Music On Hold

[caflippo76_2]

Hi all,

I added a new MOH audio source. I tested and works. However, it seems to function oddly. The first call placed on hold starts playing the audio source from the beginning, and as long as thier is always a call on hold, all subsequent calls placed on hold will not start at beginning but at the point the original call placed on hold had or would have reached. When all calls are terminated and Knowone is on hold, the next caller placed on hold is put at the beginning again. Is this correct? How can I have the MOH source continuous play and not always start at beginning?

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Derek,

This is working as expected :( When using Unicast MOH the first caller connected to MOH starts at the begining of the file. All subsequent/multiple calls receive MOH from midstream. I'm sorry, I have spent many hours looking into setting this up the way you are looking for and can't come up with a solution other than switching to Multicast MOH.

I'm guessing that you want to play some Marketing type info along with MOH so perhaps you could record more of a continuous loop that gives the Corporate info every 30 seconds with music interspersed. Can't think of a better way but maybe someone else has a much better idea.

Hope this helps!

Rob

[caflippo76_2]

Thanks Rob. Great help.

I have not looked into multicast other than checking the box next to multicast in the audio source programming to try change this. However, when I did this I get silence on the MOH. I assume the multicast would do what i am looking to do, But, what is involved in getting that set up?

Thanks

Derek

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Derek,

You are most welcome my friend!

I am not an expert on this by any means, but here is the related info;

Multicast Configuration Checklist

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/4_1_3/ccmfeat/fsmoh.html#wp1027488

If you want a quick and easy method just connect two old phones in a wiring closet set up a call between the two and put the call on Hold. This is the Duct Tape and barbed wire method ;-)

Hope this helps!

Rob

[Tommer Catlin]

For Multicast to work, you can check the box, but then you have to configure the hops between routers, etc. (so you are not flooding the network with multicast requests, etc) Only hop what you need.

But once it's checked, you have to reboot the device pool with the phones, so they get the new download and config. The phones do not dynamically pick this up. Everytime you change the MOH, you have to reset/reboot it all. It's a pain.

You can set the Mulicast for SRST routers also. It's pretty easy, but the concept is odd. The phones "think" they are mulitcasting back to the server, but hit a loopback address on the SRST router which has the wav file loaded on the flash. The IOS config will have something like this:

call-manager-fallback

max-conferences 12 gain -6

ip source-address 10.100.24.69 port 2000

max-ephones 42

max-dn 84

moh file.wav

multicast moh 239.1.1.1 port 16384 route 10.100.24.69 10.1.1.1

The loopback adapter on the SRST router is 10.1.1.1

it takes awhile to get, but once you get it once, it should be good to go.

[Michael Owuor]

Here's some information (to complement Rob's and Tommer's good posts) explaining the behavior described with unicast MOH.

"MoH works as a one-way conference bridge created for each MOH source. When someone gets put on hold, they get added to that conference. If there is no one listening to the stream, the conference is destroyed. So when the first person gets put on hold, they will hear from the beginning, all others will hear it from the point of entrance.

The MOH server will maintain the audio source for approx.10 seconds after the last user device disconnects. If a user reconnects to the audio source before this time they will hear the source beginning at the time that the device connects (i.e. in the middle of the audio source). If a device connects after the 10 second time then the user will hear the audio source from the beginning."

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Michael.