The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recently made the leap to VoIP the “painless” way using Phybridge’s (News - Alert) UniPhyer appliance.

According to Phybridge, AICR had wanted to deploy VoIP at its Washington DC headquarters for quite some time. The challenge, however, was that its headquarters is located in a historic building – which meant that cabling the facility for VoIP was going to be disruptive, time consuming and costly.

Phybridge’s UniPhyer helped AICR overcome this challenge by enabling it deploy VoIP quickly and affordably using existing telephone lines already installed in the building. The Uniphyer – dubbed the “VoIP Enabler”– creates a “parallel network” dedicated for voice using existing CAT3 (traditional) telephone lines, yet gives organizations all the benefits of a fully-converged VoIP network.

Not only does this help organizations avoid the high cost of cabling (or re-cabling) their older facilities -- it also allows them sidestep the hassles associated with converging data and voice on the same infrastructure. With UniPhyer, organizations no longer have to go through the trouble of testing their LANs to ensure VoIP readiness; deploying new hardware or infrastructure; taking the risk of service disruptions; or dealing with poor service following installation.

The appliance, which comes in both 24- and 48-port models, delivers Power over Ethernet over existing telephone lines, which solves the problem of how to power up the IP phones without running additional cabling. Amazingly this compact appliance delivers Ethernet and PoE over copper telephone lines at ranges of up to 1,200 feet – and it delivers excellent sound quality.

Michael McCarn, director of information technology at AICR, said at first he was skeptical of the UniPhyer’s capabilities.

“I didn't think the UniPhyer could deliver the smooth and painless installation promised by our VAR,” he said. “However, having worked with the same VAR for more than 15 years I decided to trust them and I'm glad I did!"

"The UniPhyer installation was absolutely painless,” McCarn added. “Our VAR sent four cabling techs on the day of our cutover: two techs moved from desk to desk identifying the lines to be moved, while two more stayed in the phone closet and moved the connectors for each phone from the old analog system to the new UniPhyer/VoIP system. The switchboards were done within minutes, with the rest completed within two hours."

In some cases the Uniphyer can be installed in under a half hour – that’s just 30 minutes to take advantage of the tremendous cost savings and productivity-enhancing features that VoIP brings.

To view a recent video demonstrating the fast and easy deployment of UniPhyer in a 20-person office, click here.

For more information about UniPhyer, including data sheets, click here.