Snom Technology

Audio Technology

At Snom, evaluating audio quality for a new product begins after the first plastic injection samples and continues throughout the life cycle of the product.  We have improved audio quality over the years by combining our acoustic experience and VoIP signalling know-how with the latest DSP algorithms. Specifically, we have solved various issues inherent in VoIP technology, including processing delay, network delay, network packet loss and issues related to background noise. 

It is this attention to detail during design that creates voice quality differentiation between telephones. Subjective tests are as important as objective tests, and a good objectively tuned phone can still provide poor audio. At Snom, superior audio devices means a cycle of objective tuning followed by subjective sessions until the quality is perfected. Snom utilizes a wide range of testing tools and software in the design of our IP telephones, which ensures we deliver the best quality to our customers according to the latest requirements of modern telecommunication.

Designed for Business

An enterprise telephone must work in a wide variety of business locations and situations, including the hall, the reception area, the call center, the busy office, the executive suite, the warehouse or the remote office. We must provide connectivity to a variety of devices and technologies such as Bluetooth, Power Over Ethernet (POE), headsets and LAN. We must also have relevant security mechanisms in place on our products to prevent telephone misuse. Snom phones work for a variety of traffic levels, with features such as single calls, multiple line monitoring, conference calls, busy repeat calls, calls from known contacts, calls on hold, Do Not Disturb and call avoidance. Phones must also fit the office conditions, be able to be mounted in the place of choice and be easily accessed. Snom phones are integrated into office life, with simple training requirements, ease of use and ease of deployment.

To support all these requirements over the years, Snom developed feature sets that cover every possible office scenario; a Snom phone has more than 700 settings that can be combined to give you maximum effectiveness for your daily work. The requirements will vary depending on the user's application and are only achieved by paying close attention to customer feedback and continuously testing to ensure delivery of requirements. 

Advanced Technology

Products developed for everyday business require simple operating concepts. At Snom, we analyze and evaluate the human, technological and economic factors that are relevant to a product’s success – all from the viewpoint of our customer. One of the results is the provisioning of intuitive (graphic) user interfaces for complex interactions between our users and devices. 

Teams of young and experienced designers develop innovative and user-friendly design solutions that stand out for their exceptional originality, lending our brand the requisite authenticity. Worldwide awards confirm our success in this area and justify our design philosophy. Our primary target is the satisfaction of our customers, and this objective will never change.

Snom phones are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being, which is why the aesthetic quality of our products is so important to us. Our design is thorough down to the last detail.

Display Technology

Good displays on telephones are extremely important as they present important visual information to users. At Snom, we only utilize proven technologies such as TFT or FSTN in our product displays. Our high-resolution color displays are made from thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT LCD) for improved features such as pixel addressability and contrast values. Other advantages of these technologies are the wide viewing angle, low color shift and good transmittance values. Snom believes in using monochrome displays in most cases; film-compensated super-twisted nematic displays (FSTN) are used with a passive-matrix LCD technology that's comprised of a film-compensating layer between the display and the rear polarizer for added sharpness and contrast. Backlighting is achieved with low-power LEDs, providing both long life expectancy and good display quality performance. 

All displays used in Snom telephones are selected for durability and stability; they can sustain defined electrostatic discharges (ESD) and power outages without any damage. We are therefore able to offer a 24-month warranty with our desk phones that includes displays. Many Snom customers have been using our products continuously for more than 5 years without reporting any display fading. 

German Engineering

The label “Made in Germany” has grown synonymous with top engineering, excellence, reliability and attention to detail. German intellectual accomplishments have helped to shape the world. Originally, German engineering simply referred to engineering performed in Germany. Today it is used to differentiate higher class engineering.

Germany came late to the industrial revolution, and was then able to build on the technological advances of the earlier factories and machines. In Germany, industries were set up as cartels. This led to uniform standards of production and quality. Eventually people noticed that products and materials from Germany were "premium" when compared to the average in the market.

Today, the term "German engineering" also describes the mindset of the people working in the country. Germany has a culture that puts emphasis on reliability, work and efficiency. Quality and interoperability seem like logical offshoots of the development process. Those who endorse German engineering tend to take their time and do things right, resulting in a high quality product.  Snom values developed from our German heritage. We aim to achieve perfection in telephony with interoperable and well-built systems based on open standards, reflecting our attention to detail. We offer solutions that are elegant, practical, cost effective and built with superb audio quality. 

Industrial Design

Snom is devoted to perfection. This means that industrial design is a critical part of the new product research and development process. Snom phones must fit into multiple scenarios and situations; the industrial designer’s studies of function and form and the connection between product, user and environment are critical aspects to achieving this. Product characteristics specified by Snom design guide include aspects such as the overall form of the object, the location of details with respect to one another, colors, texture, form and aspects concerning the use of the device such as audio, keyboard and light. Snom values new design ideas and actively seeks input from outside our own team.

Snom products combine mature VoIP and audio technologies with exclusive design to set new technical and aesthetic standards. Snom is addressing sophisticated users who are looking for a VoIP telephone that combines an extensive range of functionalities with an exclusive, timeless design.

Snom Semiconductor Technology

To ensure that we are able to provide our customers with the innovative features that result in the most advanced products in the market, Snom engineering teams work in close cooperation with leading semiconductor vendors – such as Broadcom, Intel, Cirrus and Texas Instruments – to define features and new platforms.

Before developing a new system-on-a-chip (SoC) design dedicated to VoIP, our engineers are in contact with the system architects within the semiconductors industry. Capabilities such as those provided by Ethernet switches are developed in combination with physical layer devices (PHYs), digital signal processors, and audio engines and are fully integrated into a single chip solution. By placing special focus on the audio aspects of the SoC design, our team ensures that the best quality communication over IP networks is achieved. This includes compliance with our in-house standards for high-quality acoustic echo cancellation, extended jitter buffer and packet loss concealment. 

Another important consideration is ensuring that the energy consumption of our devices is below market averages to meet the demand for state-of-the-art green products.

Software & Firmware

Unlike any other in the world, Snom software provides a huge and unparalleled set of features that are useful to the business professional. Since the very first version of Snom firmware, there has been constant and ongoing development focused on being open to a wide variety of  ITSPs and being interoperable with a wide range of IP PBX platforms. Snom is a feature leader, and when new technology is introduced, Snom is among the first to provide these latest features on our telephones. 

Snom has a modular approach to software development that makes it possible to have the same firmware supported seamlessly on different phones. When a firmware version is released, it is provided for every current phone model. Differences in supported features are solely dependent on the hardware. The same provisioning processes are in place for all telephones, and Snom aims to make it easy for our customers to stay on the latest version. This approach makes administrators' jobs easier, particularly those who have a mixed telephone model environment; they only have to familiarize themselves with one phone model to be able to manage and update the entire Snom phone range. This approach is also important for Snom. It simplifies the software development process while at the same time increasing the importance of having clean and well-written code.