Sidetone totally missing from VVX500 ?? UCS 4.0.2B

[Anonymous]

I recently got a VVX500 to test with, had previously been using IP650 + IP335 mostly.  I noticed right away how "quiet" the handset sounded on the VVX500.  I realized that the sidetone was totally missing on this device.  I tried to adjust it by adding some parameters to my global config on the provisioning server (see below) but it seems like they are being ignored.  When I looked through the sample configs on UCS402B I also see that there appear to be no more "voice.handset.sidetone" options at all. Why were these removed?? (or were they?)  I see the parameters are still defined in the "\Config\polycomConfig.xsd" file they just seem to be ignored by the phone. I find the sound very distracting when talking on this device, the lack of sidetone is very noticable.

voice.handset.sidetone.adjust="20"
voice.handset.sidetone.adjust.VVX_500="20"

voice.gain.rx.analog.handset.sidetone="50"
voice.gain.rx.analog.handset.sidetone.VVX_500="50"

[SteffenBaierUK]

UPDATE ‎03-05-2013

Please check => here <= for the correct Value

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Hello Luke,

we do not advise customers to just change these values as they have been carefully tested and set to their usual legal and safe limits.

From some internal documentation the maximum level for the voice.handset.sidetone.adjust setting is 15. 

I can only suggest to work with your Polycom Reseller to contact Polycom Support for this in warranty device to get our Engineers to provide you with safe settings.

In regards to the values being ignored try changing the log level for "cfg" to 2 or lower to check the log files.

Please ensure to provide some feedback if this reply has helped you so other users can profit from your experience.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

Polycom Global Services

[Anonymous]

Steffen

Thank you for replying so quickly.  I did enable the log on the device and watched it during boot.  The log files from the VVX500 indicate that it does not even recognize or accept the "voice.gain.rx.analog.handset.sidetone" and "voice.handset.sidetone.adjust" parameters.  Not that the parameters are out of range, but that the parameters themself are completely invalid, which to me indicates either the feature has been removed (again, why) or that the name has changed and it is now undocumented.

Either way, I have 3 VVX500 here and all of them sound the same... totally "dead" sound when you are speaking into the handset, and it is very distracting and not at all pleasant like the SPIP550/650 was.  It is a shame because the rest of the phone is mostly beautiful.  I only hope that this will be fixed by firmware and is not some limitation of the hardware.

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hi Luke,

as usual, as the phones are new and in warranty, work with your Polycom reseller to raise a ticket with our North American Polycom Support team to get this verified and tested.

Best regards

Steffen Baier

[Anonymous]

I am only trying to help, I know this is a new device and so bugs are sort of expected (but not hoped for). In any case, I am really surprised if a bug this big that is so noticably affecting voice quality would slip through.  But I guess there is always a chance.  

As you suggested I have opened up a ticket #13173 with my reseller.  I hope you hear from them soon.

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello Luke,

I am not comfortable automatically labeling everything as a bug.

Without looking into this in more detail and getting this replicated by our support Team (I am in EMEA) I would wait for the outcome before confirming this as a bug.

Email me the MAC Address of the Device so I can keep track of this internally.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

[Anonymous]

Steffen

I am sure I don't have your email address - if you'd rather not post it publicly, you can send me an email at polycom-sem@sneakemail.com  & I'll be glad to reply with the info

[Anonymous]

I am following up on this now.  I did as you suggested and opened up a ticket with my reseller.  They in turn opened up a ticket with Polycom and informed me that this was being looked into.  After a couple of weeks of back-and-forth, I received the following disappointing message from the reseller:

"The tech who handled this ticket at Polycom has advised he had incorrect information to begin with, and that they do not currently have a way to adjust the sidetone in the tech configs like he first thought. At this time, he has been advised and has passed on to us that the sidetone is non configurable and hard set. Future firmware updates may get authorization to change this, but not for sure. We are sorry we could not get a more promising answer from Polycom, but at least you know now why the adjustments did not take!"

This is most upsetting -- so I am back here again to ask:

1. Why were the sidetone adjustments removed?

2. When will they be replaced?

3. How can I be the only one who noticed the sidetone was borked on the VVX500?  Was an QA done on this device?

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello Luke,

as our support team already advised your reseller that the VVX500 and similar new models no longer have the ability to adjust the side tone in their current software.

The sidetone is a static value for these phones and any changes to the factory behavior would need to be raised via a feature request.

Your reseller has been made aware of this and has been informed to contact their Polycom SE and follow up the relevant procedure.

The devices are designed to work within their standards.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

[Anonymous]

Ok, I see. Well this is all very disappointing.  The older phones (SoundPoint IP series) sounded great, that is basically what made Polycom famous (voice quality).  If the VVX500 is an example of what the voice quality is going to be moving forward, and if Polycom insists that users are too incompetent to adjust these values (they might damage their ears!) then I suppose this will be the last Polycom endpoint I will be purchasing.