be wrong, eh?

Let’s take a somewhat detailed look at the AudioCodes HRS 458.

The first thing to know is that the HRS is based on the 450HD handset.  Then, what is this thingy attached to it?  Yes, looks just like the Jabra Speak 810.  It looks just like that, because, mainly, it is.  Which also brings us to the first point.  No PoE here – I think mainly to maintain power levels for the speaker phone.  Here is your first professionally posed still life photograph:

I really wonder at times why I am not a photographer by trade.  Look at the composition!  The color!  Oh my.  Adelante.

The HRS came out just as I was delivering a project and I took my demo down for them to try out.  Customer loved it.  Great audio presentation just on the 450HD, but with the football attached to it, the HRS 458 can now service the entire room.  And does it in an excellent fashion.  We tried to find a spot in the room where the football would not find you talking and we failed.  Perhaps a larger room would have caused some degradation in audio quality.  Perhaps not.  Our test room was a 20 person room, long and narrow.  The 458 system simply did what was expected with overall excellent audio.

Having the 450HD as the basis for the HRS results in the customer being able to reduce the handsets needed as the 450HD base unit provides telephony services to the room – no need for a “something” on the table, and a “real” phone in the corner so you can call for help, donuts, coffee, or whatever.

IP Phone Manager

Yes, as a 450HD-derived piece of kit, there is a handy web interface to provide configuration and management. 

The HRS shows up in IPP Manager also.

Skype Connection

You know I have to do it – somehow get the Skype for Business angle highlighted.  After all, that is what I do.

Knowing that I had what amounts to a IP phone coming into the environment, I prepared a simple full user account, with a mailbox, enabled it for Enterprise Voice with a secret squirrel PIN and extension dialing.  Taking the 458 out of the box and connecting it took longer than setting up the account.  Once powered on, getting to this point here took all of two minutes… literally.  Compare the on-phone time.

Because we are using SfB and AudioCodes together, the experience is just like using a regular 450 – that is – so nice.  All call controls, interactions, connections, and usage patterns will be the same as the user and their own account.  Because I ginned up a regular account, the HRS had a copy of the meeting on hand for those critical single click meeting joins.

I did notice that it took 5-10 minutes for the EWS read to occur which updates the calendar display on the HRS.  A little expectation setting with your users will be in order so as to avoid a bunch of bitchy help desk calls.

Logging in with the room ID, shows the current schedule for the room:

If you are really bright and include the phone account in a SfB meeting, then you get one-button joins as shown.  Otherwise you have a “details” | “attendees”|  “dial” button that provides calling the organizer directly.

Logging in as a regular user displays… duh!  Your schedule. Here is Mr. Chicken Hawk…

In terms of total time, maybe 10 minutes total, and I did not have to do anything special to either the SfB environment or the phone itself.  I literally plugged the 458 into the network, into power, and logged in using the 10-key.  And it just works.  Fairly perfect from over here in the cheap seats.

Summary of Findings

Standard AudioCodes build quality – which means this is excellent, solid kit.  Great materials, look, feel, functions.  All a package that works the way you do generally – kinda on the fly, groups probably not bigger than 10-15, and video not needed or wanted.    This solution should be on your short list.

YMMV

O365 Exchange Voice Mail–Oracle

I have been informed, by a source that I deem to be about 75-80% reliable, that Oracle will not be participating in gymkhana that is the 3rd party PBX using Exchange O365 as a voice-mail target.

A while back, Microsoft announced that Office 365 as a valid voice mail target for 3rd party PBX systems would no longer be an option.  In fact, at the designated date, it’s not like the solution set becomes “non-supported” it will simply not be possible.  These solutions had an SBC (session border controller) sitting between the PBX and O365.   But no longer.

AudioCodes has a solution set.  anyNode has a solution set with which  one of my co-workers has worked.  Actual words will not be published in respect to my gentle readers.

So here is the announcement, and if you use Acme Packet SBC to connect your PBX to EOL Voice mail, then this might impact you.

“Oracle is not pursuing a product for this, mostly due to the proprietary nature of the implementation.  The interface into Exchange uses the Microsoft UCMA API/protocol which isn’t something we support.”

YMMV

AudioCodes 400HD firmware v3.04

Those fine folks (and apparently busy beavers) at AudioCodes have popped a new IP Phone firmware release out into the wild. Brings a nice new set of features/abilities to the 450HD in particular.

Please note that the official GA is still 3.0.1. Version 3.0.4 will be used as a candidate GA in the next several weeks. Admin and User’s manual will be ready in several weeks. Version 3.0.4 for all other 400HD models will be available within several weeks.

Here is a partial list of version 3.0 new features. For the full list of features, please refer to the Release Notes document:

· Boss-Admin (Delegated Line).

o Allows a relationship to be established between a boss' phone and an administrative secretary's phone, to streamline office workflow and enhance efficiency.

o Each phone can support up to five Bosses or Admins. One Boss can have up to five Admins. One Admin can have up to five Bosses. A many-to-many configuration is also supported.

o Call Pick-up

o Admin can forward to Boss' voicemail without picking up Boss' line

· HotDesk feature for enterprises that operate according to the 'touch-down desk' concept. Employees in these enterprises typically travel frequently to remote branches, or work in shifts. They can now sign in to a phone that is already signed in by another (CAP or regular) user without signing out the original user to whom the phone was assigned for primary use.

· AudioCodes' IP phones support Lync AutoDiscover Web Service Protocol [MS-OCDISCWS]. This feature improves discovery of the phone's SIP home server after signing in. Using the AutoDiscover procedure the phone is capable of finding its home server URL for a specific Skype for Business account, based on user credentials. It is specially efficient for Skype for Business online and hybrid environments, when phones must sign in to a different Skype for Business server according to the user’s account. Previously, the home server was found using DNS SRV records based only on a SIP account domain [MS-CONMGMT]. If AutoDiscover is unsuccessful, the phone falls back to SRV DNS.

· The phone's Call Log is synchronized with Microsoft's Exchange server. All devices that a user signs into are fully synchronized with the server. Each device reports every call from | to that user to the server. Each device then pulls the last 20 reported calls and performs synchronization. All lists in each device's Call Log except the Missed Calls list are synchronized.

· New screen theme reflects Skype for Business 2016 client look & feel | New softkeys match the de facto Skype for Business standard. This new feature ensures uniformity across all devices used by the same user, for Unified Communications. The following figure shows the new-theme idle screen:

· Dial Plan Normalization. Network administrators can enable and configure dial plans on the Microsoft Skype for Business server. Normalization rules can be downloaded from the server via in-band provisioning. The feature was fully certified and tested with Microsoft in this version. It was supported in previous versions, but without Microsoft certification.

· Multiple Emergency Numbers. A caller can select an emergency number from a list of emergency destinations. A dedicated number for the police, ambulance service, fire fighting service, etc., can be selected from a list of options. If the phone locks, emergency numbers will still be available and dialable via a new Emergency softkey that is displayed after the lock takes effect.

· Power Saving mode. When a phone enters Power Saving mode, the screen's brightness is reduced, lowering power consumption. The phone enters the mode after being inactive for a configured period (timeout). Any user activity returns the phone to regular Active mode.

· Malicious call tracing. Users can report a malicious call. If a user gets a call and wants to report it as malicious, the phone allows them to send a report to the Skype for Business server. To allow malicious call reporting by the phone, the feature must be enabled by the network administrator on the Skype for Business server (the option 'Enable malicious call tracing' must be selected).

· Sign-in can be cancelled during the signing in procedure. Users can cancel signing in after starting the sign-in process.

· Voice Quality Check. A new option to check IP phone voice quality has been added to the phone's Device Status menu.

Things seem to be moving forward very nicely at AudioCodes.

YMMV

AC firmware v3.0.1.x BToE button greyed out

Scenario

BToE is pretty nice.  But let’s face it.  Not always easy to work with.  Especially when a service provider insists that a buried setting be configured so as to disable the manual concepts and default to automatic.

So, let’s figure out how to get an AudioCodes 450HD with the latest firmware (3.0.1.9.367) to play BToE with us like WE want, not how somebody else wants. 

OOBE for a phone that is going to be qualified for SfBO is with the BToE pairing forced to “automatic.”  This results in the button being greyed out when you go to MENU on the phone.  In this mode, BToE pass-though mode works just fine.  Web login to SfBO works as expected.

But what if you want to do something like, pair a wireless laptop with the handset device always CAT5 so you can just grab the laptop and go?  Like a laptop is designed to work? 

The Fix

What we need to do is light up the BToE button so we can get a pairing code (essentially a representation of the device IP).  Not exactly easy to find for those who don’t typically read 200+ pages of setup. Like me.

Hmmm… (page 113 of LTRT-14820 450HD IP Phone for Microsoft Skype for Business User’s manual ver.3.0.1.pdf) says

Going to the admin manual…. ( page 157 of LTRT-09943 400HD Series IP Phone for Microsoft Skype for Business Administrator's Manual Ver. 3.0.1)

And that does work to enable the BToE button.

The cfg file is available here – there is the semi-standard “download the file, modify the file with text editor, upload the file to phone routine.”

Here is how the phone cfg file looks by default…

And here is how it needs to look.  After uploading the cfg file, the phone will restart and you can then manually pair.  Remember that the manual pair code is case sensitive.

SfBO policy

Make sure that your Office 365 admins, if that role is not you, changes your online policy for ip phones to enable BToE, and further more to not change the pairing setting.  For more information see this.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hYptjYU9T9AJ:https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt629497.aspx+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Summary

BToE button greyed out, but automatic pass-through BToE works.  You want control of that button so manual pairing is possible for wireless connections.  Modification of the cfg file is required.

As always,

YMMV

Restricted Office 365 OWA–Skype on-premises Integration

Scenario

Office 365 tenant established.  Exchange Online (EOL) for the user mailbox.  Skype for Business on-premises for IM/P.  Users are mixed – some have full Office suite, others are just a browser.  Security is tight.  No federation is desired or allowed with partners, vendors, spammers, or public (consumer) Skype. In addition, the requirement also stipulates that no authorized user can use the system remotely without going through a VPN. 

This last requirement means that remote users via the Edge server must be disallowed – but….won’t the Office 365 users be remote?  Great question.  We will cover that down below.

Because of the user software mix, we need the pure browser user to have OWA (EOL) integrate with the SfB on-premises.  Not the most attractive (visually and functionally) solution from the user perspective, but it does work.  Specifically, the function requirement was for OWA users to have presence information and be able to IM.

This article will not attempt to show the end user how to muddle through using SfB with EOL OWA.  The focus is just providing the service.

So, here is a visual of what we want… presence going both directions between the on-premises SfB users, and at least one of the users is using EOL OWA.

OWA User

On-premises user

How to

Obviously, we need an on-premise pool of some sort, and an edge server.  And then get your hybrid working.  In this case, the tenant (and the EOL work) was up and running before the SfB project started, so all we had to do was make sure that the Azure AD Connect was done right. 

  Danger Will Robinson!  

Because the AAD Connect was done prior to to SfB schema extension, the AAD connect will need to be FORCED to reread schema and synchronize.  You can read about this in a somewhat related post here. 

Moving on…

Having taken care of the obvious install and configuration items, the next thing is to establish hybrid posture.  If you have not already done so, you can read up on it here, here, and here.  Pay particular attention to this last reference.  Failure to do this will result in a no-go..  If you want all the fancy-schmancy integration, then you will need to do this here also. 

Now that you have all that done, we are done.  Right?

Well, no.  Remember that we needed to have no federation with anyone other than an Office 365 user, and no remote user access?  That seems to be a bit conflicting, yes?  But no.  A remote user is someone using a full client.  A bit of testing showed that Office 365 connecting to the on-premises SfB was a federation user not a remote user.

As a final bit of constraint, we did not want to be changing the external firewall.  So what to do?  Maybe we need to do a little something with Edge configuration and policy, eh?

Here is our Access Edge Configuration:

From the top down, we need to federate – Office 365 is a federation.  Per security requirement, no partner domain discovery, which closes out contacting anyone other than our own domain.  No need to send an archiving disclaimer to people we cannot talk to.  Per security, no remote user access.  Lastly, no outside access to web conferencing, so no need for those pesky anonymous attendees.  Just to confirm your deepest doubts, here is the SIP Federated Domains list:

Here is the External Access Policy:

Again, from the top, and note that we only have one thing checked…federated users is the requirement.  Nothing else needed… XMPP is pretty much dead nowadays anyhow; no remote users, ergo, no need for that, and without public user federation, no need for that either.

Conclusion

We had a set of requirements:  OWA integration between EOL and on-premises SfB.  Security concerns were that no other domains be contacted, and none of our domain users can be remote.  EOL users were not using Outlook, just OWA and we needed presence and IM.  We did not do the full OAuth as those features were not part of the specification.

YMMV

AudioCodes Updated 4xx firmware

Audiocodes has released an updated 3.0.1 version for all 400HD models. Comparing to the 3.0.1 GA, this version includes mainly bug fixes. Please refer to the new release notes document to see the list of fixes. For customers that still did not move to 3.0.1 GA and plan to move to 3.0.1, it is recommended to use this version (instead the 3.0.1 GA).

Version name:

• UC405HD_3.0.1.276.img
• UC420HD_3.0.1.276.img
• UC430HD_3.0.1.276.img
• UC440HD_3.0.1.276.img
• UC450HD_3.0.1.89.367.img

According to my source, these new firmwares are anticipated to be posted to the AudioCodes website (www.audiocodes.com) sometime early next week.  In the meantime, my phones (420, 440, 450) seem to get along right well with the new code.

As an interesting side note…my web login/BToE combination now works as expected.  Previously this was not working, and I know our corporate IT recently changed the Office 365 BToE status, and it could have been the firmware.  If you are having issues, maybe this firmware will help you.

I have a zip file with updated documentation and firmware files here.

YMMV

AudioCodes X-UM

By now, I hope you already know that as of July 2018, Office 365 will no longer work with SBC connections linking your off-brand PBX to Exchange Online UM services (read voice mail).  For an actual read of the announcement, see this.

Here are the solutions offered by Microsoft:

• Option 1: Complete migration from 3rd party on-premises PBX to Office 365 Cloud PBX.
• Option 2: Complete migration from 3rd party on-premises PBX to Skype for Business Server Enterprise Voice on-premises.
  
• Option 3: For customers with a mixed deployment of 3rd party PBX and Skype for Business, connect the PBX to Skype for Business Server using a connector from a Microsoft partner, and continue using Exchange Online UM through that connector. For example, TE-SYSTEMS’ anynode UM connector can be used for that purpose. (sic)
  
• Option 4: For customers with no Skype for Business Server deployment or for whom the solutions above are not appropriate, implement a 3rd party voicemail system.

Personally, I would change Option 1 and Option 2.  Especially if you have any combination of complexity, multiple locations, and user count.  Couple that risk scale item with sheer lack of calendar, and I think it would be easier to get on-premises fired up and connected.  And, IMHO, doing 2 would make getting to 1 easier with a better user experience.

Option 4 is not really an option is it?  Everyone should want, need, and implement SfB.  Life is better with SfB.  Trust me.

About this time, the alert reader will notice that I skipped Option 3.  That’s because those nice folks at AudioCodes have somewhat solidified their plans for stepping into the breach.  How nice of them! 

AudioCodes has put together a very nice, comprehensive, suite of solutions based on their outstanding hardware and CCE experience. 

As the X-UM solution set, there are three of them:

Here is a bit different look at it…being a visual kinda guy, this is the view that helped me the most:

And then we have these further details for each scenario:

Microsoft licensing for the X-UM solution you choose is not covered, which makes sense, there are too many variations.  Here is the official blurb:

 

How about some architecture oulines?  I like pictures that show me things.  Here is the X-UM Standard and Lite.  Note that the “Lite” version relies on existing on-premises SfB resources.

Now, based on my current project, I know that there is going to be someone out there in reader-land who needs a visual of the call flows.  I know I do.

Summary

About now you are most likely wondering which of these will work for you. AudioCodes X-UM is based on proven hardware and proven solution approaches (CloudBond, CCE). If your environment is more complex, needs that existing PBX to coexist with Office 365 for your VoiceMail needs, then choose the flavor that answers your needs.  AudioCodes has you covered for any of the option 3 scenarios and could possibly help you (in the Lite version) with Option 1 and 2 also.

I know that somewhere above 75% of my customers all have some sort of “mixed deployment” usually due to call centers, business process, and culture.  Notice that none of those are easily changed before July 2018.  Ergo, we need to do something else in the short time we have available.  I submit that AudioCodes X-UM might well be that something.

As always, YMMV