I’m setting up an Asterisk based system, and want to buy two of these Sayson 480i CT. That will include two of the base stations and two of the cordless handsets.
I will be buying an IAX trunk to connect my Asterisk box to. These phone support a max of 9 ‘line appearances’. So if I have say 3 lines active at a time, will I be able to see these active calls on all four phones?
“Presence” data isn’t something that’s supported by all phones in all configurations. It’s very hit or miss.
For the most part, with the right phone, you’ll probably be able to see if a particular station has a call in progress, but that’s about it.
You very probably won’t be able to see the status of an individual appearance on a particular station. It’s not really something that SIP has yet worked into it’s protocol.
So you’re suggesting that I wouldn’t be able to use these as advertised?
I wouldn’t be able to have my secretary answer line 1, put it on hold, and then pick up the call on a different phone?
Search voip-info.org for “asterisk presence” for more information.
As I read the user guide for this phone set, it doesn’t really allow for shared appearances the way you might traditionally understand them.
This is a desk phone and wireless phone pair. Calls on the desk set can be extended to the paired wireless handset. That’s about it. You can have a call in progress on the desk set, place it on hold, and pick up the wireless set that is paired with the desk set, and continue your call there.
If you were to buy two of these, you’re really only getting two phones. Not 4. The wireless handset is more of a “remote control” for the desk set.
The manual does allow for a customized busy lamp field to be build using certain softkeys, but it’s specifically designed to work with BroadSoft Broadworks Rel 13 Busy Lamp Field feature. The manual specifies that you won’t have call control. You’ll just be aware of calls in progress, but since you’re not planning to use it with a Broadsoft system, that doesn’t really matter. The busy lamp field feature won’t work with Asterisk anyway.
So, It appears that the answer to both of your questions is no; You won’t necessarily see the call on all 4 phones, and you can’t necessarily place it on hold and answer it at a different phone, unlesss that phone is the paired wireless handset.
I suppose you could get extra wireless handsets. The phone can have as many as 4 paired wireless handsets. Then it might work the way you want. I’m not sure if all users can be on the phone at the same time though. You may be restricted to only one user at a time. I’d ask the manufacturer about that first.
Additionally, to get 9 line appearances, you need to use a combination of hard keys and soft keys. (Which may be less functional than you would prefer.)
Have a look at the user guide. That should answer your questions.
short version- if you configure asterisk correctly, the lights will probably light up like you’d want. but pushing the button won’t sieze the line or join you to the call like you’d expect with a normal phone.
Yeah, it’s true, my answers tend to be long.
Just trying to end the cycle of “one line question, one line answer” that these postings tend towards.
If you put in complete information, (and source links) it not only becomes the answer to a question, but hopefully a source for others with the same question.
Many apologies for being too wordy…
no apologies necessary- wordy/more info is almost always a good thing 
I find that cliffs notes can help sometimes in case people are looking for a 1 line answer…