: Denphone Digest :: November 2010 :: Volume 2, Number 5 :

November Issue

Greetings from the team at Denphone.

The holiday season is just around the corner and for many of us that means a busy time with end of year parties and special events. At Denphone we are proud to announce a special event that we are holding on December 2nd with Polycom Japan, where people interested in VoIP and Asterisk will be able to see Asterisk systems in use with a wide range of Polycom equipment. There will also be an opportunity to see some of the amazing Polycom video conferencing systems including their million dollar telepresence systems. Afterwards we will head off to a local watering hole - a chance to catch up with some old faces and to make some more contacts in the Japan voice arena.

In this issue we have an interview with Steve Mansfield, CEO of New Perspective - New Perspective is the asset manager for Japan Leisure Hotels, an AIM listed company with 6 hotels under management in Japan. We take a light-hearted look at the humble payphone - and some of Japan's wackier examples with 12 Very Very Japanese Phone Boxes. We introduce Denphone's VoiceBlast service as well as highlight further special discounts on German VoIP handset maker snom's exciting range of office IP handsets.

As ever, if you would like to see something featured in Denphone Digest, feel free to contact us and we will see what we can do for you.

If you are having trouble reading this email version, click to read the web version: http://www.denphone.com/denphone-digest-November-2010.

In this issue:

• Presidents Corner - Huw Williams
• Tokyo Asterisk Users Group Special Event: Hands on Polycom SoundPoint IP and SoundStation IP Demo
• Winter Sale - further snom 300 and 320 SIP based IP Phone Savings!
• Love in the Clouds: Japan's first all IP Leisure Hotel
• 12 Very Very Japanese Phone Boxes
• Denphone News: Hands on at Polycom
• Featured products: Introducing Denphone VoiceBlast
• Around the internet

Presidents Corner

Winter is approaching once again, and the Christmas lights are on all over Tokyo. Perhaps next year we'll put phone activation on our Christmas tree.

It has been surprisingly busy over the past few months, so perhaps the Federal Reserve's QE2 stimulus is working. Interest has been high in Unified Communications (UC), and there are a number of new video products and solutions coming out at the moment. 2011 is set to be an exciting year for UC video in particular, pulling together video, mobile devices and cloud computing. Convergence of data, voice and video is finally becoming a reality.

We are holding a special VoIP Lounge event at the Polycom office in Yotsuya in December, so please come along if you can. The are details below. Also, Doug Vilim from Sangoma, a major telephony card manufacturer, is visiting Japan in January, and we will be arranging an event for him as well. More information on that to follow. Here's hoping the economic upturn continues and all our readers have a great 2011.

A Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from Denphone.

Huw R. Williams

President

Denphone K.K.

Tokyo Asterisk Users Group Special Event: Hands on Polycom SoundPoint IP and SoundStation IP Demo

Hosted by: Polycom Japan And Denphone K.K.

Date: December 2nd (Thurs), 2010

This special event is a chance for those interested in VoIP and Asterisk to get together to see some of the world's leading IP phones is action, as well as to hear Denphone President Huw Williams talk about how asterisk is being used in the enterprise today. It is also an opportunity to have a look at some of the state of the art video conferenicng systems Polycom have developed.

Location: Polycom (Japan) K.K., 6F Kioi-cho Fukudaya Building, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 102-0094

Time: 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Cost: Free

RSVP: magazine@denphone.com

Outline:

• Opening Remarks: Takao Takahashi
• Asterisk in the Enterprise: Huw Williams
• Introducing Polycom SoundStation and SoundPoint IP Devices and Asterisk: Hidehiko Hiwada & Kazuhiro Nakayama

Second Party: Irish Pub The Morrigans http://morrigans.web.fc2.com/

We look forward to seeing you there!

Winter Sale - snom 300 and 320 SIP based IP Phone Savings!

Denphone is proud to announce that we have slashed prices on the popular snom entry level phones even further!

• snom 300: 14,000 yen 12,000 yen! / phone
• snom 300 10 Pack: 135,000 yenonly 110,000 yen!
• snom 320: 21,500 yen 20,000 yen! / phone
• snom 320 10 pack: 190,000 yen only 175,000 yen!

Bringing all the best of German engineering and design to the world of VoIP telephony, Berlin based VoIP telephone manufacturer snom technology AG offers some of the more robust and stylish phones on the market.

snom (yes - their name isn't capitalized) phones are targeted toward small and medium sized businesses as well as home offices, Internet Service Providers, carriers and OEM customers.

Unlike many local Japanese phone manufacturers who produce proprietary phones that only run on their own systems, snom phones are compatible with a wide range of SIP based telephone systems including open source platforms such as Asterisk, as well as leading PBX solution such as Switchvox and DenphonePBX which makes them an ideal choice of phone when rolling out a low cost VoIP solution.

These phones can be purchased from the Denphone Webshop. If you have any questions about the snom range of phones, feel free to contact Denphone. These prices are subject to change - and further discounts for bulk orders are possible - give us a call today 03-4550-1405.

Love in the Clouds: Japan's first all IP Leisure Hotel

Simon Gibson - 19-11-2010

Denphone's Simon Gibson met up with New Perspective CEO Stephen Mansfield to talk about his company's innovative approach to managing hotels in Japan. Earlier this year, Denphone had the pleasure to be involved in the roll-out of an all IP hotel management system, with Denphone providing a DenphonePBX system closely integrated into the hotel management system for both client and staff interaction. This included programming a wake-up call system, auto check-out phone billing as well as staff room cleaning IVR programming.

Simon: Thank you for giving us the time to speak to you today. First off, could you tell us a bit about your company.

Stephen: New Perspective is the asset manager for the hotels that Japan Leisure Hotels has invested into. Our job is to create as much value as we can for our investors. Japan Leisure Hotels is an AIM listed company with investment in 6 leisure hotels. From those 6 hotels throughout Japan, we recorded 1.2 billion yen in revenue for 2009, with EBITDA of approximately 370 million yen.

Simon: How did you get started in the field of leisure hotels?

Stephen: I was working at a large investment bank in the late 1990's, when I came across a company called Nikkodo which we provided financing for. They provided karaoke systems for leisure hotels throughout Japan, and during our research into their business, I realised the size of the leisure hotel market in Japan. In 2002 a lot of leisure hotels came onto the market from the work outs of bad loan portfolios sold in the late 1990's. The more we looked into this area in detail, the more we liked the concept, so in 2004 we set up the fund, and in January 2005 we bought our first hotel.

Simon: Was there much resistance to you moving into that market, especially as you are not Japanese?

Stephen: Not that I was really aware of. Our staff are predominantly Japanese, and we got them to do most of the negotiation, we seek to put a Japanese face forward when it mattered, as we still do.

Simon: How did things grow from there?

Stephen: Since 2005 we have bought 5 more hotels.

Simon: So you would say you are still looking to expand in Japan? Where do you see New Perspective heading in the future?

Stephen: We are trying to raise some more capital to expand and take advantage of the current low prices of hotels in Japan. There is huge potential for market consolidation in the hotel industry. Currently, Japan-wide there are around 20,000 hotels - with 90% of owners owning 5 or fewer hotels. Gross industry revenue is in the range of 40 billion dollars. So our aim for the future is to continue to improve the guest experience and deliver it at a more competitive price through consolidation and greater hotel management efficiencies.

Simon: Speaking of which, the renovation of your Yokkaichi hotel was, as far as we know, the first full IP hotel roll-out in Japan. Was this one of your aims?

Stephen: No, that was not something we were aiming for. However, we had a unique opportunity to start with a blank piece of paper for the hotel and a desire to design a system that could be continually upgraded without having to constantly run additional cables, which incurs additional refurbishment work. This will ultimately reduce ongoing costs for upgrading the system thus reducing the operating costs of the hotel.

We were very much driven by the idea of utilising commodity products operating on open standards so that all of our systems remain easily upgradeable and interoperable. Given that the web is over IP, and that is the way the world is increasingly standardising, there was no reason to accept some proprietary or analog system.

Simon: Could you give us a brief overview of the system components?

Stephen: Yes, the hotel management system comprises: security, telephone, lighting, air conditioning controls, printing, checkin / checkout, as well as room safety controls.

Simon: With so many separate systems making up a hotels infrastructure, what challenges did you face with the project?

Stephen: It was a massive project - and at the outset, we had to commit to 100% - either all or nothing. We were very cognizant of the risks of going down that path so we spent a lot of time making sure we had redundancy in the plan.

The challenge was to get everything to happen at the right time. You had the physical renovation work to manage, and to bring that together at the same time as the systems to make sure it all worked together. From a management perspective we delivered on schedule and met our internal objectives for both budget and time frames.

Simon: Going forward, is there anything you would do differently?

Stephen: Taking that first step was a massive accomplishment as it established a solid core from which we can implement progressive improvements. From here we are looking to implements a rolling process of development to realise the potential and flexibility of the system.

The system has been designed so that it can run from the cloud. We have a "cloud of one" right now, but going forward we expect it to support our growth in Japan. We are looking forward to using the flexibility to create a more interesting guest experience.

12 Very Very Japanese Phone Boxes

The twenty first century has seen mobile phone ownership rise steadily. This rise has also marked the beginning of the decline of the humble phone box. So we thought we would take a light-hearted look at some of the whackier phone boxes to be found around the Japanese archipelego before they go the way of filofaxs, champagne breakfasts and Nortel PBX's.

1. A rugby ball or an easter egg?


Image Source: http://yoshinorhythm.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2010-07-12.

This delightful phone box is from Hinai, which is near Odate City (famous for Japan's first major Asterisk deployment amongst other things). Hinai is famous for its chickens, so I would guess the shape of this phone box is not meant to celebrate exploits of the leather ala Dan Carter.

2. Hiding the Fact


Image Source: http://susono.jugem.jp/?cid=92.

This photo is from Sano City in Tochigi Prefecture. I guess the people in the local government wanted to hide the phone boxes - and came up with these monstrosities. It looks like a rather poorly cast William Morris design meets, but only just, a Russian orthodox church.

On another note, Sano City does boast one of Japan's Big 3 - along with Shin-Fuji in Shizuoka and Shin-Koiwa in Tokyo, Sano has its own cricket field.

3. Very Public Payphones


Image Source: http://trynext.com/travel/070520-0900.php.

Japanese Diet (Parliament), Tokyo, Japan.

4. Back in their heyday


Image Source: http://mu3rail.blog.so-net.ne.jp/archive/c35375382-1.

This photo was taken in the summer of 1961, of what we think is Kamata Station. Kamata Station is in Tokyo and serves the Keihin-Tōhoku Line, Tōkyū Tamagawa Line, and Tōkyū Ikegami Lines. If you look closely you can see the the Telephone Boxes on the left. In those days they would have been much more heavily used than they are today.

5. I will have a strawberry and whipped cream sandwich with my phone call, please.


Image Source: http://kyoko.buzzlog.jp/e101308.html.

Conevenient calling. Once a common site outside stations and convenience stores such as this around Japan, phones like this ISDN payphone have become less and less common.

6. The Lion Dog Protector of Ryukyu


Image Source: http://kadomasa.ti-da.net/e766456.html.

South of the Japanese main land, lies the beautiful prefecture of Okinawa. This photo shows a phone booth in Naha, and it is notable for having a Shisa on the roof. Shisa are decorations, often found in pairs, resembling a cross between a lion and dog. From Wikipedia:

When a Chinese emissary returned from a voyage to the court at Shuri Castle [the main Palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom], he brought a gift for the king, a necklace decorated with a figurine of a shisa-dog. The king found it charming and wore it underneath his clothes. At the Naha Port bay, the village of Madanbashi was often terrorized by a sea dragon who ate the villagers and destroyed their property. One day, the king was visiting the village, and one of these attacks happened; all the people ran and hid. The local noro had been told in a dream to instruct the king when he visited to stand on the beach and lift up his figurine towards the dragon; she sent the boy, Chiga, to tell him the message. He faced the monster with the figurine held high, and immediately a giant roar sounded all through the village, a roar so deep and powerful that it even shook the dragon. A massive boulder then fell from heaven and crushed the dragon's tail. He couldn't move, and eventually died. This boulder and the dragon's body became covered with plants and surrounded by trees, and can still be seen today. It is the "Gana-mui Woods" near Naha Ohashi bridge. The townspeople built a large stone shisa to protect it from the dragon's spirit and other threats. src: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shisa

We hope that the Shisa protect the calls of the users of this phone booth.

7. The deal is on ice


Image Source: http://www.n-c-c.org/modules/bulletin/article.php?storyid=2169.

Perhaps another reason for the decline of the phone box - they don't seem able to stand up to the cold too well, and this one in the north of Japan would be a little uncomfortable to use.

8. Very Japanese


Image Source: http://blog.goo.ne.jp/subarumama_2005/e/9c5f51cc2d3f8ac6852046e11625ba81.

This phone box fits in very nicely with its surrounds - great Japanese style. It was photographed in Kawagoe - which is a city in Saitama - close to Tokyo.

9. Historic Yokohama


Image Source: http://takahan.blog28.fc2.com/blog-entry-39.html.

This delightful little wooden phone box is to be found in Yokohama - which is part of the great sprawling metropolis that is Greater Tokyo. On the second floor is a lovely English pub.

10. In the Snow


Image Source: http://hikyou.sakura.ne.jp/v2/2007/12/post_387.html.

These ones look a little chilly to use too. I think I would rather enjoy a hot coffee in my local cafe and chat away on an iphone.

11. Log House Pay Phone


Image Source: http://daizukan9.blog63.fc2.com/blog-entry-705.html.

This is a very cute pay phone that would look great in many different localities.

12. Here be Dragons!


Image Source: http://daizukan9.blog63.fc2.com/blog-entry-113.html.

Love the look of this dragon on a box. One would feel very safe using this phone box from Kyushu.

Introducing Denphone VoiceGenie VoiceBlast Service

Denphone VoiceGenie is a high performance voice broadcasting service offered by Denphone.

Whether you are looking for a way to contact many people in an emergency, promote your events, send out friendly reminders or distribute voice messages, VoiceGenie is the solution.

Developed for use in Japan, Denphone's VoiceGenie offers a localized solution - with Japanese CallerID's sent and friendly bilingual support. Call lists can be divided by language so you can send messages in Japanese to your Japanese speaking customers, and messages in English to your English speaking customers.

Call lists are managed simply and easily from an excel spreadsheet, allowing line staff to control the process. There is a web interface for VoiceGenie call scheduling, call pausing and call cancellation.

It has been tested to work with all of the major voice mail systems deployed in Japan, meaning your message is left when there is no-one to pick-up if that is your aim.

We can also work with you to integrate VoiceGenie with your CRM systems.

Call our friendly staff at 03-4550-1405 (outside Japan +81-3-4550-1405) to learn more about VoiceGenie.

Around the Internet

NTT East and NTT West Issue Warning about International Call Fraud

Simon Gibson - 25-11-2010

Japanese Telco monoliths NTT East and NTT West (NTT) have issued a press release (24th November 2010) warning users of IP phone systems, and particularly of NTT's Hikari Denwa service of the dangers of toll fraud. Both NTT East and NTT West have reported that customers using NTT's Hikari Denwa service have had their systems cracked and who have then been invoiced for unknown international call charges.

These attacks predominantly target SIP based systems and are made for the purpose of sending large amounts of call minutes out of unprotected IP PBX systems. This allows attackers the opportunity to make large amounts of money by selling the minutes to less than scrupulous VoIP interconnection resellers.

The press release can be found here.

We wrote a short piece in a previous edition of the Denphone Digest titled Five Tips for Securing Asterisk Phone Systems, which I have copied here, as tips 1, 2 and 5 apply to all SIP based systems that face the internet:

1. Use a Firewall

If you need to have your PBX connect to over the internet for a SIP or IAX2 trunk, or even to support a remote worker, we highly recommend you put a firewall between your system and the wild wild web. Firewalls from companies such as Yamaha, Checkpoint or Cisco are recommended.

2. Passwords

The majority of attempts at Asterisk system cracking that we have seen were automated, targeting multiple systems. If you use simple passwords, such as those vulnerable to dictionary attacks, then your system will be vulnerable. It sounds so basic, but use random passwords (or as random as you can get). There is a good little bash script halfway down the comments on http://www.osix.net/modules/article/?id=570.

3. Check all of your extensions, including internal extensions

Actually before doing this, it is a good idea to copy your extensions.conf and sip.conf to extensions.conf-bk and sip.conf-bk and then to use blank files for these templates. They do offer very good tips when setting up your system. However from a security point of view it is better to add in extensions and trunks rather than hope you have everything commented out in a large configuration file.

4. Set allowguest=no in sip.conf

This is on by default and allows sip guest sessions. So this should be turned off in your sip.conf file.

5. Check your logs

Logs are your best friend when it comes to monitoring behaviour of your systems. Asterisk logs can be found in /var/log/asterisk. These should be checked regularly to make sure there are no strange calls.

Also earlier this year I gave a talk to the Tokyo Linux Users Group covering Asterisk security in detail. The slides are available on Google Docs.

IP Phone systems can be secure, but like any IT system exposed to the internet it takes some thought and a good level of understanding of the base system to make it secure.

VoIP & Asterisk Lounge December 9th, 2010

Following on from the special event at Polycom Japan, the 9th of December will see the final Tokyo VoIP and Asterisk Lounge for 2010. It will be held at the usual venue in Azabujuban. January's meeting will be held on the 13th of January - and there will be a special guest from North America - Doug Vilim from Sangoma, a major telephony card manufacturer - giving what looks to be a very interesting talk.

The next VoIP & Asterisk Lounge will be held Thursday, December 9th, from 6pm at Cafe Marche in Azabujuban, Tokyo. This monthly event is a great chance to meet and network with other Asterisk and VoIP users and developers in the Tokyo region. There are normally good turnouts for these lounges, with both English and Japanese speaking participants welcome. People are welcome to bring along kit they wish to discuss.

• Access: Azabu-juban Stn. 1min. From Exit 7, turn left and walk about 15 meters. Cafe Marche has seats out on the sidewalk. The Voice Lounge is at the back of Cafe Marche. 1F.
• Namboku, Oedo Line(s)
• 1F Mademoiselle Bldg, 1-4-8 Azabu-Juban. Minato-ku. Tel: 03-6234-0122. Open Mon-Thu 11:30am-2am, Fri-Sat 11:30am-4am, Sun & hols 11:30am-midnight.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Acknowledgments

Ogre Statue Puplic Phone Box was blogged about here. The statue can be found in Kyushu's Oita Prefecture. If you look closely you can see that the statue is holding an old style candlestick mouthpiece, and a box in the stomach of the monster. This box used to hold a public telephone. Today however with the rise of mobile phones (Japan has topped 90% mobile phone ownership this month) the number of public telephones in use in Japan has over the last few years been in steady decline. http://www.flickr.com/photos/helga/3380834415/

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About Denphone

Denphone K.K. is Japan's leading provider of open PC based VOIP Telephone PBX systems. Denphone supplies Digium / Asterisk solutions, Cisco, Polycom, Nortel, snom and Grandstream phone and video systems as well as our own bespoke solutions.

Contact Denphone

Denphone is centrally located in Tokyo's Minato Ward in Azabujuban. We can be contacted by telephone on 03-4550-1405, via this contact page or by reply to the address this magazine was sent from.

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