Conference Phones Buying Guide

The conference call has become an essential business tool used by enterprises of all shapes and sizes and from all the corners of the earth. Even mobile phones now offer conference calling capabilities, although compared to standalone conference phones these are necessarily basic. If you are considering the purchase of a conference phone, then you will need to learn a little about the different types of technology and brands which operate in this competitive marketplace. If you have not thought about the benefits of conference phones before, then you might also be convinced to look into the technology and see why it is such a popular implement to enable the progression of commerce.

Conference phones are designed to a variety of specifications and there are products which are created for smaller businesses looking to share a conversations between three or more people, whilst others are designed for larger corporations, with support for in excess of 30 contributors. The typical conference phone design comprises of a single base station housing a main speaker for the inbound caller’s voice to be broadcast, coupled with multiple built-in microphones positioned conveniently to accommodate the necessary number of present parties in the conversation. Most conference phones will also have built-in keypads and displays to show information about the caller and modify the settings of the device, as well as allowing the user to initiate calls themselves and even connect other communications devices wirelessly to extend the functionality further.

Expandable Conference Phones

It will be useful to expand upon how conference phones function and how they are usually much more sophisticated than the typical speakerphone features which most modern handsets offer. A good quality conference phone should allow multiple users, located at different positions in a single room, to share a phone call for extensive discussions and networking with clients and partners. In order to make the experience as pleasant as possible for all parties involved, a conference phone should be able to intelligently handle volume levels and audio detection. For example, a conference phone with multiple microphones will offer complete coverage for voices coming in from every angle. However, having all of the microphones active simultaneously would pick up background noise and create an unintelligible, garbled audio quality at the other end of the line. It is therefore necessary to look for conference phones that have at the very least the ability to cut out ambient noise in the room. Some conference phones can go one step further and detect which microphone is closest to the person who is currently speaking. The conference phone will then privilege the most appropriate microphone to make sure that the speaker is heard crisply and clearly.

Conference phones are generally designed to be used with landline connections. They can accept analogue, digital and even VoIP calling depending on the make and model, allowing easy integration into existing phone systems that you may have installed at your business. Some conference phones are compatible with mobile communications devices, which means a call made via a mobile phone can be made available to a whole room full of people using a simple attachment. It is the expandability of a conference phone that will dictate its price and its suitability for your business. If you only need to accommodate a small room with limited users, then the need for adding in extras such as additional microphones will be small. But in larger businesses, conference phones which give you the opportunity to attached extra audio components to make sure that everyone can be heard around a large table are the best option.

The most important difference between a built-in speakerphone on a standalone handset and a conference phone is that the former offers half-duplex performance. You may have experienced this technology before, as it automatically cuts off the inbound audio when one caller is speaking. This results in slightly clunky conversations in which it is easy to talk over one another and miss out on what the inbound caller is saying. Conference phones offer full-duplex, allowing for two-way conversations over loud speaker systems and even the most basic conference phone should come with this essential capability.

It is possible to purchase a conference phone that comes complete with a base station and a wireless component, which you can then move to any room within a limited area of broadcast and still enjoy the same sound quality and advanced performance of a fixed line conference phone. This is great if you want to change the venue of your call, or move to a smaller or larger room depending on the type of call and the number of people who need to be present for the duration.

VoIP Conference Phones

VoIP calling is a relatively new technology in business telephony and it has been quickly adopted by conference phone manufacturers in order to maximise the features of certain conference phone models. For both small and large businesses, VoIP phone systems and calling packages have major advantages, allowing for third party providers to offer advanced services such as call routing and voicemail storage via a broadband connection and making a more cost-effective calling solution available to all. Conference phones can be connected to VoIP calling systems, allowing for high fidelity digital sound transmission that surpasses the quality of older calling technology. Although conference phones are a well established concept in business, the introduction of wireless and VoIP devices shows that the industry is able to adapt and evolve as technology progresses in other areas.

Choosing a conference phone for your business should be a task that is invested with a lot of thought, as a good conference phone will survive for many years if it is chosen wisely. Prices are varied and you can spend anywhere between £100 and over £1000. Like any electrical product, you will pay more for a solid brand with a good reputation. With branding and cost come features and functions that go well beyond the basic remit of a conference phone, although even those with a strict budget will be able to find a suitable conference phone if they keep their best interests in mind.

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