Largest Avaya S8500 installation deployed by Centrix

This month saw Centrix install the largest (to-date) Avaya S8500 Media Server into The Priory private hospital in Birmingham which is part of the BMI Healthcare group.

Avaya S8500 is one of the new Media Server products that are slowly replacing the traditional Definity® platforms and scale to approximately 3,000 endpoints (either analogue, digital or IP) running the very latest Communication Manager 2.0 software.

The Priory Hospital is the second largest hospital within the BMI Healthcare Group and has nearly 500 extensions spread across three sites in Edgbaston and Kings Norton. Over the years Centrix have installed in excess of 30 Avaya switches to the Group but this is the first to utilise the new Media Servers products and to deploy Voice-over-IP.

John Hickman, Engineering Manager for The Priory explains the rationale behind the new installation. "Our existing iSLX switch was nearing the end of its serviceable life and, with the recent expansion on site, we needed a new switch that would take us forward for the next ten years. It was clear that we should continue with Avaya like the rest of the Group but at the same time our requirements were more in-depth as a result of our three remote sites. Originally all our sites were connected using Telewest but this was expensive and provided very little functionality to the two remote sites. After a long period of consultation we enlisted the services of Centrix to design a solution that would deliver cost-savings and functionality improvements to all of our staff.

I must say that I'm more than pleased that we did as their knowledge of BMI and the product has been superb".

The Avaya S8500 Media Server solution involved the installation of three G650 Media Gateways and Voice-over-IP. Using a wireless 54Mbs link between the main hospital and the business office in Bristol Road allowed Centrix to deploy 40 Avaya 4602 IP phones and to deliver true seamless integration with the rest of the hospital.

For the staff at Bristol Road who had been used to a simple analogue phone, it has made a huge difference to have such features as CLI, unified messaging, call waiting, integrated directory, missed calls etc.

Centrix are one of only a few UK Avaya resellers that have deployed S8500 solutions and our knowledge is unparalleled. Not only are we able to utilise many years of telephony experience but we are also able to call upon our IP and IT knowledge in areas such as:-

· Voice-over-IP
· Wireless Access Points and Routers
· Quality of Service (QoS)
· Power-over-Ethernet
· DHCP & Static IP addressing
· LAN and WAN survey
· VLANs

> For more information on BMI The Priory
> More information from Centrix

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