Source: www.voip-news.com

PIKA WARP the Appliance is now compatible with the Asterisk-based FreePBX Graphical User Interface. The WARP product began shipping in June.

“We are very pleased to have supported the effort to adopt the FreePBX application to run in the PIKA Warp environment,” said Terry Atwood, vice president of sales, marketing and customer care at PIKA Technologies. “Used in many Asterisk implementations around the world, including Trixbox, FreePBX has proven its value, time and again. When the FreePBX team expressed their willingness to work with us to port to the Warp Appliance, we jumped on the opportunity.”

According to the company:

WARP’s flexibility has now been extended to include FreePBX, one of the top Asterisk GUIs in use today. The FreePBX application provides pre-programmed functionality for users wanting to ease the work required to configure the Asterisk open-source platform.

“FreePBX has become the de facto standard for enterprise grade PBX functionality delivered to the SMB business and includes a very rich set of functionality and customization potential,” said Philippe Lindheimer, open source community director of Bandwidth.com and leader of the FreePBX project. “But no GUI is complete without a wide range of hardware options to complete the package. We are delighted that PIKA can now include FreePBX in the PIKA WARP and bring our two eco-systems together.”

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Faxing with Asterisk has been always a little trouble, the leading Open Source IP PBX, a VoIP platform solution. Some time ago I wrote about PIKA providing support for faxing on Asterisk with hardware front;
"PIKA Connect for Asterisk integrates PIKA high-density and low-density analog boards into the open-source Asterisk environment. Delivering reliable, analog connectivity for up to 24 channels per board, PIKA adds powerful capabilities in DSP-based fax and echo cancellation to the Asterisk development platform. Other features include dial plan integration, native switching, DSP based conferencing, and OpenVPOS support."

But today I read another article by Tom Keating, let me know more about the subject of Faxing with Asterisk on the software front as well. Enjoy the good article about a good faxing solution fro Asterisk.
" PIKA Technologies announced support for fax applications built on the open-source platform Asterisk. According to PIKA, "PIKA Fax software is now extended to Asterisk, allowing developers on the platform to easily build reliable fax capabilities into their applications.""

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

The Appliance for Linux by Pika Technologies is the second member of Pika’s Warp family, following last month’s release of Appliance for Asterisk,
Pika Technologies has introduced a compact, customizable, Linux-based IP-PBX appliance. Based on the company’s host media processing software, "Pika Warp, the Appliance for Linux," is said to provide IP-PBX (IP-based private branch exchange) functionality along with integrated voice response (IVR), predictive dialing, and appointment reminders.
Announced features and specs of the Appliance for Linux include:

Processor — AMCC Power PC 440EP, clocked at 533MHz (upgradeable to 666MHz)Memory — 256MB RAM; 64MB flash (on SD card)Display — 2 x 20 backlit LCD display, with API-controlled front-panel scroll buttonEthernet and USB ports (number and type unspecified)Music-on-hold audio in; paging system audio outIP and analog telephony I/O:up to 100 IP trunk/station interfacesone standard FXS (foreign exchange subscriber) interfaceup to eight additional FXO/FXS (foreign exchange office/subscriber) interfacesPower failure transfer RJ11 jack(s)Dynamic thermal managementOperating system — Denx ELDK, with a 2.6.19.2 Linux kernel
Linux Devices has complete detail.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

According to a news release by Pika technologies, Intuitive Voice, a customer of PIKA, has introduced a low-cost, high-quality PBX phone system designed for small businesses. The Evolution PBX 2.3 combines the cost benefits of open-source PBX technology with the quality of PIKA voice processing, along with an easy-to-use interface designed especially for small businesses with no technical staff.

Chris Jones, President of Intuitive Voice, said, “With Evolution PBX, there are no barriers to prevent small businesses from realizing the benefits of big-business PBX features. At less than $1,500US for a four-line PBX, Evolution PBX is truly affordable for a small business, without sacrificing voice quality or usability.”

For a fraction of the price of traditional PBXs, Evolution PBX provides small businesses with features such as an automated attendant; unique extensions and voicemail boxes for each employee; automatic call routing; integration with Microsoft® Outlook™ and voicemail-to-email; on-hold music; support for telecommuters, voice-over-IP, and much more.

Ease-of-use is assured with the Evolution PBX turnkey software interface, which automates setup and provisioning, and allows non-technical staff to easily maintain the system.

Adds Jones, “These breakthroughs were made possible by PIKA’s high-quality voice processing for Asterisk. PIKA’s low density analog board is unique because it provides advanced functionality such as DSP-based echo cancellation, fax, and native switching, at a very competitive price point.”

Terry Atwood, Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Care at PIKA Technologies, added, “We are very pleased that Intuitive Voice has leveraged our landmark PIKA Connect for Asterisk software to fill a major gap in the PBX market. While the open-source Asterisk solution makes PBX technology affordable, only a company like Intuitive Voice can develop it into a fully-featured and easy to use product that makes sense for small business end users.”

Links;
Pika technologies
EVO PBX by Intuitive Voice

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Pika Technologies went on field trials in last June with Ebay with it’s PIKA Connect for Skype, a set of software components for application developers which allow them to build business communications solutions that interface with Skype.

PIKA offers both server side and client side components in PIKA Connect for Skype. On the server side, PIKA’s patent-pending AllOnHost™ technology provides a PC processor (host) based engine that can handle real-time audio switching, call transfer, and media processing functions. As a media processing engine, it can process audio from TDM, VoIP and now Skype. As part of PIKA AllOnHost, a set of API commands is provided to control the remote Skype clients. This message based API communicates with a client side application that in turn controls the Skype client directly.

On the client side, the PIKA Skype Gateway resides on the client machine and is responsible for transferring audio as well as call control information between the remote Skype client and application server. Using a proprietary audio transfer mechanism, the PIKA Skype Gateway is able to send and receive audio and call control information from a PIKA AllOnHost equipped application server.

A second generation PIKA Connect for Asterisk will be available providing connectivity between Asterisk and Skype. It will allow Asterisk-based applications to use Skype to make and receive calls, provides access to the calling Skype ID profile information (caller ID), and has touch tone (DTMF) detection capabilities. Skype clients running on Windows based PCs are connected to the channel driver via PIKA’s AllOnHost™ (host-based) voice processing technology. Skype clients can be distributed across an unlimited number of Windows PCs to achieve the density requirements the voice application may require.

PIKA Connect for Asterisk integrates PIKA high-density and low-density analog boards into the open-source Asterisk environment. Delivering reliable, analog connectivity for up to 24 channels per board, PIKA adds powerful capabilities in DSP-based fax and echo cancellation to the Asterisk development platform. Other features include dial plan integration, native switching, DSP based conferencing, and OpenVPOS support.

Links;
Pika Trial for ASTERISK, SKYPE, contact David Clarke at david.clarke AT pikatech.com or skype: davidclarkepika.

Pika Connect for Asterisk