Meridian Mail
Encyclopedia
Meridian Mail was one of the early all-digital voicemail
systems, running on Meridian Norstar
digital PBX systems from Northern Telecom (later known as Nortel).
In the early 1980s Northern Telecom introduced the Norstar, a scaled-down version of their SL-1 all-digital switch. It was the first all-digital system suitable for small-sized offices (up to 192 lines), and became one of their major product lines.
The Norstar was powered by a 16 MHz Motorola 68000
, and used only a fraction of the CPU's power. Nortel executives were interested in finding ways to use that excess power, as long as their customers paid for the privilege. Nortel asked their research arm, Bell Northern Research (BNR), to look for ways to spend those cycles.
Some time in the mid-1980s a complex project evolved that would deliver a large terminal
onto every user's desk, combining a color screen, keyboard and telephone. The Meridian would be used to run various application software
in a timesharing fashion. Since the Apple Macintosh had been recently introduced, the system was also to support a rudimentary GUI
based on character graphic
s.
While impressive in concept, the Norstar was simply not up to the task of driving such a system. A similar amount of processing power was needed to drive the single-user Macintosh, so how it is that the BNR developers felt that they could drive multiple terminals as well as telephony from the system is something of a mystery. The system was extremely slow, taking over a minute to open a window for their rather basic spreadsheet
for instance. Project managers continued to report the system was on-track and just needed a little more time to complete, even though this was clearly not the case.
After millions had been spent on the project, Nortel management finally gave up and decided to cancel it. In the midst of this a group of three engineers suggested that they could use portions of the system to deliver a voicemail system very quickly, and at least salvage some of the money spent so far. Management accepted the proposal, and the three (two brothers and a longtime friend), styling themselves as the Toronto Ideas Group, soon had a demonstration system up and running.
As development continued stability appeared to decrease. The developers became increasingly convinced that there was no problem in the system itself, and started to suspect that one of the former project's managers was attempting to make them look bad. In order to test this theory they wired the shutter release of a camera to the reset switch on the machine, placed the camera under a hat, and set up a clock within the camera's view of the machine. They did not have to wait long before they captured a rather clear picture of one of the middle-managers resetting the machine at 2AM. In typical managerial fashion, the manager in question was not reprimanded, but instead promoted to another group.
With this problem out of the way the system continued to improve. It was soon on the market and became a major seller, even though it could only be used with the Meridian switches. Only one other company, Octel, now part of Avaya
, offered a system competitive with Meridian Mail. While Meridian Mail was successful with smaller customers, Octel had market share leadership in North America, Europe and Japan. This occurred for several reasons: Octel's product line was broader in range (low capacity to very high capacity) whereas the Meridian Mail system only had small and medium capacity; Octel offered networking so larger companies could network all its voicemail systems into one company network; Octel's user interface was simpler to use and contained a much richer feature set; and Octel's systems worked with virtually every PBX in the world whereas Meridian Mail only worked with Nortel PBXs. In addition, Octel had a full voicemail product line for use in cellular networks and central office switches (for home and Centrex use), a market for which Nortel had no product.
Meridian Mail was discontinued by Nortel, and has been replaced by CallPilot, which in fact uses the same features and codes as Meridian Mail, but unlike Meridian Mail, allows newer features such as Unified Messaging. Unlike older Nortel systems, where the Meridian PBXs were assigned Meridian Mail and the Norstar systems were assigned Norstar VoiceMail or Startalk Flash VoiceMail, CallPilot was branded for both the Communication Servers PBX and Business Communication Manager Hybrid/Key telephone systems.
CallPilot was one of the products acquired by Avaya
in their purchase of Nortel Enterprise Solutions in 2009.
Voicemail
Voicemail is a computer based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone...
systems, running on Meridian Norstar
Meridian Norstar
The Meridian Norstar, later called Nortel Norstar was a small-office digital PBX introduced by Northern Telecom . It is based on the same internal design and instruction set as Nortel's earlier SL-1 and DMS systems, allowing it to support features such as integrated voice messaging, automatic call...
digital PBX systems from Northern Telecom (later known as Nortel).
In the early 1980s Northern Telecom introduced the Norstar, a scaled-down version of their SL-1 all-digital switch. It was the first all-digital system suitable for small-sized offices (up to 192 lines), and became one of their major product lines.
The Norstar was powered by a 16 MHz Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
, and used only a fraction of the CPU's power. Nortel executives were interested in finding ways to use that excess power, as long as their customers paid for the privilege. Nortel asked their research arm, Bell Northern Research (BNR), to look for ways to spend those cycles.
Some time in the mid-1980s a complex project evolved that would deliver a large terminal
Computer terminal
A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system...
onto every user's desk, combining a color screen, keyboard and telephone. The Meridian would be used to run various application software
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
in a timesharing fashion. Since the Apple Macintosh had been recently introduced, the system was also to support a rudimentary GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
based on character graphic
Text mode
Text mode is a kind of computer display mode in which the content of the screen is internally represented in terms of characters rather than individual pixels. Typically, the screen consists of a uniform rectangular grid of character cells, each of which contains one of the characters of a...
s.
While impressive in concept, the Norstar was simply not up to the task of driving such a system. A similar amount of processing power was needed to drive the single-user Macintosh, so how it is that the BNR developers felt that they could drive multiple terminals as well as telephony from the system is something of a mystery. The system was extremely slow, taking over a minute to open a window for their rather basic spreadsheet
Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
for instance. Project managers continued to report the system was on-track and just needed a little more time to complete, even though this was clearly not the case.
After millions had been spent on the project, Nortel management finally gave up and decided to cancel it. In the midst of this a group of three engineers suggested that they could use portions of the system to deliver a voicemail system very quickly, and at least salvage some of the money spent so far. Management accepted the proposal, and the three (two brothers and a longtime friend), styling themselves as the Toronto Ideas Group, soon had a demonstration system up and running.
As development continued stability appeared to decrease. The developers became increasingly convinced that there was no problem in the system itself, and started to suspect that one of the former project's managers was attempting to make them look bad. In order to test this theory they wired the shutter release of a camera to the reset switch on the machine, placed the camera under a hat, and set up a clock within the camera's view of the machine. They did not have to wait long before they captured a rather clear picture of one of the middle-managers resetting the machine at 2AM. In typical managerial fashion, the manager in question was not reprimanded, but instead promoted to another group.
With this problem out of the way the system continued to improve. It was soon on the market and became a major seller, even though it could only be used with the Meridian switches. Only one other company, Octel, now part of Avaya
Avaya
Avaya Inc. is a privately held computer networking, information technology and telecommunications company that is a global provider of business communications systems. The international head quarters is in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States...
, offered a system competitive with Meridian Mail. While Meridian Mail was successful with smaller customers, Octel had market share leadership in North America, Europe and Japan. This occurred for several reasons: Octel's product line was broader in range (low capacity to very high capacity) whereas the Meridian Mail system only had small and medium capacity; Octel offered networking so larger companies could network all its voicemail systems into one company network; Octel's user interface was simpler to use and contained a much richer feature set; and Octel's systems worked with virtually every PBX in the world whereas Meridian Mail only worked with Nortel PBXs. In addition, Octel had a full voicemail product line for use in cellular networks and central office switches (for home and Centrex use), a market for which Nortel had no product.
Meridian Mail was discontinued by Nortel, and has been replaced by CallPilot, which in fact uses the same features and codes as Meridian Mail, but unlike Meridian Mail, allows newer features such as Unified Messaging. Unlike older Nortel systems, where the Meridian PBXs were assigned Meridian Mail and the Norstar systems were assigned Norstar VoiceMail or Startalk Flash VoiceMail, CallPilot was branded for both the Communication Servers PBX and Business Communication Manager Hybrid/Key telephone systems.
CallPilot was one of the products acquired by Avaya
Avaya
Avaya Inc. is a privately held computer networking, information technology and telecommunications company that is a global provider of business communications systems. The international head quarters is in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States...
in their purchase of Nortel Enterprise Solutions in 2009.
See also
- Unified messagingUnified messagingUnified Messaging is the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of different devices....
- LANstarLanstarLANStar was a 2.56 Mbit/s twisted-pair local area network created by Northern Telecom in the mid '80s. Because NT's PBX systems already owned a building's twisted pair plant , it made sense to use the same wiring for data as well...
- Northern Telecom's foray into twisted-pair PC networking