The Polycom Soundstation IP 6000 and 7000 VoIP conference phones were first introduced back in 2008 to replace the aging IP 4000 model. Earlier this year, the more petite IP 5000 was released for smaller conference rooms and executive offices. Together, these three models make up all of the currently available SIP VoIP hardware in the company’s long-running Soundstation series, a line of conferencing products that goes back to the company’s beginnings in the early 1990s. If you’ve ever wondered why we say Polycom speakerphones are a cut above the rest, now you know—they’ve been perfecting it for almost 20 years!
Here we’re going to focus on the model in the middle of the pack: the Soundstation IP 6000.
First Impressions
The IP 6000 looks almost identical to the older IP 4000 model, a phone that was released almost 10 years ago. I would have much rather preferred the redesign given to some of the other Soundstation phones—the IP 5000 and IP 7000 look sleek! The IP 6000 closely resembles a tripod, with a microphone at each of the three endpoints to ensure equal sensitivity to sound input from all directions (~4m microphone pickup range). A large speaker sits at the top for the ringer and audio output. The IP 6000 has 3 large LED indicators that form a triangle around the central speaker. These switch from solid to flashing states of red and green depending on status of a call.
At the front is the phone console that contains the primary key buttons (standard keypad), control keys, indicators, and a high-resolution LCD graphic display. The IP 6000 measures about a foot across and ~15 inches deep. It’s more or less the same width across as a Polycom 550/650, but about twice as long. Underneath the phone is a LAN jack for power and two microphone connectors for optional extension microphones.
Unlike Polycom deskphones, the IP 6000 supports only one line appearance or registration, but can handle up to 8 simultaneous calls and conference calls if needed (1 active and 7 on hold, obviously). I’m not really sure when you would ever find youself jumping through 8 different conferences in one sitting, but the IP 6000 gives you that option.
The first thing you need to do is power the thing up. You won’t find anything other than a LAN jack on the Soundstation IP 6000. This conference phone uses PoE (Power over Ethernet) as the default connection, which means that if for some reason you can’t use PoE, you’ll need the AC Power Kit. This optional kit includes a power adapter, a regional power cord, and a power insertion cable (yes you need all three).
If you have any experience provisioning a Polycom desk phone, then getting the Soundstation IP 6000 set up will be nothing new to you. For OnSIP customers, I would recommend using our Polycom boot server. The following steps will walk through how to give the phone its own number, and how to set up a conference bridge so that you can conference with 2+ parties.
First create a new conference ‘user’ in your OnSIP admin interface. You can name it anything you want. You do not need to worry about what the assigned email address is since this ‘user’ is not actually going to be assigned to any member of your organization. Example:
Next, look underneath your IP 6000 and take down the MAC address of the phone. It should start with “0004” and consist of a total of 12 digits. Go into your OnSIP admin interface and click on the “Resources” tab. Create a new ‘Phone’ resource. Input the MAC address you just recorded, and all other necessary information. For Line 1, select the conference ‘user’ you just created. Hit save.
The following step is to let your Soundstation IP 6000 know that it should be using the OnSIP Polycom boot server. You can do this right on your phone. Hit the menu hard key on your conference phone console. Select settings > advanced. You will be asked for a password. The default password is ‘456’. Next select admin settings > network configuration. Scroll down until you see server menu. You want to change ‘server type’ to “HTTP” and ‘server address’ to “boot.onsip.com”. All you have to do now is reboot the phone. Polycom phones usually take a while to reboot, especially if the firmware version has to be upgraded. Rebooting can take up to 30 minutes, so go do something else while you wait.
If you’re planning on holding conferences with more than two parties, then you’ll need a conference bridge. There are plenty of options to choose from. Shameless plug: If you happen to be an OnSIP customer, I would highly recommend trying out our HD conference bridges. Instructions on how to set that up can be found here.
JN Testing
At Junction Networks, we put each of the phones we use through a multi-step interoperability test in which we apply ~30 test cases. An example of a test case would be the following:
Test phone calls phone B
B picks up
B puts Test phone on hold
B calls phone C
C picks up
B transfers test phone to CCall must be transferred correctly to C. B must be released correctly after the transfer. When C picks up, audio must work in both ways between test phone and C. When test phone is on hold, there is no audio between it and phone B.
The Soundstation IP 6000 passed all of the relevant test cases in our interoperability test with no issues.
Voice Quality
I think you’ll agree with me when I say that the real measure of a phone like this is how it sounds. For example, how easy is it to distinguish between the voices of 20+ people scattered across the country? Polycom has got you covered. Conference calls on the Soundstation IP 6000 sound nothing short of amazing. Like all of Polycom’s updated IP phones, the IP 6000 features ‘HD Voice’ and the company’s Acoustic Clarity technology. Polycom boasts that the IP 6000 allows for high-fidelity calls at up to 14 kHz.
Since many of the employees here at Junction Networks either work from home or from remote offices, our Friday conference calls are one of the only times all of us regularly get together. We have been using an IP 6000 for these weekly company-wide meetings for as long as I can remember, and the quality has always been excellent. My off-site coworkers using G.722 capable phones sound like they are in the room with us (I’ve actually been fooled before into thinking that they were in the office by this phone). Calls coming in from the PSTN don’t sound quite as amazing, but the voice quality is still very good.
Ease of Use
I found the Soundstation IP 6000 incredibly user-friendly. To be honest though, I’ve really only used this phone during conference calls; features like custom web applications remain mostly uncharted territory.
The phone console includes a fairly standard phone UI with dedicated hard keys for functions like mute and redial. Some of the functions of the hard keys change depending on the status of the phone. For example, when the phone is idle, the 'up' arrow button next to the 'select' key takes the user to a speed dial list while the 'down' arrow button takes the user to missed calls. During a single call, these buttons don’t do anything at all, but when there are two or more simultaneous calls taking place, these buttons can be used to cycle through the list of ongoing conversations. Other standard call handling options (hold, forward/transfer) show up during the call as soft key options. The Soundstation IP 6000 includes almost all the functionality of a Polycom desk phone. Call handling options like attended and blind transferring, and features like do not disturb, call forwarding and company directory lists are included.
The high-res LCD graphic display on the phone console makes navigating through the menus painless. Like other Polycom phones we’ve tested, an animated ‘HD’ icon will appear on the display screen during wideband calls.
Final Thoughts
The Soundstation IP 6000 is a fantastic conference phone that delivers excellent audio performance. We’ve been using it ourselves for the past couple of years, and I’m convinced that it would make a great addition to any medium sized conference room.