When looking for an office intercom system, the first question is do you need a wireless intercom or a wired intercom. To make that decision, you can start by answering the following questions:
1. Can you run wires?
Of course a wireless system is much easier to install since you don’t have to pull wire through the walls and ceilings of your office. But a wireless system doesn’t give you all the same capabilities as a wired system as you’ll discover in the next questions.
2. Do you need a baby monitor-like feature to monitor an area?
This is where a wired intercom system works better. There is one wireless system that does have monitor capability, but it’s not quite as clear as a wired system. There are wired intercoms that do this well if you only need to monitor one area at a time.
3. Do you need to call individual areas or broadcast to all areas?
If you need to broadcast to all areas, either wired or wireless can work for you. If you need to call individual areas, then a wired intercom system works best. Wireless systems work well for calling all areas at once, but you can’t call an individual station unless it’s on a separate channel. The downside of setting up everyone on separate channels is if someone leaves their channel to talk to someone else and then doesn’t go back to their channel, you won’t be able to reach them. There is one digital wireless intercom that at least sets up a private conversation between you and whomever answers the page over all the intercoms.
A wired intercom has push buttons to select individual sub-station intercoms from the master station, however if you need to call in between individual sub stations then you have to start running cables with lots of pairs of wires. If that’s what you need, you really need a telephone system and not an intercom system.
4. Do your people need to answer calls while they are mobile?
If you need people to answer an intercom call no matter where they are, then wireless is your only choice. You can get an intercom system that uses a handheld two-way radio so no matter where employees are, they can be reached.
If you answer those questions first, you’re well on your way to figuring out which office intercom system is right for you. The product experts at IntercomsOnline.com will help you with any other questions you have.