About Me (Full Bio) VoIP & Gadgets Blog: Tom Keating: CTO, VP, Fo TMC Labs; B.S. Compute Engineering, 14 yrs telec experience, 28 yrs progra tinkering with & breaking computers. Gadgets & Vo favorite topics on this blo Home Archives TMCnet blogs VoIP Forums About Me Contact Channels Community Sites Ph SIP Print VoIP Appliance Review Call recording on VoIP phone systems is critical because it can ensure good customer service, provide employee training, and offer liability protection. SIP Print offers a SIP-compliant VoIP recording appliance at a price point that is much lower than legacy analog or digital E1/T1 recording systems. Part of the reason is you don't have to pay for expensive Dialogic or NMS telephony hardware to interface with analog or digital trunks. Instead, SIP Print's appliances sit on the network and simply record the SIP VoIP traffic. Obviously, the cost economies of packet capture are much lower than using telephony cards. SIP Print's appliance offers true system-level call recording for many of today's leading VoIP phone systems, including Allworx 6x & Allworx 24x, Altigen, Avaya S8XXX systems (when used with Microsoft OCS), Asterisk / trixbox variants, Cisco, Microsoft OCS and UM, Mitel 3300, NEC, Nortel SCS, Shoretel, SIPXecs, Vertical, and Zultys MX-250. Because it supports SIP at the communications system level, SIP Print's platform can also record advanced functions like voicemail or "follow-me" calls forwarded to mobile phones or off-premise phone numbers. SIP Print sent me one of their VoIP call recording 1U rackmountable appliances for review. There are two models available - SMB and SME (higher-end). The SIP Print Enterprise (SME) is a higher-end system that has dual redundant power supplies and supports RAID. SME also has alarms for an unplugged or bad power supply, and it has an alarm for a bad or missing disk drive. SIP Print sent me their SMB model to test. Search Search this blog: Search Related Entries VoIP Call Recordi Microsoft Kills Re Point IP-PBX Skype For SIP Ma and IP-PBXs Polycom VVX 150 Phone Game Cha Client Server SIP Print VoIP Appliance Review http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/sip-print-voip-app... 1 of 10 8/20/09 5:04 PM
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About Me (Full Bio)
VoIP & Gadgets Blog:
Tom Keating: CTO, VP, FounderTMC Labs; B.S. ComputerEngineering, 14 yrs telecomexperience, 28 yrs programming,tinkering with & breakingcomputers. Gadgets & VoIP arefavorite topics on this blog
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SIP Print VoIP Appliance Review
Call recording on VoIP phone systems is critical because it can ensure good customer service,provide employee training, and offer liability protection. SIP Print offers a SIP-compliant VoIPrecording appliance at a price point that is much lower than legacy analog or digital E1/T1recording systems. Part of the reason is you don't have to pay for expensive Dialogic or NMStelephony hardware to interface with analog or digital trunks. Instead, SIP Print's appliances sit onthe network and simply record the SIP VoIP traffic. Obviously, the cost economies of packetcapture are much lower than using telephony cards. SIP Print's appliance offers true system-levelcall recording for many of today's leading VoIP phone systems, including Allworx 6x & Allworx 24x,Altigen, Avaya S8XXX systems (when used with Microsoft OCS), Asterisk / trixbox variants, Cisco,Microsoft OCS and UM, Mitel 3300, NEC, Nortel SCS, Shoretel, SIPXecs, Vertical, and ZultysMX-250. Because it supports SIP at the communications system level, SIP Print's platform can alsorecord advanced functions like voicemail or "follow-me" calls forwarded to mobile phones oroff-premise phone numbers.
SIP Print sent me one of their VoIP call recording 1U rackmountable appliances for review. Thereare two models available - SMB and SME (higher-end). The SIP Print Enterprise (SME) is ahigher-end system that has dual redundant power supplies and supports RAID. SME also has alarmsfor an unplugged or bad power supply, and it has an alarm for a bad or missing disk drive. SIP Printsent me their SMB model to test.
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SIP Print Architecture
Installation:Installation was a breeze. Not like the old days when I tested call recording systems from NICESystems which required tapping into the T1 line or analog ports. All I had to do was configure portmirroring on a Gigabit switch that connects to our Asterisk-based phone system. I "mirrored" allthe traffic going to/from the IP-PBX and send it to the SIP Print appliance. This way, the appliance"sees" all of the SIP traffic, including the RTP audio packets. Next, I added an additional IP addressto my network card (192.168.2.50) since the appliance uses the 192.168.2.x network. I thenlaunched my browser and went to http://192.168.2.253/, the default IP address of the appliance.
I logged in with the master username and password. The first thing I did was change the networksetting to match our own. Then I added the SIP gateway (IP-PBX) and a bunch of IP addresses usedby our SIP endpoints (IP phones). You can have up to 3 gateways/SIP proxies/IP-PBXs, while the SIPendpoints are licensed, so it depends how many licenses you purchase. Our configuration waslicensed for 100 SIP endpoints. It was a bit of a pain to add each SIP endpoint's IP address one at atime. I wished the device had an auto-discovery mode which would automatically listen for SIPREGISTER messages, which all SIP endpoints send (usually) every 5 minutes. Would make addingthe entire list of IP phones an automatic process that takes only 5 minutes. Thus, I had tocopy/paste one-at-a-time each phone's IP address that belonged to our SIP phones into each of theform fields in the "100 SIP End Points" section.
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SIP Configuration Screen for adding SIP gateways & SIP Endpoints.
Although adding the IP phones was a bit tedious, it wasn't too bad. After the IP phones were addedI made some test calls. I also added TMC's IP phones so there were also some production IP phonesin use that would allow me to record regular business calls. I went into the web interface and wasable to view all the call recordings. I noticed it was displaying the MAC address of the IP phonesinstead of the extension number or the person's name. This is by design. I then created "aliases"which map the MAC address to the person's full name (with no spaces). I could have used extensionnumbers, but then searching for calls would be harder, since it's much easier to remembersomeone's name than their extension number. In any event, after creating the aliases, here's whatthe call recording screen looks like:
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Call recordings
The speaker icon under the 'Play' heading allows you to quickly play any recording using yourfavorite .wav player. Since the results are paginated, you can go page-to-page by clicking Next orPrevious. Additionally, the web interface sports some powerful search capabilities. I was able tosearch by username (alias), phone number, and date range. The alias and phone number supportpartial matching, so instead of typing 'thomasjones' you could just type 'thom' and it'll match. Thesearch was blazingly fast, which is crucial for any call recording system. As soon as I clickedsearch, less than a second later, it would return the results.
My initial impression of the web GUI was that it was sort of ugly and simplistic. But after using thesystem, I appreciated its simple GUI and the ability to just get things done. In fact, anotherspeedy feature is the ability to sort any of the column headings, including alias, date, and phonenumber. Once again, sorting is nearly instantaneous. Thus, finding a specific recorded call couldn'tbe easier both for users and managers that have access to other employee's call recordings.
Speaking of managers, I should point out that granting permissions on SIP Print was very easy todo. You simply grant access rights to the specific user by checking boxes next to the names(aliases) of users. This will then allow the user to view recordings for these 'checked' aliases/usersas seen here:
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Assign Aliases to User
One minor nuisance is that you cannot reset a user's password, even if you are the 'master'administrator account. Often users forget their password, which requires a password reset.Instead, as a workaround, I simply deleted the username, re-added the user and then had tore-add the aliases they had access rights to.
Feature Specifications:SYSTEM- Web Based GUI- Remote Administration- Call Playback on Standard Media Players- Search by User Name- Extension & Name Lookup- Caller ID- Search by Area Code & Prefix- Fast Forward & Rewind- Time and Date stamping- Email-ready Call File Formats- Multiple Manager Access- Remote Access- Easy Archive & Audit Trail- Column Sort (on the fly)
COMPATIBLE WITH MOST IP-PBX'S- SIP- SIP Hybrid
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PURE SYSTEM-LEVEL SIP VOICE RECORDING- Records one handset 24x7 for 2.5 years- Records all specified user calls on the local network- No logger patches- One appliance records all of your specified calls- No IP-PBX or handset integration
PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS SOFTWARE- Number of Users Supported: 15-200- Operating System: Proprietary O/S- Administrators: 1- Managers: 9- Total Concurrent Calls: 150 MEDIA- WAV (.wav) media file
MEDIA PLAYERS- Web Browsers Supported: MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari- Media Players Supported: MS Windows Media Player, Adobe Media Player, Apple Quicktime
APPLIANCE- CPU Xeon 5100/5000 Dual Core Series Processor- Dual Port Ethernet/Fast Ethernet/Gigabit- Form Factor: 1U rack-mountable chassis- Dimensions: 17.2"W x 1.7"H x 14.5"D- Front Panel Power Button- Reset Button- Power LED- Hard Drive activity LED- Network activity LEDs- System overheat LED- 110-250 Volt Auto Adjusting Power Supply
It's worth mentioning that updates are free in the appliance. I inquired about simple RAIDmirroring and at the time they said that there is no mirroring in this version because it adds toomuch to the cost. However, the SME edition does now have RAID 5 support. They do offer someadditional backup protection. You can archive the recordings to a SMB shared folder across thenetwork as seen here:
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While the screenshot above shows a "delete" option, interestingly you cannot delete individual callrecordings from the main call recording screen. I asked SIP Print about this, and they told me thatallowing users to delete their individual calls caused more headache for managers, CEOs, andexecutives looking to keep a sharp eye on their employees interactions with customers. They citedexamples where an employee claimed one thing and the customer another, but since the recordingwas deleted, so there was no way of determining who is at fault. Truth be known, the customer isNOT always right. In fact, they also discussed lawyer and financial offices that require 100%recording of all calls for liability purposes. A client could for instance claim they said they onlywanted "100 shares of Company XYZ" but the stock broker purchased 1,000 shares. By examiningthe call recording, it can be determined who is right. Thus, SIP Print has taken the approach ofblocking the deletion of individual call recordings, but they do allow administrators to archiverecordings and then delete them en masse.
My next thought was "What if you don't archive anything? How much recording storage would youget before running out of space?" SIP Print told me that if you take the phone off hook you wouldget 5 years of recording. Impressive! The 'Enterprise' version will get you 15 years of recording.Thus, archiving doesn't have to be done on a regular basis if you don't want to.
When I asked for further details on why they designed their platform to record 100% of calls, SIPPrint's CTO Jonathan Fuld said, "When we set out to design SIP Print, we said, we want to make adevice that records all calls all the time. We did that to differentiate our selves from a featurestandpoint, because all IP PBX's and most IP Phones have a "push to record" feature alreadyincorporated in their software/firmware/hardware." He added, "The xlite softphone allows you toclick on a button to record to your desktop. Zultys allows you to record calls on an as needed basisor record all calls - but there is a limit here as with Allworx and other IP PBX's. Zultys can onlyrecord so many calls before reaching its limits. Allworx eats up voicemail space."
Jonathan continued, "In an IP Telephony world, the IP PBX is a SIP proxy - a gateway - thatincorporates voicemail. As you know the ip phone is now the phone and the pbx - it does it all,except recording. The network is the telephone - peer to peer. The peer to peer model distinctlychanges the control of the phone call from the pbx to the phone. No more can the PBX offer"barge-in", "whisper", "monitoring" without distinct overlays of the SIP Protocol. And that is fine. It
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means the phone must interact according to the TDM model (for now) - control most call functionsare via the PBX, because no-one has yet offered "barge-in", "whisper", "monitoring" in the peer topeer model."
He went on to explain, "On the other hand, recording all calls becomes quite simple in the peer topeer model. Place SIP Print in the middle of the network stream of traffic, capture, record, obtainmetadata (quasi-cdr), display and play - all quite distinct processor intensive functions whichwould grind most IP PBX's and IP Phones to a halt. When you and I make a phone call, it is just oneconversation. If I press a couple of buttons on my phone, to record the call, the "device" (whateverit is) records just that one conversation. SIP Print records all the conversations."
The prior version I was testing didn't have a web-based reboot for administrators. Thus, I had topress the reset button on the unit and it would do a graceful shutdown (though current calls won'tbe saved). Fortunately, they just added a web-based reboot option in v1.3+, so administrators
don't have to walk to unit to reset it.
Room for ImprovementI would like the phone numbers to convert to hyperlinks that point to a reverse lookup web page.That would be quite convenient to know if employees are making business calls or calling their
spouses 10 times per day!
One other suggestion is the ability to "share" the call recording with your customers using the webinterface. While you can email the recording, often times email servers have a size limit onattachments (i.e 5 MB), so you can't use email. Of course, SIP Print would have to allow some sortof "guest" account that lets customers authenticate onto the appliance to retrieve the recordingvia their browser. This could open a security Pandora's box if the "guest" account lists every"shared" recording. One way around that would be to allow each SIP Print user to have a secondaryusername & password, which logs customers in with limited access to only the recordings thateach SIP Print user shares. Of course, if the SIP Print user forgets to "unshare" the recording thatcould be an issue as well, since future customers that logon can see previously shared recordings.Perhaps limit it to 1 shared recording and have it auto-expire (unshare) after 5 hours? This givesenough time for the customer to retrieve the recording and then auto unshare it.
Pricing:SIP Print SMBSolution
Description Users Model MSRP
100001 SIP Print SMB baseserver with 20users
20 SPB20 $5,745
100125 SIP Print SMB 25user expansion key
25 SPUE25 $3,976
SIP Print SMESolution
Description Users Model MSRP
100301 SIP Print SME baseserver w/50 users
50 SPEB50 $13,098
100325 SIP Print SME 25user expansion key
25 SPEUE25 $3,976
The initial purchase includes the license of 20 users for SMB, 50 users for SME.
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Conclusion:The latest version adds support for handset to ITSP bypassingthe IP-PBX (including remote phones), which is a nice feature tohave. I really like the SIP Print appliance for several reasons. It'svery affordable, it's easy to setup and maintain, finding callrecordings is a breeze, and it works with just about anySIP-based platform, including Microsoft Office CommunicationsServer 2007 R2. The SIP Print appliance does exactly what itadvertises - records calls - and it does it very well, so I highlyrecommend this product to any organization looking to add call recording capabilities to theirSIP-based communications infrastructure.
August 12, 2009 10:18 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
Categories: Asterisk, SIP, TMCnet, VoIP
Tags: appliance, call recording, calls, ip-pbx, ocs 2007, record, recording, sip, sip print, voip Related Tags:record calls, media players, system level, phone number, print appliance, print
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Related Entries to SIP Print VoIP Appliance ReviewVoIP Call Recording - Aug 22, 2006Microsoft Kills Response Point IP-PBX - Jul 10, 2009Skype For SIP Marries Skype and IP-PBXs - Mar 23, 2009Polycom VVX 1500 Media Phone Game Changer? - Mar 09, 2009EZCallerID.com Hosted CNAM for Enhanced Caller-ID on any IP-PBX Launches - Feb 25, 2009Adtran IP 706 Review - Oct 01, 2008Microsoft Response Point Adds T1 Support and SIP Trunking Service Providers - Sep 17, 2008Aastralink RP Debut Coincides with Microsoft Response Point SP1 release - Jul 08, 2008Asterisk With Office Communications Server 2007 - May 27, 2008SIP-based VoIP Wake Up Call Service - May 16, 2008
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