(by 2 people)
The days when office telephones were a beige plastic box with crackly connection are long gone. As the communication field comes forward in leaps and bounds, spurred by innovations in the online world, office telephony is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting technology fields.
"Convergence" - What the hell does it mean?
Technology is minefield of fancy terminology. In a way it is the natural outcome of the need for companies to differentiate themselves from each other - so even if 'bluetooth' doesn't mean anything to you, it's a handy verbal tag that Sony can hang a set of products off. At the heart of these things, the actual meaning of the term is normally pretty simple - so never allow yourself to be intimidated!
One buzzword you may have heard is 'convergence' - and it is this term that lies at the heart of what much modern office telephony is about.
Put simply, convergence merely means the coming together of different devices. Perhaps you have a mobile phone which also doubles as a camera, or maybe a games console that plays DVDs. These are examples of convergence.
Convergence is the natural end product of improvements in technology. As components get smaller and more efficient, so companies can exploit synergies between them to create new devices that cross boundaries. We are all accustomed to mobile phones that take pictures, play music, receive radio and so forth, and now this process is moving to the office.
One buzzword you may have heard is 'convergence' - and it is this term that lies at the heart of what much modern office telephony is about.
Put simply, convergence merely means the coming together of different devices. Perhaps you have a mobile phone which also doubles as a camera, or maybe a games console that plays DVDs. These are examples of convergence.
Convergence is the natural end product of improvements in technology. As components get smaller and more efficient, so companies can exploit synergies between them to create new devices that cross boundaries. We are all accustomed to mobile phones that take pictures, play music, receive radio and so forth, and now this process is moving to the office.
A Brief History of the Telephone
How a simple device revolutionised human communications
It is stunning to think that the first principles of telephony were laid down as long ago as 1831. In that year, Michael Faraday showed that it was possible to convert vibrations in metal to electrical impulses. That raised the possibility that vibrations could be transmitted and re-amplified - a feat that was first achieved by Johann Philip Reis in 1861 (giving him a claim to be the true originator of telephony).
It was however, as any schoolboy knows, Alexander Graham Bell who created the first usable telephone system. This sysmte used the principles established by Reis to convert sounds gathered by a microphone into electrical pulses, that were then transmitted at the other end of the line. Until the advent of digital telephony, this was the underlying method of all telephone technology.
Initially, telephone communications took place via an 'exchange.' Effectively, this was a huge board that patched together all of the available telephone lines. Callers would ask an operator to be put through to a specific number and the operator would physically connect them via a large switchboard. You may have seen such systems on period films or TV shows like "The Hello Girls". Although the first automated system was in use as early as 1892, the human operator remained a feature of most telephone networks until well into the 20th century.
Going Mobile
As early as 1924, Police cars in New York city were using an early system of mobile telephony - and the first commercial mobile network was a reality in 1946.
Until the advent of silicon technology 30 years later, however, it remained impractical to build a device small enough for every day use. The kits weighed up to 80 pounds and were prohibitively expensive to use. Signals were handled through enormous towers that had primitive switching capabilities.
It was however, as any schoolboy knows, Alexander Graham Bell who created the first usable telephone system. This sysmte used the principles established by Reis to convert sounds gathered by a microphone into electrical pulses, that were then transmitted at the other end of the line. Until the advent of digital telephony, this was the underlying method of all telephone technology.
Initially, telephone communications took place via an 'exchange.' Effectively, this was a huge board that patched together all of the available telephone lines. Callers would ask an operator to be put through to a specific number and the operator would physically connect them via a large switchboard. You may have seen such systems on period films or TV shows like "The Hello Girls". Although the first automated system was in use as early as 1892, the human operator remained a feature of most telephone networks until well into the 20th century.
Going Mobile
As early as 1924, Police cars in New York city were using an early system of mobile telephony - and the first commercial mobile network was a reality in 1946.
Until the advent of silicon technology 30 years later, however, it remained impractical to build a device small enough for every day use. The kits weighed up to 80 pounds and were prohibitively expensive to use. Signals were handled through enormous towers that had primitive switching capabilities.
Modern Office Telephony
In The Beginning...
The advantages of instant communication for business were immediate and paradigm-changing. As so much of business relies on a personal level of communication that the written word can often fail to deliver (being subject to differing levels of interpretative skill) the phone was taken up by industry at an impressive rate.
Of course, the problem of line-switching remained. Supplying individual lines to people in an office was a logistical nightmare (and a vast expense) so the concept of the internal switchboard was conceived. A business would have a single phone number which would be received by an internal operator who could connect the external call to an internal line.
This created all manner of inefficiences in the system - it was rarely possible for an operator to know whether someone was actually in our out of the office prior to patching a call through, for example.
Until recently however, that was the status quo. The allocation of individual numbers was controlled by monopoly phone companies such as British Telecom, which meant that internal switchboards were a feature of offices until well into the 80s when the first wave of new telephone technology struck.
The advantages of instant communication for business were immediate and paradigm-changing. As so much of business relies on a personal level of communication that the written word can often fail to deliver (being subject to differing levels of interpretative skill) the phone was taken up by industry at an impressive rate.
Of course, the problem of line-switching remained. Supplying individual lines to people in an office was a logistical nightmare (and a vast expense) so the concept of the internal switchboard was conceived. A business would have a single phone number which would be received by an internal operator who could connect the external call to an internal line.
This created all manner of inefficiences in the system - it was rarely possible for an operator to know whether someone was actually in our out of the office prior to patching a call through, for example.
Until recently however, that was the status quo. The allocation of individual numbers was controlled by monopoly phone companies such as British Telecom, which meant that internal switchboards were a feature of offices until well into the 80s when the first wave of new telephone technology struck.
