Avaya Helps Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Family Stay Connected

By Anuradha Shukla

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

ABC TV's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" recently aired a program about a family of eight that has a communication system from Avaya Inc. in their new 3,500-square-foot house.

 

More than 30 friends, family and neighbors wrote to the show's producers about the Arena family of Purdys whose six year old son had an inoperable brain tumor. Following the recommendations, their family became a candidate for "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

 

When their neighbor, Steve Bierman, senior sales representative, CTI, discovered the family was a finalist for the show, he coordinated the Avaya (News - Alert) donation of the Partner Advanced Communication System for the Arenas, who have six daughters and another child on the way.

  

Using the Avaya Partner system, the Arenas can transfer calls to anyone in the house, even if they're on different floors or send a group message to the family. The paging feature lets Mrs. Arena call everyone to dinner and she uses the "privacy" feature that sends her incoming calls to her personal mailbox when she is resting.

 

According to the press release, there are 11 Avaya Partner telephones throughout the house, almost triple the size of the Arena's original house .Each daughter, whose ages range from three to 17, has her own phone with a personal mailbox that they can access on any telephone.

 

There's a general mailbox for messages meant for the whole family. The parents don’t have to take and distribute messages to their daughters, and their own messages are no longer lost.

 

More information is available at Avaya , ABC TV