Everyone knows by now that the way we work has changed from the past. The days of having to be in the office all the time or waiting a full day for a response to an email are long gone. Now, more than ever, people are bringing their office with them on the go, and now responding to important messages can be almost instantaneous.

We are able to achieve this style of work largely because of the popular BYOD trend that has been taking over businesses. Tons of new gadgets are coming out faster than we can buy them, which has made working from home or on the road simple. It seems that even with all of these new toys there will always be some reason to show up to the office every now and again. Wait. Is there?

One thing that comes to mind when I think of having to be in the office is for a conference. Not being present for a big meeting or a big company decision seems somewhat unprofessional. But then I think about it more, and well, nope.

It is a new age of business, and with video conferencing becoming more popular, it seems like just hearing your voice or seeing you on a screen is 100% acceptable these days. You really don’t have to be present for a conference. Especially if you are one of the many road warriors that are out there.

If you have been living under a rock, then allow me to have the opportunity to blow your mind and tell you that there are personal and portable conference phones! Most of these are Bluetooth, can plug into up to your laptop, and fit in the palm of your hand!

If you find yourself on the road a lot, but still need to be involved in conference room meetings, then this is something you will want to look into. Or if you haven’t been living under a rock, this might be something you already have.

For this blog, we are going to take a look at the Plantronics Calisto P620. This is a popular portable conference phone that delivers. This was designed with mobility in mind and is a must-have for when you need to be on a conference call in say, your hotel room.

How to Read Battery Life on the Plantronics Calisto P620

When fully charged, the Calisto P620 offers up to 6 hours of talk time bust just like anything else, the more you use it, the more the battery will drain. So how can you tell how much battery life is left in your Calisto P620? The flashing red LED on the unit will let you know how low your battery is by how many times it flashes in a cycle! Here’s what I mean:

1. If you have 2 to 6 hours of talk time, the Calisto P620 will flash red once.
2. If you have less than 2 hours of talk time remaining, the Calisto P620 will flash twice.
3. If you have less than 30 minutes of talk time remaining, then you will see three flashes.

If you do in fact see the red LED flashing in threes then it is time to charge! If you are in a pinch, you can plug the Calisto P620 into your laptop via USB to charge as well! Because we all know that keeping anything portable charged is extremely important!

Are you a road warrior? Do you use the Plantronics Calisto P620? If not, what do you use for your portable conference phone? We want to know!

Different jobs come with different environments and with those environments comes many different people. No one is the same, so it is important that the tools we use every day have preference settings so that we can adjust them the way we want.

This is something that can help us make our day easier at work, and help assist us in performing our tasks better. If you work at a desk, then chances are the thing that you are going to be able to customize the most besides your computer, is your desk phone.

For this week’s basic “How-To”, we are going to go over how to define the backlight on your deskphone. Doing this is very simple and the way you do it is almost universal to every IP phone with a backlit display.

For the sake of this blog, we are going to use the AudioCodes 430HD as an example. If you find that the backlight on your phone is either turns off too quickly or stays on too long, then just follow these simple steps!

How to Define the Backlight on the AudioCodes 430HD

1. Access the Backlight Timeout screen by pressing Menu> Setting> Backlight Timeout 
2. From here you can navigate to select Always on, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 seconds
3. Once you have chosen your time, simply press the Select softkey to apply your settings
4. The final step is to press the Save softkey, and your backlight settings will be changed

It really is that simple! Now your backlight will function exactly the way you want it to, and there is nothing better than having things go your way! Am I right?

Do you use the AudioCodes 430HD for your deskphone? If not, what phone do you use? How is the backlight display? We want to know!