Conference Phone Buying Guide

Which Conference Phone is Right for Me?

An audio conference call is still the easiest, and cheapest, method of bringing together a group of friends, colleagues or business partners for a synchronous, real-time, meeting. Conference phones can typically accommodate between 3 and 30 participants and, if carefully chosen and positioned, can encourage interaction and the communication of thoughts, ideas, opinions, strategies, etc. between those participants.

It is unfortunate that many business people experience an unsatisfactory conference call – as a result of inappropriate, poorly configured, or positioned, equipment – at some point, because conference calling remains an undervalued, but, nevertheless, highly effective, business tool.

Conference Phone Systems & Buying Tips

A conference call should be thought of, and orchestrated as, a meeting occurring on the telephone, but the choice of the correct equipment, in the first place, can assist greatly in this respect. Conference phones, nowadays, are available in corded and cordless models, and, of course, VoIP (“Voice over Internet Protocol”) – using web-based calling services, or “soft phones” – is another possibility.

A corded conference phone feature a base unit that incorporates microphones and speakers, and is effectively “tied” to the room in which it is connected to a telephone extension. A cordless conference phone, on the other hand, consists of a base station – which plugs into a telephone extension and mains power outlet – plus one, or more, portable handsets or headsets. This allows users to “roam”, within 100′, or so, of the base station, which can be useful for businesses that do not have a dedicated conference room, or wish to hold meetings in a room without at telephone extension. Do bear in mind, however, that cordless conference phone transmissions may be disrupted by metal walls, or partitions, between the handsets.

Whichever form of conference phone you ultimately choose, audio quality, and the ability of all participants in a meeting to hear everything that is said, are the keys to a productive audio conference experience.

Some less expensive, “speaker phones”, for example, purport to offer conferencing facilities, but do, in fact, only offer “half duplex” operation. This effectively means that only one person at a time can speak – the phone actually cuts off the audio from one end of the connection if it detects noise at the other – and can be frustrating, unless a certain, not altogether natural, etiquette is adopted.

What is really required is “full duplex” operation as offered by fully fledged conference phones. This employs digital signal processing techniques to detect output from the conference phone speaker(s) and remove this from the microphone input signal, so that two, or more, people can speak freely at the same time.

It may be possible to obtain a conference phone for testing purposes, on a “sale or return” basis; this is often a good idea, as unusual rooms – with high ceilings, or large windows, for example – may create echoes, or give the sound a “hollow” quality, with certain conference phones.

More Reviews:

• What is a Conference Phone?
• Conference Phone Accessories
• How Can a Conference Phone Help My Business?
• How to Set Up a Conference Phone System
• Choosing a Conference Phone System
• How to Optimise a Conference Phone System
• Choosing a Conference Phone System for Small Meetings
• Home phones – Cordless or Corded?
• Polycom SoundStation2W Wireless vs Wireless Expandable
• Cordless Phones or Corded Phones