As you probably have seen, Barix is supporting SIP since about 15 months now. A complete SIP stack and application, which is provided in source form, is in the Barix ABCL kit.

While requirements for an Audio over IP and a Voice over IP (VoIP) system are typically quite different, the Barix solution can serve both!

The SIP application can be used for emergency call posts on Annuncicoms (full duplex communication, initiated by a button press from a user), but also for output only applications, such as Paging speakers or interfaces to existing PA systems. In that case, the application supports multicast and also Auto Answer.

For use in Parking Systems or door access control, the built-in relay of an Annuncicom can be controlled via SIP Info.

So – where comes Audio over IP in place ?

Supporting MP3, AACplus, Ogg Vorbis and WMA (select hardware), the devices provide excellent capabilities for IP Audio distribution.

We are working on integrating both the Audio and Intercom/Voice/Paging functionality into one single application, when available, this will allow you to
do IP Audio distribution in high quality (for example, in Hotels, Cruise ships etc), yet, at the same time, have the device register as a VoIP “phone extension” on an IP based phone system.

For the Audio over IP functionality, the high quality music encoding can be used, and the devices automatically switch over to VoIP codecs when such functionality is required.

An alternative is to use one Barix device as a SIP gateway, allowing easy paging zone selection via “DTMF” (actually, SIP Info): The advantage here is that only one extension is used, which could save license cost on the PBX, and also enable synchronous paging on multiple devices via Multicast, which is not supported by many VoIP PBX’es so far.

A third option, available now, is the use of Bell Commander from Acrovista , a partner. It provides the same functionality on a PC, with an extensive Bell Scheduling and PC based Paging solution.