The Polycom IP560: An IP Phone to Meet All Your Needs!

As a sales engineer, I am fortunate in that I get to test, configure and use every new product that comes through VoIP Supply’s docks. Not only that but I get to speak with dozens of customers each and every day about specific product applications and uses, and proper setup and configurations on an open-sourced, SIP-based environment.

Recently, there has been one product that has caught my eye, and when something catches my eye, I just have to get my hands “dirty” with some thorough testing of features and functionality.

The product I am referring to is the Polycom IP560 IP Phone.

From a personal standpoint, Polycom always amazes me with the quality of its products, and this phone is like no other. This is the first Polycom phone to offer dual switching Gigabit Ethernet ports for superior network speeds. This is a great addition for any environment deploying gigabit network speeds, since the phone acts as a small two port switch; any workstation connected to the “PC” port of the phone will receive gigabit network speeds.

The second eye-catcher is Polycom’s HD voice technology. With Polycom’s HD voice technology, users can speak to one another while receiving the clearest, crisp, and echo-free sound quality that no other manufacturer can offer. I have always been impressed with Polycom’s award- winning full duplex, acoustic clarity speakerphones, but WOW, HD voice technology just blows that out of the water. You have to experience it for yourself.

Moving on to the provisioning and configuration aspect of the phone, Polycom makes it easy for any type of user, whether you are a home user with one phone, a small business using VoIP with 15 to 20 phones, or a large corporation with 100+ phones, Polycom offers numerous methods to provision and configure your IP-560 to meet every type of environment. Polycom allows the end user availability to configure the IP-560 via the unit’s web GUI configuration page, which is quite simple and easy for the end user. This process, however, does get time consuming for large deployments. No worries! Polycom also allows system administrators to provision their Polycom IP-560’s from a central (FTP, TFTP, HTTP, or HTTPS) provisioning server. With a simple redirect modification on the phone itself, and proper modification to the configuration files on the provisioning server, large deployments should be up and registered in no time!!

Upon further testing and examination, we did notice the phone requires a 48 volt external AC power for those applications not running standard POE power. The end user should also make note that the IP-560 does NOT ship with the 48 volt external AC power, but wait–VoIP Supply has you covered. After testing this external power, the 48 volt power cube successfully powers the IP560 with ease.