I hate system cordless phones (for end-users), so I didn't think about that.

What would be really cool, is for the touchpanel to actually emulate a station on the phone system, ie. *become* an extension. Then, all the intercom functions could be handled by the phone system, as they should be, but there would be an easy-to-use interface (touchpanel) so anyone could operate it.

It could be done with several CEN-TIA's, if money were no object - sounds like a job for you, EJ :-)

Or, I'd love to see an Asterisk or other VOIP interface, which would allow the touchpanel (or processor) to emulate an IP phone. Theoretically, it should be possible...