A wallboard does one thing a report cannot: it puts the number in front of the team while the day is still happening. The support team sees “4 calls missed today” in red on a TV, and the fourth missed call becomes the last one. Avaya IP Office ships with the feed a wallboard needs; SMDR output has been part of the platform for years, waiting for someone to switch it on and point it somewhere.

The whole process takes about 10 minutes if you have IP Office Manager access and an always-on Windows machine on the same network.

You will need

  • Avaya IP Office (any IP500/IP500 V2, including older releases; SMDR works the same way back to R5)
  • IP Office Manager with administrator rights
  • An always-on PC or server on the same LAN to run the collector
  • A TV or monitor with any device that runs a web browser

Step 1: Enable SMDR output in IP Office Manager (3 minutes)

SMDR (Station Message Detail Recording) is IP Office’s call-record stream: one line of comma-separated text per call, delivered over a TCP connection. To turn it on:

  1. Open IP Office Manager and load the configuration from your control unit.
  2. In the left tree, select System, then open the SMDR tab. (On newer releases the same settings live under System > SMDR; on very old builds it appears under the CDR/SMDR tab.)
  3. Set Output to SMDR Only.
  4. IP Address: enter the address of the always-on machine that will run the collector. IP Office sends records to this box, so its own address is wrong here.
  5. TCP Port: 33333 is the conventional choice and the PBXDom default.
  6. Records to Buffer: set to 3000, the maximum. If the collector machine reboots, IP Office holds up to 3,000 call records and replays them on reconnect, so you lose nothing during a Windows Update.
  7. Tick Call Splitting for Diverts if you want a separate record for each forwarded leg (recommended for support lines that overflow between groups).
  8. Save the configuration back to the system. This change does not require a reboot.

One caveat: IP Office sends SMDR to a single destination. If an old call logger is still consuming the feed, retire it first or point the new address at the collector machine and accept that the old logger goes dark.

Step 2: Install the collector (4 minutes)

On the machine whose IP you entered above:

  1. Sign up for a PBXDom account and grab the collector from the download page.
  2. Run the installer. It is a small Windows service, and the whole install is next-next-finish.
  3. Log in with your PBXDom account, add a new PBX, choose Avaya IP Office, and select the network (IP) connection type with port 33333.
  4. The collector now listens for the SMDR feed and relays records to the cloud over TLS. It stores nothing beyond a working buffer, and it connects outward, so you open no inbound holes on the perimeter firewall.

Make a test call from any extension to your mobile, hang up, and watch it appear in the PBXDom portal within a few seconds. If nothing arrives, the usual culprit is the Windows firewall on the collector machine blocking inbound TCP 33333; add an allow rule and call again.

Step 3: Build the wallboard (3 minutes)

Now the fun part. Create a new dashboard in the portal and add widgets. This layout has proven itself across hundreds of support teams:

PositionWidgetWhy
Top left, largeMissed calls todayThe number the team reacts to; make it the biggest thing on the screen
Top rightAnswered calls todayBalance; the team should see wins alongside misses
MiddleCalls by agent/extensionFriendly competition does half your management for you
Bottom leftAverage talk timeCatches both the rusher and the rambler
Bottom rightCalls per hour (today)Shows the afternoon peak coming before it lands

Resist the urge to add ten widgets. Five readable numbers beat fifteen tiny ones; the team reads a wallboard from across the room, at a glance.

Step 4: Put it on the TV

Any device with a browser works: a $50 HDMI stick PC, or an old laptop velcroed behind the screen. Open the dashboard’s display URL in the browser, hit F11 for full screen, and disable the device’s sleep settings. The dashboard refreshes itself, and after setup the device needs no keyboard. Mount the TV in the team’s line of sight rather than behind them.

Two small details save a support ticket later: set the browser to launch at boot with the dashboard URL, so a power cut recovers on its own (in Chrome, a startup shortcut with the --kiosk flag and the URL handles boot and full screen in one step), and check the TV’s settings for an anti-burn-in or pixel-shift option if it will show the same layout all day.

Step 5: Tune it after a week

Live with the wallboard for a week, then adjust. If the missed-calls widget reads zero day after day, swap it for calls waiting or longest ring time and find the next thing to improve. If one agent tops the call count each day while another sits at the bottom, you have learned something no monthly report told you. The wallboard earns its TV when the team starts checking it without being asked.

That is the whole build: one SMDR setting in Manager, a collector install done in four minutes, and a browser pointed at a dashboard. If you run IP Office and want the wallboard live before lunch, the free 14-day trial covers everything above. Start at onboarding.