Something classical and different for a change !

[unbeldi]

Last year I opened a stack of about a dozen boxes that I hadn't touched in (now) almost ten years.

I had never taken any pictures of them before, AFAIK, but snapped a few on that occasion.

I originally thought these would be worth collecting, and now I think I still agree, if for nothing else but the award-winning style of design. One can still find a few of them, but nobody that I know is still using them and the firm has been long absorbed and disappeared along with its acquirer and the remains of that are now buried somewhere in Avaya, I believe.

Anyone familiar with these surely classical artifacts of modern telephony?

Here are all five colors that were available: White, Indigo, Sambuca, Mango, and Java.

[twocvbloke]

Well, they're certainly, erm, different, that's for sure........

Never heard of the brand myself though, I presume they're intended for a proprietary PABX of some description?

[Fabius]

Installation & Configuring manual for the Pingtel:

http://tinyurl.com/mge6phz

[Fabius]

More Info:

http://tinyurl.com/kq7gtwk

Pingtel Xpressa IP Telephone.

Pingtel was a start-up technology company with an expertise in the emerging field of IP Telephony. Jay Batson, founder and CEO of Pingtel, recognized the importance of good design, and approached me to design their flagship product, the Xpressa IP Telephone.

Designed to be used in a networked office environment, the Xpressa phone communicated over the internet, and featured a programmable applications environment which would allow the user to write and use custom software applications on the phone. One particularly innovative aspect of the design is the large scroll wheel on the right hand side, which allowed the user to flip through contacts or menus, in a manner similar to an old fashioned Roladex. The phone is offered in five different colors, and has quickly become recognized in the industry as an icon for IP telecommunications.

[unbeldi]

The Pingtel P1 was the rage of the early VoIP industry.  At tradeshows, crowds gathered around the Pingtel booth to test the phones, but few could or wanted to afford them, I think.  They were quite expensive.

But in terms of quality at the time they were the leading edge, having a Java Language based user interface with the LCD display.  The knob on the side made it easy to navigate the menus like a Rolodex.

The sound quality was really remarkable, it used a very large loudspeaker for speakerphone operation that provides a very full sound.

The phone uses the Session Initiation Protocol, SIP, and Pingtel also provided SIP-based IP-PBX software to run on a server in an enterprise. Although it is based on the first version of SIP, it can still be used today, but it is a little weak on NAT traversal across the Internet, so I would only recommend it for local use or with a server that provides advanced server-based NAT traversal.

In 2002 the IDA awarded the Gold Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) to the Pingtel Xpressa phone.

[unbeldi]

I wish they had made a red one.

.. although I was glad that I got the Mango color, IIRC, that may have been the last one I acquired, but I think I have multiple of that too.  Brown (Java) is elegant and so is Sambuca (~Oxford gray).