SV8300 - How does it work?

[godlike]

In the UK we've had little information about the SV8300. Possibly due to the lack of cohearance by NEC in Europe we were drip-fed information for 2 years and then told it was not going to be released (mainly from what I can ascertain because the 8100 was favoured by NECi - due to it's similarity in architecture to infrontia's previous product range).

I remember originally told the SV8300 would be a 'labotomy upgrade' for the 2000 IPS - i.e. remove your CP-24 CPU and hook in an SV8300 as a controller for full size 2000 IPS cabs. However I think this was posssibly wrong as many of the SV8300 pictures I've seen have it sat underneath an SV8100 chassis. Is this because the SV8300 doesn't support chassis capacity for TDM, and thus you can piggy-back SV8100 chassis onto the SV8300 to provide card-slots for TDM and anything legacy?

Personally I think it's madness to not release the SV8300 in the UK as it's clearly a more enterprise-class system than the SV8100.

[ShayneB]

Hi godlike.

The 8300 as you observed does use the same chassis as the 8100. All of the blades (interface cards) and the chassis are common between the probucts. The difference lies in the CPU. The 8100 has a smaller CPU which fits in to the standard chassis, the 8100's software is a continuation of NEC's small keyphone system. The 8300 has a seperate unit containing the CPU and runs software which is a continuation of NEC's mid sized PBX the IPS range.

The 8300 cannot utilise IPS PIMs.

I cannot help but agree that it is madness not to introduce the SV 8300 to the UK. The IPS is the best mid-sized PBX that I have ever worked on. It does almost everythign most customers need to do and is unbelieveably reliable. Having worked on the IPS and its predecessors since 1991 it remains my favourite PBX by far. What makes it even more frustrating is that I'm moving to the UK in October and was hoping to get work with an IPS/SV 8300 vendor. Now I'll stick with Cisco Call Manager jobs.

What NEC SHOULD have done is to port the SV8300 software to the smaller CPU of the 8100 and dropped the 8100 series of software completely. That would have avoided having a seperate software development team and unified the software across the small and mid sized markets. They could have simply limited the number of devices a 8100 could handle so as not to overburden the CPU. Of course I told them that years ago...

Funnily enough here in New Zealand NEC are releasing both in to a MUCH smaller market.

It is sad to see a fantastic product being so poorly treated over there.

[godlike]

Maybe NEC in New Zealand have their act together at all, or a cohesive strategy to their industry, unlike NEC traditionally in the UK.

NECi are a whole new group of people, which should be a breath of fresh air. It's just a shame they're not able to sell the 8300. It's probably as much political as much as able - Philips (which, for a few years was basically everyone at NEC in their telephony division) have strangled the life out of the IPS and SV8300.

[loophole350]

Agreed the 8300 is a fantastic system. im from oz now living in the UK searching for jobs here and that is very sad news to here that its not being released here!!
i installed two before i came here(full ip) and they are easy to install and the programming is almost identical to the ips. Both had CTI intergration 1 with zeacom n the other with IPFX, after a few teathing issues they havnt had a problem since!

By the way anyone know the reseller's/dealers here in the uk to help me search for a job??

[Alex]

Loophole350 - I know of a few company names you could enquire at, but I dont know how much extra skill they need (or rather, can afford!). Send me a PM...

Interesting to hear now that the SV8100 is integrated with Zeacom, although it's not 'Zeacom CC' anymore, it's been rebadged as NECi's own CTI product....

I didn't think they would ever make Zeacom work with the low-end NEC stuff - mainly because NEC weren't prepared to offer that level of integration.

[R4+Z]

When the 8XXX range was first introduced to NEC staff we were told that over a period of about 3 to 5 years the 8100 and 8300 would become the same beast. So there is hope on the horizon! Whether that is still the intention I don't know as I'm no longer with the company!

[solidpro]

Something additional. The reason the SV8300 is not generally available in the UK is because NEC-Philips (totally different company to NECi) have licensed the technology and are totally closed-shop about it - IE no real dealer network, everything in house.

So NECi (NEC Infrontia) who used to do all the Aspire and XN120 low-end stuff we left with the SV8100.

Because NECi had nothing to do with the IPS in the past, they also probably are wary of the SV8300 as it's a much more complex beast oreviously aimed at a different market to the SV8100/aspire. They are more encoaching on one another though as time goes on.

When Philips licensed the 2000 IPS back in about 2006, they actively headhunted all the main tech and sales guys from NEC in acton. Then NEC and Philips joined forces and NEC 'bought' that division of Philips in the UK.

Taking the gloves off for a moment, NECi always were far more proactive in marketing, promoting and pushing their products.

Although the SV8100 works with Zeacom, I've heard it has gone through a lot of working issues, patches, upgrades and things being disabled. It's not true integration - it's IPS/OAI code being converted to code which the SV8100 understands and vice versa. As far as I know you don't get real time monitoring of extensions etc....?

[R4+Z]

NEC Australia had a similar problem in that the IPS was never released through the dealer network, it was sold direct! So now they have a converging product range and have to handle how they deal with the dealers!

[ShayneB]

R4+z,
I know the issues in Australia well, I was with Talkware from '99 to '04 and they were a dealer selling the IPS. NEC were very wary of giving them the freedom to promote it properly and it always felt like we had to justify our existance.

Things improved dramatically over the years and now I think NEC no longer see them as a threat.

Now I am in the UK doing freelance VOIP consultancy work and freshening up on the 8100 but the bulk of my work is Cisco Call Manager based. Still holding out for the 8300 one day

[solidpro]

The worst thing about NEC products is NEC.

I went to their website the other day. All shining and gleaming in 2005-ish basic flash and animated GIFs. It almost looked presentable.

The first link I clicked on was dead. And the second. Then I decided to play angry birds instead as it was more productive.

This was their GLOBAL site on the univerge 360 range.