asterisk users - Jan 2007 - Question Regarding Visual Park Functionality - Hardware/Software

Hello List!

I am hoping someone may be able to assist with the following feature I am
looking to implement:

I would like to use a visual park function if possible, here's how I see it
working....

-> Call comes into caller A

-> Caller A places the call in orbit (or park) by dialing 700

-> A message is then sent to illuminate a line on each of the phones in this
office indicating a call is parked

-> Anyone can retrieve this call by pressing the illuminated line key on
their phone

I assume this must be accomplished with specific phones, I know I can do the
park/retrieve - but not sure how to handle the visual indication of a park.

My first thought was to send a ringing to each SIP phone, this won't work
because they only want a light to illuminate, no audio.

Maybe a phone that supports a "quiet" mode? I could then send ringing,
and a
custom ring in the ALER_INFO SIP parameter??

Anyone have any suggestions on the best phone to accomplish this goal?

Anyone have any advice on getting this to work?

Anyone do this now?

Thanks!!

-Chris Aloi
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Christopher Aloi wrote:
> I would like to use a visual park function if possible, here's how I 
> see it working....

What you want is called BLF with Metermaid.  There was a question about 
it on this list less than a week ago, but with no response. 

Metermaid was a patch for the 1.2.x series, but apparently it has been 
included into 1.4.0.  Sadly, I couldn't get 1.4.0 to work for my 
purposes, and haven't got Metermaid working reliably on the latest 1.2.  
Of course, your phone has to support the feature, as well.  (BLF)

This page:

http://voip-info.org/wiki/view/480i+Busy+lamp+field+%27BLF%27+support

Claims to explain how to set it up for my Aastra 480i.  The problem I'm 
running into is the '701' extension is created dynamically when a call 
is parked, so the phone is unable to "subscribe" to that extension.  I
can get it to work momentarily by parking a call just before rebooting 
the phone, but it eventually loses the subscription after the parked 
call is released.  The problems I'm having might be due to me running a 
much newer version than the patch was made for.

Hopefully this helps you get going in the right direction.

ttyl
srw

Scott Walde wrote:
>
> This page:
>
> http://voip-info.org/wiki/view/480i+Busy+lamp+field+%27BLF%27+support
Sorry, I sent the wrong link... That page was just for regular BLF.  The 
Metermaid bit is on this page, about half way down:

http://voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+and+Aastra+Phones

ttyl
srw