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Telephones for Noisy Data Centers

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mike at m5computersecurity

Jun 17, 2009, 6:31 PM

Post #1 of 15 (1257 views)
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Telephones for Noisy Data Centers

All,
I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data center.
Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the user
of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.

Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
louder than usual data center?

Thanks!
Mike
--
************************************************************
Michael J. McCafferty
Principal, Security Engineer
M5 Hosting
http://www.m5hosting.com

You can have your own custom Dedicated Server up and running today !
RedHat Enterprise, CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and more
************************************************************

owen at delong

Jun 17, 2009, 6:38 PM

Post #2 of 15 (1212 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

I have similar experience in various equinix datacenters. I finally
resorted to using a blue-tooth capable phone and bringing in my
Aviation ANR headset with blootooth capabilities.

It's a pricey headset for just using in a datacenter, but, I love having
it in the airplane and it also works well in the datacenter.

It's called a Lightspeed Zulu ANR headset.

http://www.lightspeedaviation.com/content.cfm/Products/Zulu

Owen

On Jun 17, 2009, at 6:31 PM, Michael J McCafferty wrote:

> All,
> I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
> noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data
> center.
> Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
> other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the
> user
> of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
> Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
> works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
> the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.
>
> Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
> louder than usual data center?
>
> Thanks!
> Mike
> --
> ************************************************************
> Michael J. McCafferty
> Principal, Security Engineer
> M5 Hosting
> http://www.m5hosting.com
>
> You can have your own custom Dedicated Server up and running today !
> RedHat Enterprise, CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and more
> ************************************************************
>

nanog at daork

Jun 17, 2009, 6:38 PM

Post #3 of 15 (1214 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

On 18/06/2009, at 1:31 PM, Michael J McCafferty wrote:

> All,
> I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
> noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data
> center.
> Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
> other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the
> user
> of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
> Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
> works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
> the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.
>
> Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
> louder than usual data center?

Not 100% what you asked for, but the noise cancelling Jawbone
bluetooth earpieces are great.

--
Nathan Ward

sean-list at head-net

Jun 17, 2009, 6:38 PM

Post #4 of 15 (1214 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

Nathan Ward wrote:
> On 18/06/2009, at 1:31 PM, Michael J McCafferty wrote:
>
>> All,
>> I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
>> noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data center.
>> Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
>> other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the user
>> of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
>> Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
>> works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
>> the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.
>>
>> Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
>> louder than usual data center?
>
>
> Not 100% what you asked for, but the noise cancelling Jawbone
> bluetooth earpieces are great.
>
> --
> Nathan Ward
>
>
Cordless phone that does bluetooth + jawbone was the first thing that
popped into my head as well.

-Sean

scott at doc

Jun 17, 2009, 6:56 PM

Post #5 of 15 (1212 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 6:38 PM, Nathan Ward <nanog[at]daork.net> wrote:

>
> Not 100% what you asked for, but the noise cancelling Jawbone bluetooth
> earpieces are great.

As much as I love my Jawbone (first gen model) I've never found it loud
enough to work well in most datacenters. The person on the other end of the
phone can hear you clearly due to it's excellent noise cancellation, but
even at top volume on the both the phone and the Jawbone it's normally
difficult to hear them. (And that's presuming you can actually work out how
to use it's volume control to turn it up)

It may just be mine, or the first gen models - not sure.

Scott.

mike at m5computersecurity

Jun 17, 2009, 6:59 PM

Post #6 of 15 (1214 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

On Wed, 2009-06-17 at 18:38 -0700, sean head wrote:
> Nathan Ward wrote:
> > On 18/06/2009, at 1:31 PM, Michael J McCafferty wrote:
> >
> >> All,
> >> I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
> >> noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data center.
> >> Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
> >> other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the user
> >> of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
> >> Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
> >> works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
> >> the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.
> >>
> >> Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
> >> louder than usual data center?
> >
> >
> > Not 100% what you asked for, but the noise cancelling Jawbone
> > bluetooth earpieces are great.
> >
> > --
> > Nathan Ward
> >
> >
> Cordless phone that does bluetooth + jawbone was the first thing that
> popped into my head as well.
>
> -Sean
>

Hmm... I actually have one of those... but when my car came with
built-in Bluetooth speaker phone, I haven't used it since. I'll dig it
up and I'll try it out in the data center for the near-term. I'd rather
a real headset that doesn't feel like it's falling out of my ear and
something that other people can use too. I have had a couple pretty good
suggestions off-list so far that are over the ear solutions. Keep `em
coming...

Mike
--
************************************************************
Michael J. McCafferty
Principal, Security Engineer
M5 Hosting
http://www.m5hosting.com

You can have your own custom Dedicated Server up and running today !
RedHat Enterprise, CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and more
************************************************************

aj at jonesy

Jun 17, 2009, 7:11 PM

Post #7 of 15 (1213 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

Michael J McCafferty wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-06-17 at 18:38 -0700, sean head wrote:
>
>> Nathan Ward wrote:
>>
>>> On 18/06/2009, at 1:31 PM, Michael J McCafferty wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> All,
>>>> I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
>>>> noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data center.
>>>> Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
>>>> other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the user
>>>> of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
>>>> Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
>>>> works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
>>>> the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
>>>> louder than usual data center?
>>>>
>>> Not 100% what you asked for, but the noise cancelling Jawbone
>>> bluetooth earpieces are great.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Nathan Ward
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> Cordless phone that does bluetooth + jawbone was the first thing that
>> popped into my head as well.
>>
>> -Sean
>>
>>
>
> Hmm... I actually have one of those... but when my car came with
> built-in Bluetooth speaker phone, I haven't used it since. I'll dig it
> up and I'll try it out in the data center for the near-term. I'd rather
> a real headset that doesn't feel like it's falling out of my ear and
> something that other people can use too. I have had a couple pretty good
> suggestions off-list so far that are over the ear solutions. Keep `em
> coming...
>
> Mike
>
I haven't actually used one of these but the acoustic background noise
cancelling, rather than an electronic solution is intriguing...
http://www.theboom.com/v/index.html

jay at west

Jun 17, 2009, 9:29 PM

Post #8 of 15 (1206 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

Michael J McCafferty wrote:
> All,
> I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
> noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data center.
> Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
> other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the user
> of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
> Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
> works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
> the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.
>
> Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
> louder than usual data center?

Old-school ITT Cortelco 2500 (desk) or 2554 (wall) set.

Replace microphone element with noise-canceling microphone. Best one is
Roanwell Confidencer available from Mike Sandman, Graybar, etc. Also
good is Walker - Clarity NoiseCensor or Allen-Tel GB117 (available from
Graybar).

For exceptionally loud areas, an amplified handset such as Allen-Tel
GBG6M-44 as well.

The noise-canceling microphone is the key. It will help you be heard at
the other end and kill the noise in the sidetone to you. Works wonders.
The 2500 desk phone has a dual-gong mechanical ringer, loud and
distinctive. 2554 wall model is single gong, still fairly loud.

Google for suppliers of these items if you aren't near a Graybar.

--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay[at]impulse.net
Impulse Internet Service - http://www.impulse.net/
Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV

avg at kotovnik

Jun 17, 2009, 11:02 PM

Post #9 of 15 (1201 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

Try noice-canceling aviation headsets (GA or helicopter models have truly
amazing noise suppression). High-end models come with cellphone
interface. I don't think cellphones will work in many data centers, but I
think rigging interface from a normal cordless phone to the headset is
pretty simple.

The better of these headsets (Bose X, Sennheiser HMC460, Zulu Lightspeed,
etc) have additional digital signal processing for getting voice out of
noise - if you don't mind expense:)

--vadim

> Michael J McCafferty wrote:
> > All,
> > I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
> > noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data center.
> > Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
> > other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the user
> > of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
> > Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
> > works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
> > the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.
> >
> > Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
> > louder than usual data center?

rbtrux at gmail

Jun 18, 2009, 8:51 AM

Post #10 of 15 (1172 views)
Permalink

Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

The ones I can recommend in that line are the headsets from David Clark.
I've used these for decades in some of the harshest noise locations with
great success. While most of the adaptors I use are home made I suspect that
they can supply one for about any application. They have for me.

http://www.davidclark.com/

regards

Rick

Try noice-canceling aviation headsets (GA or helicopter models have truly
amazing noise suppression). High-end models come with cellphone
interface. I don't think cellphones will work in many data centers, but I
think rigging interface from a normal cordless phone to the headset is
pretty simple.

The better of these headsets (Bose X, Sennheiser HMC460, Zulu Lightspeed,
etc) have additional digital signal processing for getting voice out of
noise - if you don't mind expense:)

--vadim

> Michael J McCafferty wrote:
> > All,
> > I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in terms of
> > noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data center.
> > Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
> > other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the user
> > of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
> > Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
> > works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
> > the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.
> >
> > Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in a
> > louder than usual data center?

skhosla at neutraldata

Jun 18, 2009, 11:31 AM

Post #11 of 15 (1172 views)
Permalink

RE: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

I use the Peltor Bluetooth headset in our datacenter. Works better than
most earplugs for noise attenuation, plus as a cell phone headset it has
the noise cancelling microphone.

The construction quality is really good, it could be used on a
construction site without issues.

I highly recommend it.

http://www.peltor.se/int/Product.asp?PageNumber=144&ProductCategory_Id=9
&Product_Id=25

Thanks
Sameer Khosla
Managing Director
Neutral Data Centers Corp.
416 682 3434 x5002 (w)
416 682 3435 (f)

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael J McCafferty [mailto:mike[at]m5computersecurity.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 9:32 PM
To: nanog
Subject: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers

All,
I'd be OK if we were in a facility that was only average in
terms of
noise, but we are not. I need an exceptional phone for the data center.
Something that doesn't transmit the horrible background noise to the
other end, and something that is loud without being painful for the user
of this phone. Cordless would be very fine, headset is excellent.
Ordinary desk phone is OK... but the most important thing is that it
works for clear communication. A loud ringer would great too... but if
the best phone doesn't have one, I'll get an auxiliary ringer.

Does anyone have a phone model that they find to be excellent in
a
louder than usual data center?

Thanks!
Mike
--
************************************************************
Michael J. McCafferty
Principal, Security Engineer
M5 Hosting
http://www.m5hosting.com

You can have your own custom Dedicated Server up and running today !
RedHat Enterprise, CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and more
************************************************************

rs at seastrom

Jun 30, 2009, 7:43 PM

Post #12 of 15 (973 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

>> Not 100% what you asked for, but the noise cancelling Jawbone
>> bluetooth earpieces are great.
>>
> Cordless phone that does bluetooth + jawbone was the first thing that
> popped into my head as well.

Jawbone good. Jawbone + http://www.averysound.com/ outstanding.

-r

rs at seastrom

Jul 1, 2009, 10:12 AM

Post #13 of 15 (963 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

Jay Hennigan <jay[at]west.net> writes:

> Replace microphone element with noise-canceling microphone. Best one
> is Roanwell Confidencer available from Mike Sandman, Graybar, etc.
> Also good is Walker - Clarity NoiseCensor or Allen-Tel GB117
> (available from Graybar).

+1 on the Confidencer - back when I worked for a trading firm, these
+were standard issue on all phones on the floor. They work great.

-r

jay at west

Jul 1, 2009, 10:25 AM

Post #14 of 15 (960 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

Robert E. Seastrom wrote:
> Jay Hennigan <jay[at]west.net> writes:
>
>> Replace microphone element with noise-canceling microphone. Best one
>> is Roanwell Confidencer available from Mike Sandman, Graybar, etc.
>> Also good is Walker - Clarity NoiseCensor or Allen-Tel GB117
>> (available from Graybar).
>
> +1 on the Confidencer - back when I worked for a trading firm, these
> +were standard issue on all phones on the floor. They work great.

Indeed. The other solutions work great for a single user on a cellular
phone, but I prefer a plain old wired telephone with a handset for the
emergency phone at a data center. It's usable by anyone. Ever try
handing your bluetooth headset with custom earmold to the electrician
working on the UPS?

Data centers tend to be noisy in more than just the acoustic spectrum,
mobile reception often isn't the greatest.

--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay[at]impulse.net
Impulse Internet Service - http://www.impulse.net/
Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV

tkapela at gmail

Jul 1, 2009, 11:59 AM

Post #15 of 15 (957 views)
Permalink

Re: Telephones for Noisy Data Centers [In reply to]

List,

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 1:25 PM, Jay Hennigan<jay[at]west.net> wrote:

[snip]

> emergency phone at a data center. �It's usable by anyone. �Ever try handing
> your bluetooth headset with custom earmold to the electrician working on the
> UPS?
>
> Data centers tend to be noisy in more than just the acoustic spectrum,
> mobile reception often isn't the greatest.

I wanted to mention that, surprisingly, the cisco 7921 wifi** voip
handset (skinny only, so far...), in both g711 and g722 wideband mode
(i.e. intra facility paging, noc/colo dialog, etc) has yielded simply
amazing results where I've deployed or tried it within colo
environments.

Perhaps it's the noise canceler within the phone or some white
noise-reducing aspect of g722 itself--whatever the reason, results are
simply excellent. When the call is within the 'wideband capable' call
manager domain, even better results seem to occur (at least that's
what staff tell me...). Imagine calling your colo team and not having
to repeat yourself due to noise or low-fidelity.

Too bad we can't transport this (g722) over the PSTN; perhaps we'd
have fewer "oops, I thought you said XYZ should be power-cycled!"
experiences with them driving "remote hands" around.

-Tk

**In colos where I've had the chance to install .11g+.11a WIFI for
customer and casual access, the coverage invariably ends up being
quite good (stash enough AP1231's on 'clean' spectrum, anything works)
-- but YMMV, no warranties, etc.

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