It’s Deja VoIP All Over Again! (part 2)
BarCampOttawa2 is tomorrow, and I’ll be talking about three of my favourite Nortel projects – products that were failures despite awesome technology.
Today, I want to introduce you to Venture (code named System 9000). I may look like an ordinary phone – but there’s magic in it’s capabilities. Robert Turnbull and I got the idea for a modular KSU-less small business system while experimenting with a Motorola DSP chip. What the DSP allowed is numerous digital voice channels running over an ordinary twisted pair line. This meant a small business owner was able to build a system with three outgoing lines and 8 internal lines.
No switch was required. You just simple added new phones as you needed them. It was true plug and play! When the existing Venture phone detected a new addition, it would automatically assign the outgoing lines and internal intercom provisioning. It could even copy the existing “corporate” phone directories to the new set. All this magic running on a single twisted pair loop!
Although it did sell, Venture was not a success. Some blamed it on too many features. Ease of use was also compromised by its tiny display. In my opinion it failed because it did not make the “magic” obvious. Like I just said – it looks like an ordinary phone…
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