Frequently Asked Questions....

How can a PC headset at £15.00 be the same as a headset and USB adaptor at £100.00? The short answer is they are not.

Let’s take a look at the background to PC/Gaming headsets. Traditionally a dedicated PC headset was intended for gaming in a 'self-contained environment'. You, the user, inter-reacted with your own PC. You were in control of the environment and noise levels that you exposed yourself to.

This was never the case for telephony headsets that traditionally had to be approved by BABT and went through rigorous testing. Telephone headsets still are subject to testing and CE approval and as such must comply with the acoustic shock regulations. So what? You might say.

Once you start to use VOIP and leave the confines of your PC you are again liable to the spurious noises that can be generated by the ‘communications infrastructure’. This risk is increased if you use services like ‘SkypeOut’ where you break out from the data network to make a local call at the remote end on the public telephone network. So, back to where we started!

Manufacturers do not always advertise their safety compliance but it is a very pertinent question to ask your headset supplier. As a commercial organisation you need to be able to assess the risk of ill-equipping your staff and be ready for the litigation if you make the wrong decision.

One final factor to consider from a health and safety perspective is that headset consumables such as ear cushions and microphone windscreens need to be replaced on a regular basis. The standard, inexpensive PC headset is a ‘disposable’ item. There are no replacement consumables available for them.
 

• Avoid buying an expensive phone system
• Have phone extensions in multiple locations
• Make calls between remote offices without cost
• Have inbound numbers in different area codes - be local in yellow pages but a single office
• Have a flexible voicemail system with SMS and Email
• Have unlimited capacity for calls - grow quickly
• Get detailed call statistics
• Ring different phones in your office at different times of day

When installing a VoIP system, you should check to see how much bandwidth is available on your Internet service. You should note that, with ADSL, the circuit speed is asymmetric, which means that whilst you may have two megabits (or similar) going down stream (from the Internet to you), you typically get much less going upstream (from you to the Internet).

If you have a large office in an area that is served well by broadband services then you might consider a symmetrical Internet service, such as a leased line or SDSL, which can be very cost effective in metropolitan areas.
 

1. The service providers server equipment. Typically, VoIP servers are in their first or second generation of development and are not yet as mature as the more traditional telephony infrastructure; therefore, as with all computers, they are liable to develop problems on odd occasions. The service providers are keen to ensure that reliability is a key objective and many have intelligent monitoring and "instant reboot" systems, so that if anything does go wrong, it is automatically detected and fixed within a few seconds, thus helping to ensure the minimum of down time.
2. The telephones themselves. Most VoIP phones have been developed by new manufacturers and the phones themselves can contain problems such as bugs and audio issues. However, as the market matures and VoIP phones are deployed in tens of thousands of units, so the manufacturers who produce good quality VoIP phones are gaining an increasing market share, with the result that these problems are increasingly rare.
3. The Internet connection itself can cause a problem. For example, if it goes down you may lose your VoIP phone connection. As discussed previously, it is important to ensure you have a back-up (e.g. can your service provider divert inbound calls to your mobile phone) and sufficient bandwidth to ensure good quality of service.