Elk Voice Announcements Over Panasonic Intercom
- Thread starter blafarm
- Start date
AnotherOne
Active Member
A hack would be to plug the elk into the background music port on the 624. This would allow any annoucments to be heard on any phones that have the BGM feature on. Also would allow elk annoucements as the "hold" music
Interesting idea...but I didn't think BGM could be monitored by local phones -- only outside lines that were on hold.
Am I mistaken? Is it possible to set all idle phones to default to routing BGM to the speaker component of the phone -- as though the global intercom function was being called by another phone?
Am I mistaken? Is it possible to set all idle phones to default to routing BGM to the speaker component of the phone -- as though the global intercom function was being called by another phone?
On my Panasonic system pressing "1" on an idle phone toggles monitoring of the BGM.
If you did this then you would probably want to program the system so that the external source wasn't used for calls on hold.
I have set up my Elk to make specific announcements through the phone system by setting up the paging access code as a "voice message" telephone destination and triggering this using rules.
Paul
upstatemike
Senior Member
So are you actually having the M1 dial the 33* paging access on your phone system? (assuming Panasonic here).
upstatemike
Senior Member
A hack would be to plug the elk into the background music port on the 624. This would allow any annoucments to be heard on any phones that have the BGM feature on. Also would allow elk annoucements as the "hold" music
Trying to think through the pros and cons of this...
PROs-
wiring is already done
automatic mute of announcements when on the phone
can disable an area by just hitting "1" on the phone
CONs-
Have to use cheesy internal music for actual on-hold sound
can defeat announcements by just hitting "1" on the phone (too easy for family members who just do not like HA announcements)
No way to control "per room" from an automation system
Limited to 24 locations (or less if ports are used for BLF or VM)
In some situations this might be a pretty good solution!
Interesting. Would you mind elaborating a bit on your setup and how it works?
Thanks
Spanky
Senior Member
When going from the M1's Output 1 to a line level signal you will need to add two resistors and a cap. according to this document: M1 output to line level
upstatemike
Senior Member
Just for the heck of it I just tried it with my Stargate and noticed the following:
When a phone has background music turned ON, the keypad stays lit continuously.
I used a small ratshack mixer between the Stargate and Background music input on the phone system so I could adjust the volume in, and I find I get some faint background buzz when when there is no talking going on.
The volume control on the phone uses the same setting for background music and speakerphone so unless the levels match exactly, the volume control will get fiddled with a lot.
When a phone has background music turned ON, the keypad stays lit continuously.
I used a small ratshack mixer between the Stargate and Background music input on the phone system so I could adjust the volume in, and I find I get some faint background buzz when when there is no talking going on.
The volume control on the phone uses the same setting for background music and speakerphone so unless the levels match exactly, the volume control will get fiddled with a lot.
upstatemike
Senior Member
You can also get a pre-made speaker to line level attenuator. I think I have an old Carver Wide Band Z-1 Coupler lying around that I am going to use for this.
Yes, I have set up 331 (Page zone 1 - there are phones in bedrooms where I don't want the announcement made) as a telephone destination and then from a rule I get the M1 to dial this destination and make a custom announcement. The M1 appends "Press pound to acknowledge", and if it doesn't get the # then it just repeats the message three of four times before hanging up. I can pick up a phone and dial "43" to answer the page and then dial # to acknowledge the message to avoid the repetition.
Obviously to make this work I have connected the M1 as an analog "extension" from the Panasonic. This means that the M1 can't seize the telco line, but I don't use central station monitoring anyway - the M1 just calls my cell and makes a voice announcement. It does this by dialling "0" for any available outside line (I guess you would use 9 in North America) and I figure the chances of all three of my lines being in use at that point are pretty slim.
Paul
Am I correct in my understanding that, except for your bypassed phones, the M1 performs a global speakerphone page requiring no action on the part of residents except to merely listen to the page.
And, that the only reason you dial "43" is to answer the page to hit # in order to avoid the repetition.
Lastly, and this is probably a dumb question, is there a way to initiate a page with only a single announcement -- with an immediate M1 hang-up (line release) after the single announcement has been made?
And, that the only reason you dial "43" is to answer the page to hit # in order to avoid the repetition.
Lastly, and this is probably a dumb question, is there a way to initiate a page with only a single announcement -- with an immediate M1 hang-up (line release) after the single announcement has been made?
Yes, that is correct.
As far as I know there is no way to prevent the M1 from repeating the message if it is not acknowledged.
Paul
upstatemike
Senior Member
If you really want to get around the repeating message you might be able to use the M1 just to dial and then have relays connect and trigger an ELK-124 with the message you want to hear. Even better would be to use an ELK-MV480 and trigger it with ASCII commands (after the M1 dials the paging code). Problem with the MV480 though is that the ASCII is tortuously cryptic and requires a utility to calculate how to put the string together to trigger the right message. On the plus side it will hold up to 480 messages.
I think Elk is missing an easy opportunity to enhance the M1 in not providing a version of the MV480 that could be used with simplified ASCII commands (like Play 01006 to play the 6th memory location on the MV480 set to address 01). I suppose they could also keep the MV480 as is and just let ELKRP handle the string construction through a simple programming interface that lets you choose the address and memory location with drop downs or check boxes.
I think Elk is missing an easy opportunity to enhance the M1 in not providing a version of the MV480 that could be used with simplified ASCII commands (like Play 01006 to play the 6th memory location on the MV480 set to address 01). I suppose they could also keep the MV480 as is and just let ELKRP handle the string construction through a simple programming interface that lets you choose the address and memory location with drop downs or check boxes.
