China’s Yealink may have started out specialising in desktop IP telephones, but it has been swift to embrace demand for broader unified communications and collaboration endpoint products.
The CP860 is the first conferencing hardware manufactured by the company. It is marketed as a terminal solution for small to medium sized meeting rooms, suitable for broadcasting physical meetings of up to 16 people.
In this review, we will look at what the CP860 has on offer in terms of conferencing options and other features, and also how it fares in terms of audio performance and flexibility. Please remember, this review is simply our opinion of the product, and intended only to inform readers objectively. UC Today is completely independent and does not endorse or back any product, service or vendor.
How Does It Look?
The CP860 is a roughly pentagonal dark grey unit with a triangular speaker housed on top. To the front is a main control panel with a simple 192x64 pixel graphical LCD display and keyboard, which together look like a standard calculator.
What Can It Do?
The CP860 houses three built in microphones which offer 360 degree pickup at a range of around 3 metres (10 feet). That would make for quite a cramped table to seat the 16 people Yealink claims the phone can handle in one meeting, although there is the option to plug in up to two more additional microphones.
There conferencing support for up to five connections. Audio quality is good, with Optima HD and full duplex speakerphone technology. There is also acoustic echo cancelling to ensure feedback is minimised and digital noise suppression.
The CP860 supports a full range of enterprise telephone functions, including call hold, mute, Do Not Disturb, forwarding, transfer and call return. There is a searchable directory capable of storing up to 1000 entries, and you can record calls and conferences direct to a Flash drive via a USB port.
In addition to basic call and conferencing features, the CP860 can also be used as an intercom and for sending RTP stream and multicast paging and SMS messages.
