A door station or intercom device calls a phone when someone presses the button. You pick up, talk to the visitor, and (depending on the device) buzz them in. Useful for offices with a locked front door, warehouses with a loading dock, and buildings with multiple tenants.
Vocatech handles the phone side: a dedicated number, routing, and the hunt group that rings the right team. The device itself registers to a different SIP platform called OnSIP. Here is why, and what your installer does.
Why OnSIP
Door stations and intercoms are one of the most fraud-targeted device categories in VoIP. They sit on public networks, they often have weak default passwords, and attackers scan for them constantly. If a door station is compromised, the attacker can rack up international calling charges through it in hours.
OnSIP is a standardized SIP platform with extensive hardware documentation and a dedicated fraud prevention layer. Keeping door devices on OnSIP isolates them from the main phone system, which cuts the blast radius if something goes wrong.
It also means your installer has clear, maintained setup guides for every major brand of door station. They do not need to learn our platform to wire up a doorbell.
How registration works
Your low-voltage installer (or whoever configured the door station) registers the device to OnSIP using SIP credentials we provide.
- We create an OnSIP account for your door device and send the credentials.
- Your installer enters the credentials into the device config page.
- The device registers to OnSIP.
- We confirm registration from our side.
- Test calls and routing are validated end-to-end.
OnSIP publishes detailed step-by-step guides for every common door station, including 2N, Algo, Akuvox, Grandstream, and the older Viking AES units. Your installer will recognize the flow.
How calls route
When someone presses the button, the device places a call to a dedicated number we assign to that device. That number routes into a Vocatech hunt group on our side.
The hunt group decides who rings. You pick the team members and the ring order. Typical setups: a sequential ring where reception rings first, then a back office, then a fallback cell phone. Or a simultaneous ring where any available team member can answer.
Because the hunt group is a standard Vocatech feature, you can change who rings without touching the door device. The device always calls the same number.
Buzzing the door open
Most modern door stations accept a DTMF code (a keypad tone) during the call to trigger the door release. The codes are configured on the device itself, so your installer sets them at the same time they register the device.
When the visitor calls in, you answer on your desk phone or Webex app, talk to them, and press a key (commonly # or a two-digit code) to release the door. The door device handles the actual unlock signal.
What it costs
The doorbell service is $14.95/month per dedicated number. That covers the OnSIP registration, the dedicated number, and the routing into your hunt group on our side.
The door station hardware and any local wiring (power, door release, network cable) is separate and handled by your installer.
Where our responsibility ends
Same pattern as paging. Once the device is registered to OnSIP and we have confirmed the dedicated number routes into your hunt group correctly, our side is done.
Hardware troubleshooting, door-release wiring, image tuning on camera-equipped devices, and on-site adjustments are handled by the installer who originally wired the device. We do not do on-site work.