Macintosh Telephone System
Asterisk for Mac OS X Software PBX
The A4M software suite turns a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X into a feature rich private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system and Voice over IP (VoIP) server. It provides features found in proprietary PBX systems and VoIP telephone systems, for example auto-attendant, call forwarding, call screening, call transfer, interactive voice response menus (IVR), music-on-hold (MoH), conferencing, voicemail, voicemail-by-email and IP phone support.
The 2010 edition consists of a telephony server, an auto-starter, a configuration engine, several system preference panes and a switchboard application. The preference panes are designed to make the task of configuring the server easy and intuitive, just as one would expect from any Mac OS X based software product.
The server component is a port of the Asterisk telephony engine specifically adapted for Mac OS X and Mac OS X technologies. The code base is entirely managed from within Apple's development environment Xcode. Many Linux specific APIs and data formats have been replaced with Mac OS X equivalents. The executable is a universal binary built and optimised using the award winning LLVM compiler. In future versions the telephony engine will become selectable (Afelio or Asterisk).
Availability
The 2010 edition is currently under development. It is expected to become available first for the Japanese market in November or December 2010 for a retail price of 79,800 JPY without ISDN adapter and 108,600 JPY with ISDN adapter. A Lite Edition for small businesses with up to eight desks will follow in early 2011 for a retail price of 49,800 JPY without ISDN adapter and 78,600 with ISDN adapter. The user interface is localised in both English and Japanese. International versions will become available in early 2011.
The retail package includes:
- Mac OS X installer
- Telephony engine executable
- Source code for the telephony engine
- Auto-launch and configuration engine executables
- Telephony server preference pane
- SIP Provider preference pane
- SIP Client preference pane
- Switchboard application
- Electronic copies of user's guide
- Electronic and printed copies of software licenses
- User registration
- USB dongle
- ISDN adapter for INS64 (optional)
ISDN Adapter
The optional ISDN adapter connects any Macintosh computer to an ISDN telephone line. It supports one INS64 ISDN line (2 voice channels) and has a built-in DSU. Further adapters can be added if multiple ISDN lines are used.
Resellers & Distributors
Inquiries for reseller and distributorships for both the Japanese and international markets are welcome and may be sent by email to otoiawase at sunrisetel.co.jp (in English or Japanese) or contact Mr.Koga by telephone (in English or Japanese) during Japan business hours at (+81) 03 5791-5950.
Screenshots
Server Preference Pane - Server Status - Running
Server Preference Pane - General Settings
Server Preference Pane - Date & Time
Server Preference Pane - Dialplan
Server Preference Pane - Switchboard
Server Preference Pane - General Settings - Editing CallerIDs
SIP Provider Preference Pane - Service
SIP Provider Preference Pane - Authentication
SIP Provider Preference Pane - SIP Settings
SIP Provider Preference Pane - Inbound
SIP Provider Preference Pane - Outbound
SIP Provider Preference Pane - Dialout Service Precedence
SIP Client Preference Pane - Authentication
SIP Client Preference Pane - SIP Settings
SIP Client Preference Pane - Inbound
SIP Client Preference Pane - Outbound
SIP STUN Preference Pane
Switchboard Application
Technical Specification
System Requirements
| Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Operating systems | Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" |
| Processors | Intel x86 PowerPC (Mac OS X 10.5 only) |
| System memory | 512MB for low call volume 1GB+ medium to high call volume |
| Disk storage | ca. 20 MBytes for installation |
| Peripherals | ISDN support requires optional ISDN adapter |
General Features
| General | |
|---|---|
| Voice menus | English and Japanese |
| Number of inbound telephone numbers (DIDs) | 3 per provider/gateway |
| Number of call groups | 10 (customisable group names) |
| Number of external forwarding destinations | 2 for switchboard, plus one per client phone |
| Call handling modes | business hours outside business hours weekends and holidays |
| Provide dialtone to callers (DISA) | yes, for registered staff only |
| Voicemail | one general voicemail box for reception one personal voicemail box per client |
| Voicemail by email | one email address per voicemail box |
| Call holding | yes |
| Call transfer | yes |
| Call forwarding | yes |
| Number of voice conferences | 10 |
Call Screening and Monitoring
| Screening & CDRs | |
|---|---|
| Call screening | accept all calls reject anonymous calls |
| Call detail records | CDRs are written to /var/log on the system disk |
Voice over IP
| VoIP | |
|---|---|
| Maximum number of SIP providers, gateways and clients | 50 |
| Configurable SIP ports | 5060 to 5071 |
| Voice Codecs | G.711a (alaw), G.711u (ulaw), GSM, ILBC, Speex |
| Supported DTMF methods | SIP INFO, RFC 2833, inband |
ISDN (aka INS64 in Japan)
| ISDN | |
|---|---|
| Service type | Basic Rate ISDN (BRI) |
| Number of voice channels | 2 channels per adapter |
| Maximum number of ISDN adapters | 16 (32 voice channels) | Voice Codecs | G.711a (alaw), G.711u (ulaw) |
Xcode Build Environment
Note: The image above shows an earlier version of the server software.
Where are the Free Asterisk GUI tools for Mac OS X
Due to lack of sponsorships and donations, Sunrise ceased the development and maintenance of the freely available GUI applications known as Asterisk Launcher and Asterisk Assistants. These applications are no longer available for download.
Interested parties may license the source code to these applications for their own development for a nominal fee of 12,500 USD per application.
The Asterisk AppleScripts and Asterisk Shell Scripts collections will remain available free of charge. These items may be downloaded via their respective download links in the navigation bar on the left.
Legal Disclaimer
Apple, Cocoa, Macintosh and Mac OS X are trademarks of Apple Inc. Asterisk is a trademark of Digium Inc. A4M is a trademark of Sunrise Telephone Systems KK. Apple's and Digium's trademarks are mentioned for reference only. Mentioning of these marks does not imply any kind of endorsement by Apple Inc or Digium Inc. The Asterisk software is released by Digium Inc under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The A4M telephony server component is maintained and released by Sunrise Telephone Systems KK in accordance with the GPL. All other components of the A4M software suite are the sole property of Sunrise Telephone Systems KK and are released under a commercial license only. A4M specific icons and screenshots shown on this page are the sole property of Sunrise Telephone Systems KK.
