What is a Phone Paging System? How to Setup a Phone Paging System?

Posted by Linda Hudson on April 29th, 2019

Generally, most of the PA system uses dedicated microphones for making voice paging announcements. Dedicated microphone, if maintained and used correctly, can be reliable and can be used for years. However, with development in technology, it is now possible to telephone systems for making announcements instead of using dedicated microphones.

How to set-up a Phone Paging System

There are various techniques and technologies of connecting a phone into a paging system. The way of setting up a phone paging system depends upon the existing phone system and the facilities required.

The most cost-effective way of setting up a paging system is by using the paging port output on the telephone. This output is typically an audio line level signal which can be wired into the audio input on the PA amplifier via a low-cost barrier interface unit. The barrier interface unit provides the electrical isolation of two systems. This is beneficial because an electrical fault on one system won’t cause any damage to the other. Thus, a user can just pick up the phone handset and dial the facility code on the system that is usually a star command. A live page announcement can be made, and a PA call can be ended by hanging up on the phone.

Another method of connecting a phone paging system is by using a phone paging extension interface. This is a device that can be plugged into an interface phone extension and then can be connected to a public address system. The designated extension number can be dialed for the paging interface, and then it makes the announcement as soon as the call is picked up by the phone paging extension interface device.

There are a lot of advantages of using a phone paging extension interface than a paging port output:

• Live, in-store and forward mode Announcements can be made.
• Enables users to route the announcement to different paging zones by using a keypad on the telephone to notify the system which zones need to be paged.
• Another option that can be considered while using digital or IP based phone system and an IP paging system. An IP based public address system (also known as audio over IP) can connect directly to a digital phone system through an Ethernet cable. The IP PA software directly connects to the IP telephone system; this means no additional interface boxes or cabling is required.
• Or making a paging call, the user can simply dial the extension number assigned to the PA system. Thus, with this type of system, it is possible to create more PA zoning options than you can with a phone paging extension interface.