This is the desk unit an operator actually runs a site from. It is not a telephone that
happens to sit in a control room - it is a master station, which means its job is to reach
anything on the communication system directly rather than by dialling and waiting.
The ten DAK keys are what make that real, and the list of what they reach is the important
part: stations, group calls, audio monitoring, public address zones, radio channels and
telephone lines. Those are normally four separate systems with four separate control surfaces.
Having them on one set of single-touch keys means an operator can call a field station, make
an announcement into a zone, listen in on an area and reach a radio channel without moving
between devices or remembering which box does what. In an incident, that is the difference
between responding and hunting for the right handset.
The station connects to ICX-AlphaCom, AlphaCom and IC-EDGE, and to iPBXs over SIP, so it
works either as part of a Zenitel critical communication system or as an endpoint on a
standard IP telephony platform. Four dynamic navigation keys and a large, high-contrast
backlit display handle the rest - system menus and directory entries - and the display is
specified for readability rather than for looking modern, which is the correct priority for a
control room.
Audio is where a master station earns its keep, and Zenitel specify a high-bandwidth codec,
active noise cancellation, acoustic echo cancellation and a high output power amplifier. That
combination matters because the operator's end of the call is usually the noisy one, full of
alarms, radio traffic and other people talking; cancelling that on the way out is what makes
the operator intelligible to a person standing next to running plant.
Practically, it takes its power from the network cable over PoE, so there is no separate
supply to arrange at the desk, and it carries an integrated data switch so a PC can share the
same outlet. Remote software upgrade, configuration and monitoring mean a fleet of these does
not require visiting each desk, and the unit is ONVIF compatible, which lets it sit alongside
video devices in an integrated security scheme.
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