LiftComm’s EAV Elevator Phone: High-End Safety and Accessibility
A Message from our Sponsor:
This episode of Elevator Tools and Tech is brought to you by LiftComm, a product of TEC Solutions, and providers of high-end elevator emergency communication systems. For more information, please visit https://www.liftcomm.com/ or email Joe at jbarone@tecsolutionsinc.com.
Intro:
In this episode, I met with Joe Barone, Senior Client Manager at LiftComm. We discussed their EAV Elevator Phone, an audio and text communication solution in compliance with ASME 17.1 codes that allows speaking or hearing-impaired people to communicate in case of emergency. We discussed the progression of elevator emergency communications, the rigorous testing processes for these devices, and available integrations.
Transcript:
Joe Barone (00:00)
We also have the integrations and we also have the ability to pull IP camera feeds. So we are working right from the client’s camera that’s already into existing infrastructure.
the second that we are putting this on a client’s network, we’re making sure that it’s meeting all their standards, right? We’re not worried about a cloud. We’re not worried about any other hosted service, third parties, things of that nature. Beyond the operating system,
the robust aspect,
It’s a hardened locked down computer. So this thing is going to be exposed to the public in these elevators. So we make sure that there’s no risks, no vulnerabilities there.
I mean, ultimately these clients, when they have the infrastructure, the teams that are already focused on it, they really get into it early on when we start these conversations. They want to know what it could do, what it can’t do, the whole nine, and then we design it together.
Matt Allred (00:44)
Sure, you had mentioned some of your other customers that for them security is a huge deal, right? And so them wanting to kind of own it, control it, so that they can make sure that everything is totally secure makes a lot of sense.
Joe Barone (00:57)
Exactly.
Matt Allred (00:58)
Hello, and welcome to Elevator Tools and Tech, a special series from the Elevator Careers Podcast, where we spotlight the latest innovations, tools, suppliers and technology driving the vertical transportation industry. In each episode, we sit down with the creators, engineers, and solution providers who are helping elevator companies work smarter, safer, and more efficiently.
Matt Allred (01:35.893)
This episode of Elevator Tools and Tech is brought to you by Liftcomm, a product of TEC Solutions and providers of high-end elevator emergency communication systems. I met with Joe Barone Senior Client Manager. We discussed their audio and text communication solution in compliance with ASME 17.1 codes that allows speaking or hearing impaired people to communicate in case of emergency. We discussed the progression of elevator emergency communications, the rigorous testing processes for these devices,
Matt Allred (02:05.927)
and available integrations. Learn more at LiftComm.com or email Joe at jbarone@tecsolutionsinc.com. Now let’s dive in.
Matt Allred (01:57)
Joe, welcome to the show.
Joe Barone (01:58)
Thank you, Matt. Thanks for having me.
Matt Allred (02:00)
Yeah, I’m glad to have you, excited to talk about your product and obviously get to know LiftComm a little bit So first question I have for you is, kind of for the listeners who’ve never heard of TEC Solutions or LiftComm, what problem do you solve in the elevator world in plain English?
Matt Allred (02:21.436)
Yeah, I’m glad to have you, excited to talk about your product and obviously get to know LiftComm a little bit better. So first question I have for you is, kind of for the listeners who’ve never heard of TEC Solutions or LiftComm, what problem do you solve in the elevator world in plain English?
Joe Barone (02:42.817)
In plain English, what we solve at LiftComm is we help to satisfy an ASME 17.1 code
Joe Barone (02:48.521)
that in short, it requires that inside the elevator, if someone’s trapped and they hit that call button, Not only is audio supposed to pass through now, but also text messaging in case the passenger is hearing impaired or speech impaired. So that’s going to help meet code. And that’s something that we’ve actually helped develop and have been rolling it out through the country
Joe Barone (03:11.002)
over the last few years.
Matt Allred (03:12.722)
Yeah, well, and your elevator story actually starts outside of elevators. Tell us how the MTA relationship led you into IP intercoms and two-way communications and ultimately into elevators.
Joe Barone (03:17.123)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Barone (03:24.941)
Yeah, absolutely. So our story does go a couple of decades back actually, early 2000s TEC solutions, started as just a security engineering company, mainly focusing
Joe Barone (03:34.367)
focusing on a product line called cyberlock that you see above me. It’s an access control system that we implemented through a lot of state agencies and a lot of end users. But ultimately we got into MTA around mid 2000s. And then just through our relationships, you know, we were a solutions provider for other options. So come 2015,
Joe Barone (03:54.701)
they decided to swap their intercoms from analog to IP. So they approached us for a solution. We submitted one and we ultimately won. And now we have thousands of our IP intercoms throughout the MTA, New York City Transit, Long Island Railroad, the whole infrastructure. So that was actually a great relationship that we have. So we’ve been doing that now called about 10 years. And then come 2019, I had mentioned earlier
Joe Barone (04:19.401)
earlier this code that now there’s this requirement for text messaging as well.
Joe Barone (04:24.141)
So,
Joe Barone (04:24.36)
So, you know, we’re already in there. They approach us again. And rather quickly, we were able to develop a system. It’s called our EAV. This is an example of what it would look like on a panel. That is the system that actually can text back and forth, yes and no answers, meets the code. And arguably, we were one of the first to meet this code, just given the way that it was rolled out into New York. Got a few hundred of these now, every day growing. They’re doing a very nice job with ADA improvement plans through all the subway stations.
Joe Barone (04:53.443)
a lot of
Joe Barone (04:53.735)
of these in the field and continuing to grow.
Matt Allred (04:55.72)
Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you were kind of right place, right time with the right technology when they said, hey, can you essentially add this piece? It’s like, boom, yeah, we can.
Joe Barone (05:05.059)
Yeah, I mean, it was something that it was as an engineering company and consulting, you know, security, it’s our focus. And we said, yo, we’d love to take a crack at that. It’s exciting. We like to make new products, make new solutions. So yeah, it was a really great opportunity.
Matt Allred (05:18.854)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you’ve talked to your, you know, about your approach as kind of higher end, even Rolls Royce, I may have used that term, right? But what does that mean in real features and outcomes?
Joe Barone (05:30.115)
Yeah, I’ll say we say Rolls Royce, we say the higher end, ultimately because of that opportunity we had with the clientele that had a high standard
Joe Barone (05:39.401)
standard for what they needed in their infrastructure. Anytime you work with a state agency and authority that, you know, they want something that’s proven and built around their requirements. So, of course, us being the ones to provide that solution, we were given this opportunity to really develop a solid system. So, for example, our hardware, our operating system,
Joe Barone (05:58.947)
is Lennox. It’s a hardened operating system compared to the alternative people use general purpose boards, Raspberry Pies, things of that nature. We also have the integrations and we also have the ability to pull IP camera feeds. So we are working right from the client’s camera that’s already into existing infrastructure. Ultimately, it’s something that’s proven the test of time, especially over these last few years. You know, we’ve been in there since 2019.
Joe Barone (06:23.459)
and reliability, security, these were some of the headlines that needed to be met and
Joe Barone (06:27.236)
and that’s ultimately where we
Joe Barone (06:28.247)
we were satisfy.
Matt Allred (06:30.216)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and you’ve kind of pointed at some of that equipment behind you. Can you kind of walk me through a little bit of the communication process? You mentioned the panel on my right, your left, but what else is there?
Joe Barone (06:40.066)
Yeah.
Joe Barone (06:42.849)
Yeah, you got it. So we’ll actually work backwards here. So this is an example of what you might see in an elevator cab on the COP. Usually above the floor buttons, they open and close. You’ve got the screen, seven inch display. Could be touchscreen, but we actually put a protective cover throughout the MTA and some of our other clients just vandalism. Ultimately, if that button is pushed, it’s going to ultimately go to either command center. A lot of our clients have inside command centers. So
Matt Allred (06:47.526)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Allred (07:00.093)
Sure.
Joe Barone (07:10.401)
So it could go to a phone, it could go to a workstation.
Joe Barone (07:13.005)
But in between here, the wiring is actually quite simple. So what we actually like to do is it’s an IP device, POV device. That’s how it’s powered. That’s how it gets communication. As it comes to the install, all you do is you take a twisted pair off the traveler cable and it actually converts into IP in the cab. So you have this black box right in the panel. And then in the machine room, we have an encoder that would house the other end of that. It’s called a two-wire device. That’s then going to turn it back to IP. And behind me,
Matt Allred (07:30.726)
Wow, okay.
Joe Barone (07:42.435)
goes to a network switch, either in a comm center or down the hall in a data center. So when it comes to the actual install process, we’ve got guides and some videos, but relatively not too much equipment
Joe Barone (07:54.738)
equipment to make this actually work.
Matt Allred (07:56.732)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you kind of talked and touched on some of these pieces, but walk me through a little bit more about kind of the backend architecture, like the on-premise server, PBX. What does that actually mean and why would a customer care or say, yeah, I want that?
Joe Barone (08:13.923)
All right. Yeah, I’d say that’s a point. That’s definitely one of the larger things that set us apart from the rest is our offering for a total solution, meaning the
Joe Barone (08:23.201)
the client can own everything outright. could provide, we have our UCM, we hand over to the client and that’s their server, that’s their PBX. That’s everything that they own, what’s called on-prem. It’s within their network. They own it. No cloud subscription services. They don’t have to worry about having infrastructure outside of their four walls.
Joe Barone (08:42.903)
People like that usually with the higher security. Usually the end users have their PBX teams. They have these teams that are focused on having that higher standard. And again, security is always gonna be the forefront of that, but yeah, it gives the client an option just to own everything outright. We of course like to maintain it. have different agreements. We wanna be there as a support factor, but oftentimes we
Joe Barone (09:06.668)
we set it off with success out the gate.
Matt Allred (09:08.604)
Yeah, yeah. Well, and it sounds like, if they’ve already got teams in place, if they’ve already got a similar structure, then yeah, they probably just want to roll it into what they’re already doing and own it, like you say. Which kind of leads me to the next question, because you have said to me in a previous conversation that security is really a big part of the first conversation you have with new customers. And so I’m curious, what makes your solution
Joe Barone (09:23.469)
Yeah, absolutely.
Matt Allred (09:37.937)
more secure.
Joe Barone (09:39.235)
Well, the second that we are putting this on a client’s network, you know, we’re making sure that it’s meeting all their standards, right? We’re not
Joe Barone (09:47.661)
not worried about a cloud. We’re not worried about any other hosted service, third parties, things of that nature. Beyond the operating system, just the robust aspect. It’s a hardened locked down computer. So this thing is going to be exposed to the public in these elevators. So we make sure that there’s no risks, no vulnerabilities there. That would be mainly, I think,
Joe Barone (10:07.671)
the huge factor. I mean, ultimately these clients, like you said, like when they have the infrastructure, the teams that are already focused on it, they really get into it early on when we start these conversations. They want to know what it could do, what it can’t do, the whole nine,
Joe Barone (10:19.736)
nine, and then we design it together.
Matt Allred (10:21.714)
Sure, well, and you’ve talked a little bit about, MTA and you had mentioned some of your other customers that for them security is a huge deal, right? And so I think them wanting to kind of own it, control it, know all of the ends of it so that they can make sure that everything is totally secure makes a lot of sense.
Joe Barone (10:43.861)
Exactly. Exactly.
Matt Allred (10:46.14)
Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about reliability because you did mention the hardened Lennox system and tell me about the uptime standard you referenced and what did you have to do to achieve that?
Joe Barone (10:52.109)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Barone (10:58.977)
No, you got it. Yeah. So a standard that we like to be held to, it’s called the five nines. It’s a 99.999 % uptime, meaning that our devices in the field, they’re
Joe Barone (11:08.713)
they’re going to be working and it’s not a matter of, hey, is if this call button is going to be pushed, it’s when this call button is pushed, you know, it better go to that end spot,
Matt Allred (11:17.66)
Right.
Joe Barone (11:17.832)
you know? So it’s a standard that of course was passed down through our relationships with some of our government accounts that they want to see the the highest possibility of standard met.
Joe Barone (11:28.909)
So to meet that, ultimately the testing process is pretty robust. I mean, we ran these things for months on end. We stayed logged in. We exposed them to different temperatures. We put them kind of through the wringer to make sure that they’re going to be able to fit these environments, like a government agency, like a heavily trafficked area, better than most would. So it’s gone through some pretty rigorous testing. And now we’re
Joe Barone (11:53.434)
reaping the benefits of that on this end now.
Matt Allred (11:55.322)
Yeah, no, that sounds kind of intense. mean, from, I’m not a Six Sigma expert, right? But I remember hearing and learning a little bit about that in college. And I’m like, that sounds like it’s beyond that standard. Like you’ve actually gone beyond that to make sure it’s going to be up and running.
Joe Barone (12:10.851)
It certainly raises the ears and eyebrows a little bit in the meetings. So when you say something like that, and when we mentioned Lennox, we’re on with these IT guys, they hear that they get more comfortable about it. And I think then they get, like I said, like, oh, excited about it and say, all right, well, what can we do with this? What are the capabilities? it work with X, Y, and Z? And they’ll say, yeah, they love designing with them.
Matt Allred (12:30.822)
Yeah yeah. So tell me a little bit about some of the new prospects that come to you and have had bad experiences. Besides kind of, you know, that they don’t like maybe having a monthly subscription, what are some of the most common pain points you hear?
Joe Barone (12:45.475)
Over the years, we’ve heard just some feedback about reliability of the device, some screens not working, and then when it’s time to actually swap them out,
Joe Barone (12:54.826)
out, some difficulty with working them back into that infrastructure, getting them programmed, making sure that they’re calling the right spot. So that’s one thing that we kind of pride ourselves on when if we are retrofitting a situation, then we’re going to make sure we hear the customers say, were the concerns here and kind of
Joe Barone (13:12.483)
make them comfortable that, this is why we’re not going to be in that situation. We even had one of our clients down South, it’s an airport. They reached out even before that device was the, the initial
Joe Barone (13:23.068)
initial device was even installed. When they started doing some research about it, they kind of saw the way that it’s built and some of the infrastructure in the cloud aspect. And there, was a communications manager and she said, no, I’m not, not doing this. They found us online. And since then they’ve been.
Matt Allred (13:25.195)
wow.
Matt Allred (13:37.394)
Wow.
Joe Barone (13:39.489)
amazing to work with. They’re really into it. Like I said, they’re one of those clients that actually care, you know, and they bought right in. And now we’re building, you know, a real nice system with them over the last couple of years.
Matt Allred (13:49.661)
That’s awesome. So you mentioned kind of swapping out devices, like maybe while the system’s still up and running, right? Being able to do that. that led me to the piece that you had talked a little bit more in a previous conversation about kind of the white glove approach, like configuring something before it even goes in. So you’ve already got it kind of keyed up and you just plug it in and it goes. What are you, I guess in addition to that, what are some of the things you do before
Matt Allred (14:19.612)
before it’s installed to make commissioning and installation easier.
Joe Barone (14:25.047)
I think that our main focus in the beginning, if this is a new project, an existing project, if a contractor comes to us, a fixture company comes to us, our goal is always to have
Joe Barone (14:33.817)
have a conversation with the end user. And this is mainly to take that onus off of the contractor because now they’ve moved to this IP computers versus an analog phone. So to provide that white glove service, it’s speaking with those IT teams with the end user, learning about their expectations, how they want it to work, their call routing.
Joe Barone (14:53.389)
Where is the call supposed to go? If it’s not answered here, it goes here. It goes to the next person. It could be pushed. There’s a lot of different configuration aspects that we like to get after early so that when it is actually installed, it’s plug and play. So yeah, that would be the main, I’d say white glove service aspect. And then once it’s installed, similarly, another client wanted to work out a SIP trunk where the phone
Joe Barone (15:18.817)
phone calls 911 and it works through their PBX.
Joe Barone (15:22.147)
Then a couple of days working with them, we got
Joe Barone (15:23.817)
got this set up. I don’t think a lot of other people can offer that as quickly as we can, because we’re working with some pretty intelligent people that really care about the device and we love it. mean, we’re engineers, we love working
Joe Barone (15:35.49)
working with them finding solutions. So yeah, we’re really into making sure we’re responsive, we have a great support structure, and they’re getting the system that they’re designing for themselves. There’s no one system for everybody, and we’re open to that.
Matt Allred (15:37.469)
Yeah.
Matt Allred (15:49.449)
Sure.
Matt Allred (15:50.589)
Yeah, yeah. Well, and obviously with the 2019 code, the device is no longer just a phone, right? It’s a computer on the customer’s network. You know, there’s a lot, obviously security, you some of these things that maybe you didn’t have to worry about when it was just a phone in an elevator. Who should own this internally? I mean, you’ve talked about kind of the IT team. Obviously your team is involved. You know, it could be the…
Joe Barone (16:09.282)
Right.
Matt Allred (16:18.386)
the elevator contractor, maybe they don’t wanna own it, right? But what would that be ideally?
Joe Barone (16:20.141)
Yeah. Right.
Joe Barone (16:23.834)
Well, you know, for decades, it was always the same thing, right? I mean, it’s a hundred year old industry, hundreds really. And then for a while, it’s always been the same thing. The phone is always part
Joe Barone (16:32.908)
part of the installation of the elevator, almost like a widget. know, it’s an analog phone. gets plugged in, calls, great, move on. Now that it’s become more towards this IP computer based.
Joe Barone (16:44.873)
Ultimately, yeah, we like to speak with the end user. We need to kind of get in there, not to cut anyone out, really just to take it off their plate because it goes far beyond, I believe, their scope of just installing something. There’s a lot more to it. And we work in tandem with them. We work through them. We work directly with the client, whatever it is. But ultimately, I think that is it’s a big change. The world is getting away from analog. The elevator industry, in some cases, are still installing analog phones. So it’s a very odd, you know,
Joe Barone (17:14.217)
approach, but we’re trying to not only look ahead for the immediate future, but down the road, know, sustainability, reliability, the whole nine. So I think getting out in front of the end user is, the only way to truly do that, to build those relationships with them and take it off of it. Otherwise, you know, an industry, like we said, been around for a while and we, we left too, because we’ve been doing IP phones, like I said, for over a decade now, but in the elevator industry, it’s, it’s historically.
Joe Barone (17:42.605)
very old industry. we listen to your podcast, you
Joe Barone (17:46.033)
you got guys on generational guys have been in this industry. So as LiftComm now coming up with a focus meeting this code, going
Matt Allred (17:48.04)
Sure, sure.
Joe Barone (17:53.127)
going to shows and having these conversations. And we’ve actually even gotten questioned, like, where’d you guys come from? Like, who, who are you guys? You know, like, it’s, odd to penetrate an industry this long. It’s, it’s been fun. It’s been interesting meeting a lot of these guys and girls and it’s, it’s really been interesting. So yeah, our approach is a little bit unique, but
Matt Allred (17:58.984)
Who are you?
Joe Barone (18:10.423)
to answer your question mainly, it would be reaching out to that end user
Joe Barone (18:13.116)
user and getting out in front of them.
Matt Allred (18:15.111)
Right, right. Yeah, thank you. You know, we talked a little bit about integrations and how your system can integrate with, you had mentioned, you know, cameras, things, but give me a couple examples, you know, for our listeners of some of the integrations you have.
Joe Barone (18:25.219)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Barone (18:32.087)
Yeah, absolutely. So you know, it’s a Linux hard hard end operating system, but we’re still open source, right? So we have our own code, but we’re SIP compliant. You know, we
Joe Barone (18:41.408)
we have this ability to work with other systems as well. So an example for a software integration, would be a lot of our clients because their state agency, you know, public sector, they use a system called Genetech Security Center for their CCTV systems. Genetech’s done a great job penetrating the industry, so they’re pretty common now.
Joe Barone (19:01.197)
So we had one client approach us. said, Hey, you know, we’re using Genentech and because we pull their IP feed, we don’t have to install another camera. We use existing cameras. If it’s there, they say, well, we’re using Genentech and we want it a little bit easier. If someone pushes that button to know that that camera is going to be stamped. then we’ve developed something called bookmarking where in short, you click that call button in the elevator. It’s going to stamp in the Genentech camera system that a call was placed. This is going to help.
Joe Barone (19:29.249)
make it easier if you go back for the footage,
Joe Barone (19:31.56)
know, for whatever it be, you want to go recover that footage, you know what happened. It’s already there. So it takes out a lot of the time, makes things easier. We’ve worked with other call operating systems, answering services, know,
Matt Allred (19:33.544)
for sure.
Joe Barone (19:43.88)
Viper, you know, these different systems that people have to answer calls and we can work with them. And then I like to mention the hardware aspect. The back of our EAV here has a relay.
Joe Barone (19:55.959)
You know, simple, normally open, normally closed that can tie into elevator monitoring services. So one specifically that we work very closely with is cloud monitoring, Bolly, Angelo, those guys, those guys are great over there. And we’ve been working with them for a little bit. And essentially the benefit there is if this elevator phone goes down, network drops, power goes out and it’s UPS backed up. But let’s say network drops through the cloud monitoring system.
Joe Barone (20:23.459)
alert will be sent out depending how that software is set up. Emails get sent out to the appropriate people. It cuts down on response times, improves overall operability. So we like to work with different people, especially different inventors, people with different ideas. We’re open to it. If any of your listeners want to reach out, they have an idea that can integrate with a phone. We’re more than open to that. yeah, integrations are part of that aspect of let the client design what they want, and we’re here to make it all work together.
Joe Barone (20:53.699)
So we’re definitely
Joe Barone (20:55.282)
definitely proud of that aspect of it.
Matt Allred (20:57.288)
I mean, that sounds like a really smart idea because, you know, if somebody’s doing remote monitoring or somebody’s like you say, they’re monitoring the cable TV, not the cable, just the cameras, right? That are going on, right? They want to be able to have everything in one command center, be able to respond to it, act upon it, find it and…
Joe Barone (21:11.277)
Right.
Joe Barone (21:18.975)
That’s a huge point. mean, I think once you start adding more more equipment into any infrastructure, so that we’re using the elevator as an example, you already have an existing camera. Now
Joe Barone (21:28.867)
Now you got to worry about maintaining another camera or surface mounted camera that really doesn’t even look that satisfactory. You know, the task is inspection, but tougher than monitor. If there’s not an existing IP camera, typically that’s our first approach. We supply a corner mounted camera because it has all those capabilities that
Joe Barone (21:48.151)
I think a clean system would. And again, if you’re not adding stuff, there’s less points of failure. And it just makes for an overall
Joe Barone (21:54.199)
overall cleaner system.
Matt Allred (21:56.209)
Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned proactive supervision, TPS, know, continuously checking the communications path. What does that accomplish versus monthly testing or even, you know, I don’t know what all the other processes are out there, but talk to me.
Joe Barone (22:13.207)
Yeah. No, yeah.
Joe Barone (22:15.449)
So that’s something that we’ve helped to design and we’re working on. We’re still learning a lot about the industry, right? We’re still figuring out everyone’s kind of rushing to have a solution. One thing that
Joe Barone (22:25.407)
that we feel should really be highlighted is really having a good supervision of that, this line, making sure that not again, not if the button’s pressed, but when it’s pressed, that call is going to go through.
Matt Allred (22:31.784)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Barone (22:38.925)
Previously a little archaic, but you used to have people go out once a month, go press the call button, make sure the phone’s still working, something as basic as that. When we were developing ECPS, Emergency Communication Path Supervision, its focus is not only are these two devices talking to each other, meaning is that elevator phone speaking to the call agent or the call center, but are there any other factors that might be blocking that call from going through?
Matt Allred (22:51.816)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Barone (23:05.687)
Because remember, we’re not talking about just a phone call over a copper line. Now we’ve got internet involved. So not only is it going to check that I can communicate with this device, but are there any firewalls blocking it? Is the network still good?
Joe Barone (23:17.033)
good? Any changes on any of the URLs, IP
Matt Allred (23:19.036)
Hmm. Okay.
Joe Barone (23:19.106)
addresses? So it’s called SIP option ping, where ECPS is really going to continually be monitoring this stuff. Again,
Joe Barone (23:26.902)
Again, so the ease of mind for the people that do care if you hit this button, what’s going to happen? Now you got that peace of mind and that’s it.
Joe Barone (23:35.053)
think that’s where the industry should be heading, putting a little bit more time and effort into this
Joe Barone (23:39.825)
this emergency device.
Matt Allred (23:41.83)
Right,
Matt Allred (23:42.2)
What comes to mind is essentially kind of like remote monitoring for your elevator, but in this case it’s for your elevator communication system. And maybe, I mean, let’s say it goes down, I assume it takes a message, sends a message back to to whoever’s monitoring it and says, hey, the camera’s out or the…
Joe Barone (23:51.48)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Barone (24:04.787)
You got it. got it. Yeah. A series of things happen. I mean, the code itself requires that if anything were to happen to this device, you know, it trips the relay and then you get an annunciator down at the landing,
Joe Barone (24:14.326)
landing, you get an LED and the screen would display emergency phone unavailable. it. In addition to that for the remote aspect, yeah, you’re getting alerts out to the people that need to be reached, you know, all different ways that again, cutting down on response time, making sure that this elevator is back up and running soon because
Joe Barone (24:33.027)
especially with the ADA community, people depend on these to travel. If an elevator is out, especially at the subway station, airports, transportation, really throws a wrench in their plan for their trip. So, it’s so important that these things are well maintained and hardened and reliable because they hold a very heavy weight as far as their responsibility
Matt Allred (24:36.54)
sure.
Joe Barone (24:52.63)
responsibility as a device.
Matt Allred (24:54.608)
Yeah absolutely. Joe, who is, and we talked a little bit about this, but who’s the perfect fit customer and who would not be a fit for your system?
Joe Barone (24:59.991)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Barone (25:02.819)
Joe Barone (25:04.04)
We really, our clientele over the last five years has heavily remained with the state agency higher end government style.
Joe Barone (25:13.204)
style. For lack of a better term is the ones who really care about the security and what they’re putting on their network. And typically it’s been that little bit more higher end clientele that has some interesting infrastructure that they want to meet. People that care really. And I’d say for the flip side of it.
Matt Allred (25:28.657)
Yeah.
Joe Barone (25:33.763)
We’re open to having a conversation with anyone, anyone that calls. We’ve truly never had a bad demo. It’s always been educational and, oh, wow, that’s really cool X, Y, and Z, but let’s use a residential, for example. If you have a small residential building that are just trying to meet the code, this might be a little too feature rich for your use case. know, maybe not as cost prohibitive as, as an alternative might be. So we’ve actually had calls where we’ve had that conversation say, yeah, that’s been great, but we’d actually recommend for lack of better terms, a competitor.
Joe Barone (26:00.833)
because we feel like their system actually really would help meet what you’re looking for. So yeah, we like to stay, we’re looking for the higher end, the white glove service, the ones that we can grow and build relationships with versus just being a widget
Joe Barone (26:15.618)
widget and an elevator
Matt Allred (26:17.608)
For sure, for sure.
Joe Barone (26:17.639)
that’s never used.
Matt Allred (26:18.748)
One you’d mentioned, I think, some airports, obviously the MTA, I mean, maybe a college campus, it’s like, hey, this infrastructure has to be here, has to work. And not that some of the others don’t, but if it’s, like you say, if it’s just one and there’s not a team to kind of support it or monitor it or pay attention to it, maybe that one doesn’t make as much sense.
Joe Barone (26:37.772)
Good.
Joe Barone (26:40.311)
Right. Yeah. You know, it’s funny, we actually go around, I don’t click them, but we’ve seen some interesting things in the field. You start to notice things more, right? I never would have thought 10 years ago I’m staring at elevator phones whenever I get in an elevator, but it changed the way you see the world a little bit. But there was one incident actually
Matt Allred (26:49.245)
For sure.
Joe Barone (26:57.656)
actually at a building over in New Jersey. And I will show you the photo where their elevator phone wasn’t even a phone. It was a walkie talkie on the handle of the elevator that said, case of emergency,
Matt Allred (27:06.871)
wow.
Matt Allred (27:10.106)
Use the walkie talkie.
Joe Barone (27:10.113)
you know, press this walkie
Joe Barone (27:12.294)
talkie. And it really just helps further the idea that this is an industry, it’s ever growing. It’s a very old industry, but the phone aspect has always been so overlooked
Joe Barone (27:22.034)
overlooked and kind of just been a forget about it style. And in that case, we actually tried to use the walkie talkie, no one even answered. So things like that, I think the industry should be heading and it seems to be heading in a more focused area that these devices
Joe Barone (27:38.845)
shouldn’t just be forgotten about or overlooked, especially in heavily trafficked areas. mean, they’re holding a lot more weight than ever. So yeah,
Joe Barone (27:47.201)
yeah, it’s very interesting.
Matt Allred (27:49.208)
Absolutely, So Joe, if somebody’s interested in having that conversation, how would they get a hold of you and your team?
Joe Barone (27:55.371)
Yeah. So, I mean, you go to liftcomm.com. We have contact information there. I’ll supply even with this video, anything to my email, things of that nature.
Joe Barone (28:05.516)
Anyone that wants to have a conversation about features, capabilities, or like I said earlier, partnerships, different ideas that they feel would really help advance this product or even help their product advance because of the capabilities over here. We always say we’re not a very salesy
Joe Barone (28:24.983)
bunch were more operational focused and just demonstrations. We love doing demos. We do it here in this lab and this conference room here, simulate calls and it’s always a conversation. You know, I think one thing that we’ve been really trying to focus on lately, in addition to reaching out to the end user and educating a little bit on what’s out there and what your options are, we even have some great relationships with architects and consultants.
Joe Barone (28:49.453)
consultants.
Joe Barone (28:50.253)
people that when they’re designing these jobs, now we’re giving them an option to offer this
Joe Barone (28:54.453)
this in their tool belt when they’re having these conversations. This way it gets in early and now we work with the fixture company and everything and it’s all set up. And while that construction is being done, we can start having these conversations. So anyone, I really encourage anyone just to reach out. There’s a lot to learn. Like I said, the industry is still growing when it comes to this phone.
Joe Barone (29:16.171)
It’s relatively new. This code is relatively new in an otherwise 100 year old industry. So five years, people are still trying to figure out what works, what people really want to see in their phones. And we’re no strangers to that too. So we welcome conversation about it and we just really are into
Joe Barone (29:34.037)
into it and want to keep seeing it grow.
Matt Allred (29:36.036)
Awesome. Well, thank you for being with me today. I’ve enjoyed the conversation.
Joe Barone (29:40.339)
Absolutely. No, thank you for having me. This is really exciting. yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing more of these coming out. So I appreciate that.
Matt Allred (29:47.891)
You bet. Thank you.
Matt Allred (29:50.004)
Thanks again for listening to Elevator Tools and Tech from the Elevator Careers Podcast. Please remember to visit LiftComm. You can find them at l-i-f-t-c-o-m-m dot com or email Joe at jbarone@tecsolutionsinc.com to learn more. The link will be in the description below. Please like and subscribe and until next time, stay safe.