Product Overview: 8301 vs 8373

The Role of IP Paging Adapters

With the rapid adoption of IP-based communication systems, IP paging adapters have become a common solution to enable voice paging, alerting, and notification within IP environments. While many organizations will deploy full IP environments with dedicated IP speakers, in some cases, such as where traditional infrastructure is still reliable and usable, paging adapters act as the bridge to communicate and connect VoIP systems to analog devices.

All Algo IP Paging adapters have an audio output designed to emulate a page port on a legacy PBX. The audio output is isolated and balanced to prevent any hum/noise. Algo IP Paging Adapters can register to most leading IP Unified Communications, Collaboration, and Mass Notification systems as 3rd party SIP endpoints, allowing for full integration of a traditional analog paging system to VoIP systems.

Algo offers two types of IP paging adapters, the 8301 IP Paging Adapter and the 8373 IP Zone Paging Adapter. While both offer core functionality to connect IP communication systems to legacy paging infrastructure, there are some critical differences. The type of paging adapter required is dependent on the needs of the environment. In most applications where the legacy amplifier does not have dedicated speaker zones behind the amplifier, the 8301 is the ideal choice. However, where organizations utilized zoned paging amplifiers, the 8373 is required to retain legacy speaker zones behind the amplifier.

8301 IP Paging Adapter

The 8301 IP Paging Adapter is a PoE device that provides a dry page output to a traditional amplifier, thereby offering a seamless bridge from VoIP to a legacy analog voice paging / public address (PA) system.

The 8301 is the most direct case of using a paging gateway to bridge VoIP to analog systems. Deploying the 8301 into an IP environment can occur in several ways – either through full deployment of IP endpoints, installing a paging adapter to retain legacy infrastructure, or through a partial (or hybrid) deployment with a mix of legacy devices and IP endpoints. When legacy paging infrastructure is functional and reliable, the 8301 can be installed to bridge IP communication to the legacy devices.

8373 IP Zone Paging Adapter

In some organizations, legacy paging systems included zoned amplifiers, allowing for the zoning of analog speakers behind a single amplifier. When migrating to an IP communication system, organizations must determine whether this legacy zoning is still required in the new deployment. If retaining the zoning of speakers behind the legacy amplifier is necessary, then an Algo 8373 IP Zone paging Adapter will be required.

Algo’s 8373 IP Zone Paging Adapter allows organizations to retain legacy zoning while bridging analog amplifiers to an IP system. In the legacy system, a dedicated zone controller may be deployed in addition to the zoned amplifier; the 8373 replaces the zone controller and simplifies the overall system.

The 8373 Zone Paging Adapter contains three high-powered relays that can be used for switching the output signal of a single amplifier for up to three different groups of speakers (i.e. zones/channels). Where one amplifier is required to be zoned, the 8373 can switch audio and control up to three groups of analog speakers without needing an additional legacy zone controller. Note: Analog speakers will need to be appropriately wired to the 8373 internal relays, which can switch up to 280 W using a 70 V amplifier or 400 W using a 100 V amplifier.

Key Differences of the 8301 & 8373

While there are many similarities between the 8301 IP Paging Adapter and the 8373 IP Zone Paging Adapter, the key difference between them is the relay block in the 8373, which allows zoning to occur behind the amplifier with the speakers wired in runs to the 8373.