Wall-mounted IP intercom with signal lamp in a care home corridor, Healthcall installation

Communication

IP intercom for care homes: corridors, rooms, entrances

IP intercoms for Belgian care homes: corridors, rooms, main entrance. Two-way audio, nurse call and access control integration, multi-site management. Snom, Grandstream SIP.

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What is Healthcall IP intercom?

Healthcall IP intercom is a two-way audio communication layer deployed in your care home, natively integrated with nurse call and access control. It relies on standard SIP stations (Snom, Grandstream) registered on a 3CX central or any compatible IPBX, with no proprietary hardware imposed.

Three uses coexist on a single infrastructure: corridor intercoms with signal lamp to indicate a call state and dialogue with supervision, optional room intercoms for dual call/communication use, and the main-entrance intercom with electric strike and optional camera to filter visitors.

The system is designed for the real constraints of the Belgian care home: sometimes-old buildings, noisy zones (dining, technical room), small teams, limited night-time presence, multi-site MR groups with shared supervision. The publisher Groovit, an independent non-manufacturer integrator based in Frasnes-lez-Anvaing, has been equipping around twenty facilities since 2017.

  • 300-700 €

    Per-station cost

    hardware excl. VAT depending on model (corridor, entrance, room)

  • SIP 2.0

    Open standard

    compatible with 3CX and market IPBX

  • < 1 Mbit/s

    Bandwidth

    cumulative network peak for 80-bed MR

  • PoE

    Power

    no specific cabling, standard RJ45

For more: integration with nurse call · coupled access control.

Six features designed for the care home, not the office building

IP intercom has existed for twenty years in classic tertiary. We adapted it to care home realities: nurse call coupling, internet outage tolerance, access control integration, multi-site management, audio quality in noisy zones.

  • Corridor intercoms + signal lamp

    Snom M9R, Grandstream GXP21xx wall-mounted PoE stations. Colour coding from room signal lamp: green handled, red unhandled, blue technical, yellow logistics. Audio always two-way.

  • Reinforced entrance intercom

    Grandstream GDS37xx with optional 1080p camera, reinforced casing IP65 outdoor, electric strike control. Visitor video on supervision and front-desk smartphone or DECT.

  • Optional room intercom

    For ICU-type configurations or sensitive units (Alzheimer): two-way audio with floor carer plus emergency key. Triggered by resident or carer remotely. Always traced.

  • Native nurse call integration

    Same 3CX central, same dial plan, same priority rules. An emergency intercom interrupts an ongoing external call with explicit notification. No silo.

  • TLS + SRTP encryption + VLAN

    Three security layers. Signalling TLS 1.2/1.3, RTP audio SRTP, dedicated voice VLAN. No recording by default. If activated, storage in Belgium with configurable retention.

  • Tolerance to internet outage

    Local IPBX per site (physical or virtualised on the Healthcall server). Site-internal intercom calls work autonomously without internet. Continuity of service including main-entrance opening.

Reinforced IP entrance intercom with optional camera and electric strike. Illustrative visual (client shoot to be produced).

From entrance press to door opening

The standard flow for the most frequent use: a visitor presses the main-entrance intercom button, supervision authenticates and opens. Whole chain in under 30 seconds.

  1. Press

    Visitor → entrance station

    Visitor presses the entrance intercom button. The station rings on the front-desk and floor-carer smartphone or DECT, with optional video stream from the integrated camera. Audio two-way activated.

  2. Authentication

    Identification + decision

    The receptionist or carer dialogues with the visitor, identifies them via video. Routes to the relevant resident's phone or floor carer if expected. Refusal possible with logged note for known undesirable visits.

  3. Action

    Remote opening + traceability

    Activation of the electric strike from the smartphone, DECT or supervision dashboard. Door opens for 5 to 10 seconds (configurable). Event logged: time, station, identified visitor (if known), reaction time.

Three scenes from equipped care homes

Family arrival outside opening hours

7:45 pm, after the front desk has closed. The daughter of Mrs L. arrives at the main entrance. She presses the intercom. The station rings on the night carer’s smartphone with video stream of the visitor. The carer recognises her, dialogues 30 seconds, opens the door remotely. Logged event: time, identified visitor, opening duration. Mrs L. is informed her daughter is coming up. Two-level reaction, central for care homes with after-hours visiting.

Visitor at the wrong door

10:15 am. A delivery driver presses the intercom of the wing reserved for the protected unit (Alzheimer). The station rings on the front-desk smartphone with video. The receptionist redirects them to the main entrance via two-way audio. Door not opened. Event logged for security audit. The intercom also serves to filter the building’s accesses.

Inter-floor call between carer and supervision

3:30 pm. The carer of floor 2 dialogues from a corridor intercom with the central supervision station to coordinate a transfer of equipment to room 24. Two-way audio, no need to move physically. Saved time, fluid coordination. Same infrastructure as the resident phone, no extra software.

IP intercom integrates into the ecosystem

Same 3CX central, same SIP dial plan, same supervision dashboard. One contract, one infrastructure, one billing line.

  • Nurse call

    Emergency intercom call interrupts a non-priority external call. Routing rules common to all communication channels.

  • Access control

    Door opening triggered by remote command from intercom — direct integration with maglock and electric strike. Logged together.

  • Resident phone

    Same 3CX central. Resident can be reached from a relative via main-entrance intercom transfer, or directly via their dedicated number.

  • Central supervision

    Single screen for ongoing intercom calls, with video stream from entrance, multi-station floor plan, opening logs.

To discover all modules: see the full ecosystem · compare to other market solutions.

Frequently asked questions

Is Healthcall intercom compatible with our existing IP infrastructure?
Yes in the vast majority of cases. Our intercoms are standard SIP stations (Snom, Grandstream) registering on a 3CX central or any SIP 2.0-compatible IPBX. A VLAN dedicated to medical equipment is recommended, with QoS on voice. If your network is old (unmanaged switches, no VLAN, no PoE), the technical audit identifies needed upgrades. Most care homes only need a few additional PoE ports and QoS configuration on existing switches. No parallel dedicated network is imposed.
How do you manage audio quality in noisy zones?
The chosen IP intercoms have directional microphones, DSP with acoustic echo cancellation and adaptive ambient noise suppression. Gain level is configured site by site at commissioning. In structurally noisy zones (dining hall, lift, technical room), we prefer wall positioning at speech height and, if necessary, a remote-microphone station. Acoustic acceptance tests are part of the install: no delivery before validation by your head nurse.
How does Healthcall protect communications against eavesdropping or interception?
Three security layers are applied. First, SIP signalling is TLS 1.2/1.3 encrypted. Then, the RTP audio flow is SRTP encrypted with SDES or ZRTP key exchange depending on equipment. Finally, the dedicated VLAN isolates voice traffic from office network and visitor Wi-Fi. Call logs are traced per station and per user. No conversation recording is performed by default — and if activated on contractual request, it remains stored locally on your server, in Belgium, with restricted access and configurable retention period.
What network bandwidth is needed for an IP intercom station?
A classic SIP audio call consumes between 80 and 100 kbit/s per station (G.711 codec) or 30 to 60 kbit/s with a compressed codec (G.729, Opus). On an 80-bed care home equipped with a dozen corridor intercoms and one entrance station, cumulative network load remains well below 1 Mbit/s even at peak. A standard 50 Mbit/s internet link is largely sufficient, especially as signalling stays local between IPBX and stations.
Can intercom stations be added after initial installation?
Yes, no constraint. Each additional IP intercom is a SIP station that just needs PoE power and registration in the phone central. Routing rules in Healthcall are adjusted remotely by our support. No specific cabling is required — the same RJ45 pair serving a DECT or Wi-Fi access point also serves an intercom. This extensibility is particularly useful for care homes progressively extending coverage (wing by wing) or opening a new building in a multi-site MR group.
What is the per-station cost of IP intercom?
Hardware order of magnitude is between 300 and 700 € excl. VAT per station depending on model (standard corridor Snom M9R, reinforced Grandstream GDS37xx for outdoor entrance with camera, dual-function room station). To this cost add installation, configuration, integration with the call system and the corresponding software licence. A detailed quote is provided after technical audit — we do not practise opaque packages. For MR groups, pricing benefits from contracted volume effects.
Does IP intercom work if a group site loses internet?
Yes for site-internal communications. Each care home has its local IPBX (physical or virtualised on the Healthcall server): calls between intercoms, between intercoms and carer terminals, and between intercoms and the central supervision station work in total autonomy without internet. Only inter-site communications within the group (e.g. one MR to another in the same group, or to head office) require the link. This local architecture guarantees service continuity, including for main-entrance opening via electric strike.

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