I am a construction manager doing work on a local campus that is using VoIP. First of all I think it's a great idea. It does present an issue in regards to security however. We are building new parking structures and want to incorporate "code blue" emergency phones. Currently none of the vendors offer their equipment in VoIP. Since the college is eliminating all of their copper, they are hesitant to retain their switch and have to pull new copper to the parking structures. We have approached Cisco who said that they may be looking at something in the future. Are you aware of anybody making an adapter to convert PBX to VoIP?
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See if this will solve your problem. If not, they may be able to provide you with some guidance. Also, I would check with the PBX vendor and see what options they have. With the new wireless technologies you may be able to facilitate this with wireless phones. Of course, you will have to figure out a secure way of mounting them so that they don't sprout legs. Another option may be the new IP security cameras, if there will be someone to monitor them.
This was first published in July 2003