08/1997
Article 165 of comp.sys.amiga.reviews:
Path: menudo.uh.edu!menudo.uh.edu!usenet
From: tonyc@cryo.rain.COM (Tony Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: GVP PhonePak VFX 1.01 FAX and Voice Mail System
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm
Date: 11 Dec 1992 04:00:56 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
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Keywords: FAX, voice mail, hardware, Zorro, commercial
PRODUCT NAME
PhonePak VFX 1.01
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The PhonePak VFX is an integrated voice mail and FAX system.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Great Valley Products (GVP)
Address: 600 Clark Avenue
King of Prussia, PA 19406
Telephone: (215) 337-8770
FAX: (215) 337-9922
BBS: (215) 337-5815
LIST PRICE
$449 (US)
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
Amiga with Zorro II or III slots
2 megs RAM minimum
Hard drive, size depending on how many voice
and FAX messages are anticipated
Accelerator not needed
512k Zorro II RAM required for use in A3000
SOFTWARE
OS 1.3 or 2.04 and above
Some features not available under 1.3
COPY PROTECTION
None
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 2500/20
2 megs 32 bit RAM, 1 meg CHIP RAM
OS 2.04
2091 SCSI controller, Quantum 80 meg hard drive
OVERVIEW
The PhonePak is for single line applications, but you can put
in as many PhonePaks as you have slots and phone lines for. The
PhonePaks can share the 'Mail Boxes' you create between them.
It is compatible with the Public Switched Telephone Network,
Centrex, and PBX. DTMF (Touch-Tone) service is required.
An accelerator is not needed, even if you fill the machine with
PhonePaks, unless you operate with voice compression turned on.
FAX conversion will be slow without an accelerator.
DOCUMENTATION
The nearly 200-page, wire-bound manual starts with voice mail
etiquette, and walks you through the setup of several example
applications, from use of PhonePak as an answering machine, to
a product information system with the ability to FAX back
literature on the same call.
The remainder of the manual is a reference to the commands and
options available for each of the programs, along with step by
step mini-tutorials for most functions.
There is a table of contents, an index, menu summary, IFF FAXX
format specification, and more.
There is a lot of detail in the manual, and it is easy to miss
a subtle reference or instruction, so read carefully.
HARDWARE
PhonePak is a Zorro II AutoConfig full size card.
It has two RCA connectors, a line-in (digitizing), and a line-
out (audio monitor), and two RJ-11 telephone jacks, one to the
phone line, and the other for a local telephone.
It uses a Yamaha YTM-401 voice-FAX chip.
There is one jumper to be set if you are using the PhonePak on
a PBX system. There is an undocumented 16 pin header and two
RESERVED jumpers.
SOFTWARE
The PhonePak software comes on two disks, one containing the
programs, and the other with prepared messages.
Commodores' standard installer program is used.
There are several programs that make up 'PhonePak VFX':
* LineMan (60k) This is the program that must be running for
PhonePak (the hardware) to answer or make calls, or to send
and receive FAXes.
It automatically determines if you have more than one PhonePak
board installed, so you can set options for each line
independently.
LineMan opens a small window on your Workbench screen. The
configurations that are made with it are: number of rings
before answer, Auto FAX Detect on-off, audio monitor on-off,
voice compression enable.
LineMan also passes DTMF tones detected to an ARexx port,
depending on which mail box the caller is in.
* PhonePak (300k) This is the program where you setup and
maintain mail boxes, groups of mail boxes (Systems), record
and playback voice and FAX messages (you can do this remotely
of course), and schedule sending FAXes.
The PhonePak program opens on its own 8 color screen, has an
integrated telephone database, and can also open another
screen called 'Switchboard', where you see which mail boxes
have new messages, and can check a mail box 'in' or 'out'.
This determines how a call to that box gets handled.
PhonePak has an ARexx port, with a dozen functions available,
and its own script language, 'Operator', which also can be
executed through ARexx.
* PPakFAX (41k) This is the program/printer driver to
intercept printouts from other applications for conversion to
FAX.
* PPakMonitor (8k) When you start this program, it opens a
window and displays events detected by the PhonePak, like RING
and which DTMF tones are entered. The manual does not say
much about this, other than its being a troubleshooting program,
but I could see this program's output being redirected, or
piped to another program for various purposes.
* ShowMode (3k) This allows you to operate the PhonePak
hardware 'locally' without being connected to the phone line.
This is for demoing and testing.
All of these programs can be run from the Workbench or CLI, and
have various options that can be set by command line or via
ToolTypes in the icons. Both LineMan and PhonePak have on-line
help, by pressing the 'Help' key.
FEATURES
AUDIO:
The PhonePak records and plays back standard IFF sounds at
9600 8 bit samples per second. You can also record from an
attached telephone, but the quality is better using the line-in.
The IFF playback is fixed at the 9600 samples/sec speed, so
imported sound files must be converted to this rate. I also
own a GVP DSS-8, and this software has a resampler. It would
be a good idea for GVP to include a sound editor program, as
the PhonePak software does not allow you to edit your
samples. You must either get it right, or record it again,
just like a standard answering machine.
The monitor jack is to monitor incoming calls, can be turned
off with LineMan, and this can be overridden via an 'Operator'
script.
The Amiga's left audio channel is used for playback of
messages, and PhonePak does not tie up the audio device when
not in use. I ran NComm (which does tie up a channel), DSS-8,
and played back messages with PhonePak, all at the same time,
with no conflicts.
You can also play back audio messages on the local phones'
handset.
Incoming voice messages take 10 megs per 17 minutes, or 34
minutes with compression. Each PhonePak board only needs to
transfer data to or from the hard drive at the rate of 48k per
second.
FAX:
The FAX portion of the hardware is Group III compatible,
send-receive 9600, fall back to 2400, with optional auto FAX
detection.
The software portion allows you to:
* Send-Receive standard and fine mode FAXes, with 1D and 2D
(MH, MR) compression.
* Convert ASCII text files, with your choice of font, to a FAX
format file. A couple of fonts are included.
* Convert IFF graphics to a FAX format file
* 'Print to FAX' from any application (DTP, WP, Paint) through
the PPakFax printer driver
* Display FAXes on screen, print to a printer or FAX machine,
and convert to an IFF graphic file.
* Use an attached FAX machine as a scanner
FAX file sizes vary widely according to the contents, about
250 FAX pages per 10 meg of hard disk space.
MAIL BOXES:
Most voice mail software gives a limit to the number of mail
boxes you can have, but I couldn't find anything that states
the limits with PhonePak. So I finally thought to check the
maximum route number you assign to get to a mail box.
That number is 1 Billion. Yes, that is a 'B'. A mail box can
have a route number from 0 - 999999999. And that is just from
the 'initial' mail box. So the real limit will be the size of
your hard drives.
A mail box uses a standard AmigaDOS directory, but PhonePak
imposes a 9 character limit for names. Mail boxes can be
spread across multiple devices.
The Switchboard screen is where you assign DTMF tone 'Routes'
to the mail boxes. Default mail boxes can be assigned if
the caller makes no input, or the call can be terminated.
A mail box greeting is interrupted when a tone is detected.
A mail box can be made not to take a message and just play a
greeting, or can take a message up to 9999 seconds (nearly 3
hours), and there is an option in the voice edit menu to
continue recording the message.
Mail boxes can also transfer an incoming call to another line
if you have Centrex or are running with a PBX.
It is also through a mail box where you can send an ARexx
message, containing the current mail box, line number, and up
to 16 digits that a caller has entered, like a VISA number, or
a phone number, to an external program.
After your external program is done, a result code is sent
back, along with a mail box name to place the caller in.
SECURITY:
Each mail box can have a password to prevent message playback
or editing. This applies for remote or local access.
There is also a 'Master' password that can be assigned to
prevent unauthorized changes to the system. The master
password can be used to gain local access to individual mail
boxes.
This is because PhonePak is designed to be used in an office
setting, with access to the machine to check messages, and to
check oneself 'in' or 'out'.
The security of the 'Master' access is limited. A person with
knowledge of the Amiga's file structure, and unhindered access
to the physical machine, could tamper with system features.
COMMENTS
The PhonePak was easy to setup. I put the installer in 'Expert'
mode to see what software went where, and it put everything where I
would have put it. Right after I installed mine, I left for a
minute. The phone rang. Lo and behold, the PhonePak answered and
took the message.
The manual includes a tutorial for an information FAX back
system. This means a person can get voice and FAX information,
with only one call, on THEIR dime, unlike some 'FAX back'
systems where a caller punches in their FAX number and then
you call the caller back. But you could customize the PhonePak
to do it this way if you wanted.
Not having an integrated data modem is disappointing, but is
not a drawback when using voice mail extensively, as you will
want to have dedicated lines. If this is not an option for
your situation, there are other solutions, including
Distinctive Ringing, a Call Detector, or my own idea, the
'Modem Mail Box':
A 'Modem Mail Box' can be directed to send a message via ARexx
to a BBS or communication program to tell a modem to answer
the line (ATA), if you have a modem in line before the
PhonePak. For example: 555-1234,123 <- 123 being the mailbox
to activate the BBS.
I installed PhonePak in a BodegaBay (Zorro II slot adapter) for
the Amiga 500, and the PhonePak appeared to function with no
problems.
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
At the time of this review, there are no other voice mail
systems available for the Amiga. But there is a FAX package,
GPFax by GP Software, which you can get with a Supra modem, or
purchase separately. There are a couple of things I like about
the FAX interface of GPFax a little better than PhonePaks':
The FAX View screen.
The GPFax display has scalable viewing of FAXes, and saves an
IFF exactly. PhonePaks' display is also scrollable and
scalable, but saves a slightly distorted IFF, though you can
view a FAX in SuperHires, and it will be very, very close to
the original FAX.
The PhonePak has faster display conversion, clipping of
areas to be saved, and you can return to PhonePak while
displaying a FAX (internal multitasking).
Convert to FAX.
GPFax has a superior ASCII to FAX, as it will keep bold,
underline, and italics. PhonePak removes these text attributes.
But PhonePak will let you adjust font width, and in fine mode
the fonts look sharper.
There are a couple of things to remember:
The point of computer generated FAXes is to send great, sharp,
impressive FAXes. This is done by printing from a desktop
publishing or word processing program, which makes the above
reservations about ASCII conversions a non-issue.
If you find that one of the above points to be crucial, the FAX
files generated by GPFax and PhonePak are INTERCHANGEABLE!
So you can create a FAX with GPFax and send it with PhonePak,
and receive a FAX with PhonePak and display it with GPFax.
BUGS
I have not had any problems with the hardware or software that
were not my own fault, most caused by not reading the manual
thoroughly.
VENDOR SUPPORT
In the manual, a technical support telephone number is listed,
along with a form to help speed troubleshooting.
A new version of the PhonePak software (1.00->1.01) was made
available for downloading on the GVP BBS.
WARRANTY
2 years warranty on the hardware.
CONCLUSIONS
I am very pleased with the PhonePak, and highly recommend it to
anyone looking for a voicemail system, with the bonus of FAX
send-receive-creation as a nicely integrated part of PhonePak.
The PhonePak is fully capable as it now stands. In my
experimenting, I am finding a few features I hope that GVP will
consider adding, including a couple of addition ARexx commands,
'smart' IFF sound playback, better FAX to IFF saves, and
character - pattern recognition, either integrated or stand
alone with ARexx.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright 1992 Anthony E. Campbell. All rights reserved.
Tony_Campbell@cryo.RAIN.COM "Data is a Toaster"
Not affilitated with Cryogenic Software, just using la machine
---
Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews
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