Specifications

Setting Call Control Options
ShoreTel 7.5 Administration Guide 9 – 7
Bridged Call Appearances
The Bridged Call Appearances (BCA) feature provides "bridged" information between
many separate IP phones, offering the benefit of faster call handling between users. The
feature is intended for key system environments (a small office or branch office), such
as an auto dealership or small bank with 4 trunks and 8 IP phones.
A custom button on each IP phone is configured for BCA so that when an inbound call
arrives, that custom button blinks green on all of the phones. If someone answers the
call, the LED on that person's phone becomes solid green while the custom button on
all of the other IP phones that have been programmed with that BCA extension turns
red. In this way, the call appearance information is shared (or bridged) across the many
different phones in an organization.
You can place an outbound call using a bridged call appearance so others users can
view the call activity. To place an outbound call, press the bridged call appearance, dial
the trunk access code and then dial the number. The LED on the outbound caller's
phone becomes solid green, and the associated button on all of the other phones
become solid red. If the call is placed on hold, the associated LEDs on all phones blink
green. A button can be programmed for each position in the call stack.
NOTE Pressing the top-most BCA custom button for outbound calls does not
necessarily access trunk 1. There is no one-to-one correlation between the
custom buttons programmed for BCA extensions and a particular trunk. Trunks
can be associated with BCA extensions in any random manner desired by the
system administrator.
Another benefit of the new BCA feature is that an outbound caller ID can be associated
with that button (configured by the system administrator). The following rules
determine which caller-id is displayed when an outgoing call is made using BCA:
• Outbound to an internal extension – the name and number of the user that
initiated the BCA call will be used, and if that user is a "private" user, then the
caller-id is blank.
• Outbound to an external number – the caller-id will be used in following order,
based on availability:
• Outbound caller-id configured for that BCA
• DID number configured for that BCA
• External identification or caller-id number of the user that initiated the BCA
call
• Outbound to an external emergency number (such as 911) – the emergency
identification or a CESID number of that user will be sent.
The system administrator can configure the BCA to deliver caller ID on inbound calls,
display caller ID on active calls, as well as turn on, turn off, or delay the ringing on
inbound calls.
Switch Support for Bridged Call Appearances
The newer ShoreGear-120/24, ShoreGear-90, ShoreGear-60/12, ShoreGear-50,
ShoreGear-40/8, and ShoreGear-220T1/E1 voice switches support BCA functionality.
However, the following caveats apply:
• Up to 24 BCA extensions can be configured per switch
• Up to 128 BCA extensions (on other switches) can be monitored.
• A maximum of 32 phones can be configured to point to the same BCA extension.