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Hitachi Cable, Ltd. announces that its AquaVocal*1all-in-one IP-PBX*2has been adopted for the IP telephony-based Campus Deputy Secretary Service at Meiji University Educational Corporation (hereinafter referred to as Meiji University). Trial operation of this Campus Deputy Secretary Service will begin on January 29, providing services for 13 professors in the Department of Computer Science, School of Science and Technology, Meiji University.

Meiji University has placed the Meiji University Akihabara Satellite Campus in the Akihabara Crossfield*3. Using this campus as a base, Meiji University is engaging in various industry-university cooperation projects, primarily with enterprises in IT-related fields. From these projects there is an increasing demand for supporting office functions, particularly services ensuring a response to phone calls from outside the university when professors are not in their offices.

To meet this demand, Meiji University has examined a variety of possible solutions, including assigning a call-handling operator to each laboratory and outsourcing call handling. Consequently, Meiji University has decided to introduce the Campus Deputy Secretary Service, to be operated by the university, as a way of providing the most appropriate responses to the diverse inquiries received by the university*4. The Deputy Secretary Service is a service in which a call operator at a remote location answers the phone call rather than the person to whom the call is made. The operator then informs the concerned person of the purpose of the call along with the contact information of the caller, or transfers the call to a specified phone number, as appropriate.

In Meiji University's Campus Deputy Secretary Service, the deputy secretary staff at the Akihabara Satellite Campus answers phone calls directed to professors at the Surugadai, Izumi, and Ikuta Campuses. This is the first implementation of Meiji University's IP telephony-based Campus Deputy Secretary Service.

Hitachi Cable's AquaVocal is an all-in-one IP-PBX that provides a full range of functions*5, for allowing installation of an IP telephony system with low capital investment. AquaVocal supports up to 200 users per unit; if the number of users increases in the future, the system can meet user needs via its advanced expandability?he AquaVocal system is capable of providing services to up to 2,000 users by simply increasing the number of units. Meiji University has recognized these useful features of AquaVocal and adopted it as the IP-PBX for its Campus Deputy Secretary Service.

The Akihabara Satellite, Surugadai, Izumi, and Ikuta Campuses are connected via the university's local area network. Softphone-enabled PCs and IP phones have been introduced in the labs on each campus; these are connected to the AquaVocal system at the Akihabara Satellite Campus via the university network. In this manner, the IP telephony-based Campus Deputy Secretary Service has been implemented with an extremely minimal capital investment. If the number of users at each campus increases in the future, the system can flexibly respond to the needs of the university by integrating new AquaVocal units as required.

In the future, Meiji University plans to add various additional functions to the system, combining AquaVocal with IVR (a computer system for automatic voice response) as well as software for managing the schedules of professors, for example, such that a phone call is automatically switched to the Campus Deputy Secretary Service if the professor is scheduled to be absent from his or her office at the time of the call.

Hitachi Cable continues to propose unique AquaVocal-based IP telephony solutions in an effort to increase its share of the IP-PBX market.

*1	AquaVocal is a registered trademark of Hitachi Cable, Ltd. in Japan.
*2	PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange. IP-PBX refers to a Private Branch Exchange for an IP telephony system.
*3	Akihabara Crossfield consists of two buildings: Akihabara Daibiru and Akihabara UDX. It pursues the creation of new next-generation IT-based businesses by integrating industry-university cooperation, information network functionality, and office functions with its ability to attract the public.
*4	The Campus Deputy Secretary Service has been introduced by the Meiji University Local Area Community System Laboratory for the purpose of promoting smoother internal and external communication at the university, using a grant from the Collaboration with Local Communities Project provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
*5	In addition to its IP-PBX functionality, AquaVocal is equipped with various gateway functions (protocol conversion for connecting different networks, including communications carriers, IP telephony networks, the public telephone network, and the internal telephone network); PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet, which permits the use of PPP over Ethernet networks; the PPP protocol is used to link computers to networks over telephone lines); and a survival function that allows sending and receiving between analog phones and the public network even during power failures.

Specification overview for major models of the AquaVocal series

Specifications are subject to change without notice.

AquaVocal 2120-FXSO All-in-One 20-line model (IP-PBX with PSTN gateway model) AquaVocal 2112-FXSO All-in-One 12-line model (IP-PBX with PSTN gateway model) AquaVocal 2004-FXSO All-in-One 4-line model (IP-PBX with PSTN gateway model) AquaVocal 3000 Dedicated IP-PBX model Port configuration 10/100BASE-TX 2 2 2 2 PSTN/FXS 20 12 4 - PSTN/FXO (Pass-through in power failures) 4 (3) 12 (3) 4 (1) - Power supply specifications Input power source AC 100 V (90-110 V), 50/60 Hz (±3 Hz) Switch Locking switch with anti-error guide (housed in front panel) Environmental specifications Operating conditions Operating temperature 0°C to 40°C Operating humidity 20% to 85% Rh (No condensation) Installation conditions Installation (mounting) Level installation Stacking Stackable when housed in panel/used on tabletop Storage conditions Storage temperature -20°C to 60°C Storage humidity 20% to 85% Rh (No condensation) Acquired certification specifications Noise emission regulation VCCI-Class A Communication device certification JATE certification Functional specifications Network connection functions LAN connection specifications 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX (IEEE802.3-compliant) Channel number 2 (LAN0, LAN1) External connectors RJ-45 (RTP with shield) ×2 (double×1) Serial I/F functions for maintenance I/F specifications RS-232 level, full-duplex, asynchronous serial I/F External connectors RJ-45 × 1

External Appearance of AquaVocal 2004-FXSO

 

For inquiries, please contact Meiji University at the following address

Meiji University Local Area Community System Laboratory
6F Akihabara Daibiru, 1-18-13 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0052
TEL:03-5209-7848
Person in charge: Izumisawa, Handa