8831 phones linked together for large meeting?

[art.lacie]

We have a large meeting coming up with 4 x 16ft long tables, assembled in a square. 

We have purchased 10 conference phones. can I simply link them together, maybe two per table? Will this enable everyone present to talk to and hear the caller?

I'm assuming in this situation only one phone needs the dial pad. 

[Prabath Godevithanage · Accepted solution]

you can roughly calculate to get and idea from this.it says a base unit would cover a 400 square feet area .Well if you have the units you can test out your configuration anyway,Also you can add two Microphones if required but I think you should be ok.

In case you haven't noticed, you'll need to power up the secondary unit from the power cube. 

[art.lacie]

Thanks. We didn't purchase any power cubes, so we'll have to get some. Each daisy chained unit will require a cube (except for the primary 8831 which is PoE'd), correct?

[Prabath Godevithanage · Accepted solution]

I had another look at our units, here how it goes,

You need the daisy chain cable (CP-8831-DC-CBL=) to attach two base units together.

one daisy chain cable comes along with 8831 daisy chain sku CP-8831-DC-K9= (standard base unit + daisy chain cable) .If you have purchased standard  base units(CP-8831-K9=) then you have to purchase the daisy chain cable as an additional item.here you'll find all the part numbers

As for the Power cube,it  has to go into the primary unit to support the additional power required when daisy chained,POE isn't enough.This is the standard 48V power cube with the part number (CP-PWR-CUBE-3=)

[art.lacie]

Excellent answer. Thanks. Further to that, is there a limit to the number in the daisy chain, and is there a point at which you need to add in another power cube?

[Prabath Godevithanage]

There's only one daisy chain port on each phone therefore unfortunately no further than one or not supported

[art.lacie]

So I can only chain one phone and one more speaker block together? I will probably need 4 units set up for this meeting to have enough coverage for the tables. Two phones is my only option?

[Prabath Godevithanage]

depending on your desk arrangement/reachability of leads

you could have two base units connected with daisy chain cable and each base unit can have one wired  Microphone attach to each.I haven't tested myself but I believe it is just one wireless microphone for each base unit as well,that's if you are going with wireless microphones.

my experience 2 MICs  2 base stations,4 MICs altogether should be more than enough for a large conference room otherwise you'll have to look at central systems rather than conference phones 

following is from the doc I referred before

"If a secondary (daisy-chain) base kit is configured, then one wired microphone is installed to the primary base and the other wired microphone is installed to the secondary (daisy-chain) base"

I've seen people talking about having many conference units set-up as individual units(you need individual displays in this case) with different extensions and conference into a one central bridge might be an option for you but I cant comment much as I dont have any first hand experience on those

[art.lacie]

Thanks again. I was thinking about the multiple dial-in scenarios well. Might be a nightmare with multiple open mics and speaker phones. 

I guess the speaker on the phones are loud enough for everyone to hear, and you place the extra two mics for coverage.