Telephones... then and now

[kcflhrc]

I maintain 2 large hospitals here with Option 81's. Both are over 2500 lines each. But they are both slowly migrating to Cisco. So I have PRI's between the Opt 81's and the Cisco. Slowly but surely the Nortel days will be gone, that will be a sad day.

 

[k0ua]

I maintain 2 large hospitals here with Option 81's. Both are over 2500 lines each. But they are both slowly migrating to Cisco. So I have PRI's between the Opt 81's and the Cisco. Slowly but surely the Nortel days will be gone, that will be a sad day.

Yes one of our old Hospital customers bought a Cisco and interfaced it to their old Opt 61 including the CallPilot voicemail which I didn't think they would be able to do, but they did it. As you know Cisco doesn't do analog all that economically. And they had all of that installed analog base so they drove it with the Nortel and used the Nortel voicemail. I think they replaced all of the digital phones with the Cisco Ip phones.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

very true for the fluorescent , LED LCD and OLED sets.
Actually the large Plasmas are pretty heavy,
Think our 60 inch is almost 100 lbs.
LG dropped plasmas altogether due to weight, shattered glass screens during shipping ,and the high power consumption

Yes it does heat the room -400watts worth:laughing:

I think my front projection system uses a 500 watt bulb. This is my second projector, both LED models. I did a remodel 12 years ago and built a recess in the ceiling for an electrically operated screen, and put the projector in a box on the ceiling. When the TV is off, the room is just a living room, with art on the walls and no big glass eye. The satellite receiver has caller ID, and projects the caller info on screen when the TV is on. The blue ray player has WiFi and will stream video from the internet, as well as playing 3d movies. The sound system is THX certified. All that, and I can still play my old vinyl records.

When I was a kid, an uncle had a console TV and HiFi (before stereo) that took up one whole wall of his living room. You could close the cabinet in front of the TV to hide the screen. I feel like I just updated a 1950s design. The HDTV 16:9 format beats **** out of the old round cornered CRT. I got to see Rocky Marciano fight Archie Moore on that set, though.

Telephone here is still copper land line, with call waiting, voice mail and unlimited US long distance. I have a cell phone, but there is no cell service at my house. Internet here is not reliable enough for VOIP, though I will sometimes skype a conference call.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I talk to many people who have flat screens fail at 4 to 6 years.

New tech going into a mass market should be over-built at introduction, IMO. Coming out of the gate unreliable can be a kiss of death. As time rolls on, that new tech becomes more of a commodity, so cost "optimization" tends to prevail.

Modern (cell) phones tend to great for texting, taking pictures, watching video.... often not so much for voice quality. I get that a lot of the market today is OK with that trade-off.

Rgds, D.

You don't see flat screens showing up at the recycling center in any numbers. The light bulb would sometimes burn out in the old pre-LED sets, and replacing the bulb was pretty expensive. Flat screens are also pretty fragile, so don't treat them roughly. The only flat screen I have had to replace was one of the early 20" flat panel monitors that served well for about a decade. My current 26" monitor is old enough that I have no idea when I bought it.

For voice quality, as long as the other person is intelligible I'm happy. With the ear buds, audio books and music sound great, but with my ageing ears if the high frequencies are missing I would never know.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've always have cell issues and this is in Oakland and Olympia...

Dad was a good friend of Archie Moore... met him many times.

Without going into too much... Dad was the US Champion Heavy Weight many, many years ago.

His philosophy was to buy quality and keep it forever... we had the first color set which was the only time we could have ever been called an early adopter... still remember Mighty Mouse Cartoon was in color... all the neighbors came over for a look... The folks kept that same set into the early 80's... and then bought another Zenith which is what Mom watches every night.

Back to telephones... in 1995 we were the first of the new Nortel installs... it confounded many when they were unable to use analog phones with the new system...

 

[k0ua]

I've always have cell issues and this is in Oakland and Olympia...

Dad was a good friend of Archie Moore... met him many times.

Without going into too much... Dad was the US Champion Heavy Weight many, many years ago.

His philosophy was to buy quality and keep it forever... we had the first color set which was the only time we could have ever been called an early adopter... still remember Mighty Mouse Cartoon was in color... all the neighbors came over for a look... The folks kept that same set into the early 80's... and then bought another Zenith which is what Mom watches every night.

Back to telephones... in 1995 we were the first of the new Nortel installs... it confounded many when they were unable to use analog phones with the new system...

Well the Norstar could do analog phones two ways. There was an analog module that output analog dial tone, and there were what was called ATA's Analog Terminal Adaptors that took a digital port in and came out with an analog dial tone. Of course these solutions assumed you just needed a few analog ports. Oh, the CICS had 1 built in ATA at no charge. So I guess three ways. :laughing:

 

[hawkeye08]

yep, and when all these companies were switching to digital, the guys in the data centers still wanted some analog lines for the "phone home" features of the technology. I think our company is near the end for supporting "phone home" from the data centers. Most all are using encrypted internet connections now..

 

[Industrial Toys]

I replaced a defective ATA today. A guy I hired this summer to do some Nortel work says much of his time is spent ripping out VOIP stuff and putting back in the old proven Nortel stuff. Doesn't surprise me.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Bluetooth, a smart phone and hearing aids, perfect together! That is, I can place my phone on the desk with the number pad opened and not miss a thing while I pay bills on line, etc. If I get stuck on hold, having not to hold the phone to my ear (with the way to loud canned music) while I wait my turn for the "first available rep" is fantastic!

 

[ultrarunner]

I replaced a defective ATA today. A guy I hired this summer to do some Nortel work says much of his time is spent ripping out VOIP stuff and putting back in the old proven Nortel stuff. Doesn't surprise me.

Some of the space we rent to medical groups have done the same... also a lot have bit the bullet and hardwired their networks...