T48G Intercom Auto-answer

[cm21]

I have two T48G's on an Asterisk system running the latest firmware 35.81.0.15 and I am trying to set up an "Intercom" button on a DSS key to be able to dial the other phone and have it auto-answer.

Both have "Allow Intercom" and "Intercom Tone" enabled. I have set up a DSS key of type "Intercom" pointing to the other extension. When I press it, the other extension rings like a normal call and doesn't auto-answer. What is necessary to get the phone to auto-answer?

[Travis_Yealink]

(11-10-2016 09:45 PM)cm21 Wrote:  I have two T48G's on an Asterisk system running the latest firmware 35.81.0.15 and I am trying to set up an "Intercom" button on a DSS key to be able to dial the other phone and have it auto-answer.

Both have "Allow Intercom" and "Intercom Tone" enabled. I have set up a DSS key of type "Intercom" pointing to the other extension. When I press it, the other extension rings like a normal call and doesn't auto-answer. What is necessary to get the phone to auto-answer?

Would you please kindly collect trace files and send to me?
http://support.yealink.com/faq/faqInfo?id=313
Please sent to support@yealink.com, and assign to me.

Thanks&Regards
Travis

[Travis_Yealink]

(11-10-2016 09:45 PM)cm21 Wrote:  I have two T48G's on an Asterisk system running the latest firmware 35.81.0.15 and I am trying to set up an "Intercom" button on a DSS key to be able to dial the other phone and have it auto-answer.

Both have "Allow Intercom" and "Intercom Tone" enabled. I have set up a DSS key of type "Intercom" pointing to the other extension. When I press it, the other extension rings like a normal call and doesn't auto-answer. What is necessary to get the phone to auto-answer?

hi，

Do you mean that you were able to do the intercom, but after upgrading to the new firmware, the issue happens?
Intercom is the server side supported feature, would you please double checked with your server provider?

if all confirmed, please kindly collect trace flies to us, and then we will help you find out the cause.
http://support.yealink.com/faq/faqInfo?id=311
please send to support@yealink.com

[cm21]

No, we did not have Intercom set up on the old firmware either, so I'm not thinking it's a firmware issue. We are using Asterisk as the server.
I have not seen any documentation about what is required to have a working Intercom setup with automatic speakerphone talking, whether it be settings on the server or on the phones. Can you advise or point me in the right direction please?

If server-side support is needed, then I'm not understanding, what is the difference between adding a DSS key "BLF" button and an "Intercom" button? Does the phone send a different type of request so that the server knows whether a BLF or an Intercom button was pressed?

[Travis_Yealink]

(11-14-2016 04:30 PM)cm21 Wrote:  No, we did not have Intercom set up on the old firmware either, so I'm not thinking it's a firmware issue. We are using Asterisk as the server.
I have not seen any documentation about what is required to have a working Intercom setup with automatic speakerphone talking, whether it be settings on the server or on the phones. Can you advise or point me in the right direction please?

If server-side support is needed, then I'm not understanding, what is the difference between adding a DSS key "BLF" button and an "Intercom" button? Does the phone send a different type of request so that the server knows whether a BLF or an Intercom button was pressed?

Yes, you are correct, the server get different requests, to identify the behavior of phone.
For Intercom, as I know, Asterisk need to configure a code, such as *80, which means if I want to intercom number 123, I need to put *80123 on the blank for Intercom DSSKey.
So, please contact your server provider for the Intercom code.
Any misunderstanding, freely to let me know.

[cm21]

1) So if configuring the DSS Intercom key with the web interface, I would put something like *80123 into the "Value" field and just leave the "Extension" field blank? I've tried that, and one problem is that then the station status (green for idle, red for busy, etc) does not work anymore because of the prefix. Is there a way to configure it to allow using the real extension number for showing station status (BLF), but include the prefix when actually dialing?

2) The same issue applies to a DSS key type of "BLF". So it appears to me that as far as the Yealink phone, there is no difference in how it places the call to Asterisk between a "BLF" key and an "Intercom" key. Either way, it just places a call to the given extension number. Correct? Then the ONLY difference is what icon shows up on the phone's screen?

3) What flags/fields does the phone look for on an incoming call to recognize it as an Intercom call, and utilize the Intercom features? ("Allow Intercom", "Intercom Mute", etc...) I am configuring the Asterisk server, so I need to know what to send to the phone.

[Travis_Yealink]

(11-15-2016 03:05 PM)cm21 Wrote:  1) So if configuring the DSS Intercom key with the web interface, I would put something like *80123 into the "Value" field and just leave the "Extension" field blank? I've tried that, and one problem is that then the station status (green for idle, red for busy, etc) does not work anymore because of the prefix. Is there a way to configure it to allow using the real extension number for showing station status (BLF), but include the prefix when actually dialing?

2) The same issue applies to a DSS key type of "BLF". So it appears to me that as far as the Yealink phone, there is no difference in how it places the call to Asterisk between a "BLF" key and an "Intercom" key. Either way, it just places a call to the given extension number. Correct? Then the ONLY difference is what icon shows up on the phone's screen?

3) What flags/fields does the phone look for on an incoming call to recognize it as an Intercom call, and utilize the Intercom features? ("Allow Intercom", "Intercom Mute", etc...) I am configuring the Asterisk server, so I need to know what to send to the phone.

For your question:
1) You didn't mention the BLF feature, and I don't understand why you want to use BLF with Intercom.
2) BLF feature is used to moniter the certain numer, and you just need to put the target number to the Value field, and then you can moniter the status of this number, Intercom is a different feature.
3) I think you might misundertand the Intercom feature, if A intercom B, and then B will pick up the call automatically, and then build a call with A. So, why you want to recognize it? It's easy to see.

[jolouis]

Hey CM21,

Let me see if I can help as I know sometimes the Yealink answers are not quite self-explanitory ;o)

Let's start with 2)

2) Correct, there is no difference in what the phone sends to the server (that I have been able to find) between BLF, Speed Dial, or Intercom. They all do the same thing. For your purpose BLF is most likely what you want though as it gives you the most control over the status...

which brings us to

1) With a button type BLF, you get to configure two settings: value, and extension. Value is the thing dialed by the phone to the server. Extension is the hint that the phone uses to update the BLF state. So in your case, you might use:
Value: *80123 (*80 + extension)
Extension: 123
That will cause the phone to monitor 123 and update the BLF state, but when you press the button it will attempt to dial *80123.

Which finally brings us to

3) Asterisk itself does not have some built-in intercom code. If you are running FreePBX or some other GUI that automatically builds your Asterisk dial plan, then that GUI MAY generate an intercom dialplan for you. All this bit of dialplan does is add some SIP headers that tell the phone to try and auto-answer. What headers? Yealink describes them here:
http://support.yealink.com/faq/faqInfo?id=308

If you add any of those 3 headers before making the call out it should work. i.e.

exten => _*80.,1,SIPAddHeader(Alert-Info:answer-after=0)
exten => _*80,n,Set(realNumber=${EXTEN:3})
exten => _*80,n,Dial(${realNumber})

You'd have to add that to a context that was applicable to your existing dialplan and that's way beyond what we are talking about here, but that should give you the idea.

Thanks,

-Rob

[cm21]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for jumping in with some help... you should work for Yealink Support! Your explanation makes perfect sense... However, I'm finding different results. I tried putting in a BLF DSS key as you described. It dials using "intercom" mode correctly, but the BLF indicator doesn't work... always shows grayed-out which it does when the station number being monitored is invalid. This is true for firmware 35.80.0.70 and 35.81.0.15 that I have tested on (the monitoring phone). I'm wondering if perhaps the SIP server you tested against was accepting BLF subscriptions for the extension including the dialing prefix (*80123), and it was all sorted out on the server side?

Thanks for the FAQ link describing the SIP headers... that's what I was looking for. However, I'm wondering if the phones consider "Auto-Answer" and "Intercom" to be two different things, because:
* If I set "Allow Intercom" to Disabled on a phone (and restarted just to be sure), it STILL auto-answers when given that SIP header.
* Also, at least so far, the (new?) features.intercom.headset_prior.enable setting doesn't seem to be having an effect - goal is to force speakerphone for incoming intercom calls.

Any insights?

[cm21]

Yealink Support, to answer your questions:
1) I want an intercom button, that also monitors the status of that extension. Before I call the extension, I want to know whether they are already on the phone with someone else. That is why I want it to show the BLF status.
2) I understand the difference in the features. I was asking about how the phone handles the two different types of DSS keys "Intercom" and "BLF". It appears to me that the phone handles them both the exact same way, but just shows a different icon.
3) I understand how an Intercom call should work, but was asking what SIP headers (or similar) the phone needs to see from the server to handle a call as an Intercom call instead of a regular call.

Based on the response from "jolouis" below, he's stating that the auto-answer header (Alert-Info:answer-after=0) is what is needed.
However, I'm wondering if the phones consider "Auto-Answer" and "Intercom" to be two different things, because:
* If I set "Allow Intercom" to Disabled on a phone (and restarted just to be sure), it STILL auto-answers when given that SIP header.
* Also, at least so far, the (new?) features.intercom.headset_prior.enable setting doesn't seem to be having an effect - goal is to force speakerphone for incoming intercom calls, regardless of whether the headset button is currently on/off before the intercom call comes in.