Configuring Music on Hold

This chapter describes the music on hold features in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express (Cisco Unified CME).

Your Cisco Unified CME version may not support all of the features documented in this module. For a list of the versions in which each feature is supported, see the "Feature Information for Music on Hold" section.

Prerequisites for Music on Hold

Restrictions for Music on Hold

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Cisco Unified CME 3.3 and earlier versions do not support MOH for local Cisco Unified CME phones that are on hold with other Cisco Unified CME phones; these parties hear a periodic repeating tone instead.

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Cisco Unified CME 4.0 and later versions support MOH for internal calls only if the multicast moh command is used to enable the flow of packets to the subnet on which the phones are located.

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Internal extensions that are connected through an analog voice gateway (Cisco VG 224) or through a WAN (remote extensions) do not hear MOH on internal calls.

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Multicast MOH is not supported on a phone if the phone is configured with the mtp command or the paging-dn command with the unicast keyword.

Information About Music on Hold

Music on Hold

Music on hold (MOH) is an audio stream that is played to PSTN and VoIP G.711 or G.729 callers who are placed on hold by phones in a Cisco Unified CME system. This audio stream is intended to reassure callers that they are still connected to their calls.

When the phone receiving MOH is part of a system that uses a G.729 codec, transcoding is required between G.711 and G.729. The G.711 MOH must be translated to G.729. Note that because of compression, MOH using G.729 is of significantly lower fidelity than MOH using G.711. For information about transcoding, see "Configuring Transcoding Resources" on page 323.

If the MOH audio stream is also identified as a multicast source, the Cisco Unified CME router additionally transmits the stream on the physical IP interfaces of the Cisco Unified CME router that you specify during configuration, which permits external devices to have access to it.

Certain IP phones do not support IP multicast and, therefore, do not support multicast MOH. You can disable multicast MOH to individual phones that do not support multicast. Callers hear a repeating tone when they are placed on hold.

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Audio file—A MOH audio stream from an audio file is supplied from an .au or .wav file held in router flash memory.

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Live feed—A MOH audio stream from a live feed is supplied from a standard line-level audio connection that is directly connected to the router through an FXO or "ear and mouth" (E&M) analog voice port.

If both are configured concurrently on the Cisco Unified CME router, the router seeks the live feed first. If the live feed is found, it displaces the audio file source. If the live feed is not found or fails at any time, the router falls back to the audio file source that was specified for MOH during configuration.

Music on Hold for SIP Phones

In Cisco Unified CME 4.1 and later versions, the MOH feature is supported when a call is put on hold from a SIP phone and when the user of a SIP phone is put on hold by a SIP, SCCP, or POTS endpoint. The holder (party that pressed the hold key) or holdee (party who is put on hold) can be on the same Cisco Unified CME or a different Cisco Unified CME connected through a SIP trunk. MOH is also supported for call transfers and conferencing, with or without a transcoding device.

Music on Hold from a Live Feed

The live-feed feature is typically used to connect to a CD jukebox player. To configure MOH from a live feed, you establish a voice port and dial peer for the call and also create a "dummy" ephone-dn. The ephone-dn must have a phone or extension number assigned to it so that it can make and receive calls, but the number is never assigned to a physical phone. Only one live MOH feed is supported per system.

Using an analog E&M port as the live-feed MOH interface requires the minimum number of external components. You connect a line-level audio feed (standard audio jack) directly to pins 3 and 6 of an E&M RJ-45 connector. The E&M voice interface card (VIC) has a built-in audio transformer that provides appropriate electrical isolation for the external audio source. (An audio connection on an E&M port does not require loop-current). The signal immediate and auto-cut-through commands disable E&M signaling on this voice port. A G.711 audio packet stream is generated by a digital signal processor (DSP) on the E&M port.

If you use an FXO port as the live-feed MOH interface, connect the MOH source to the FXO port using a MOD-SC cable if the MOH source has a different connector than the FXO RJ-11 connector. MOH from a live feed is supported on the VIC2-2FXO, VIC2-4FXO, EM-HDA-3FXS/4FXO, EM-HDA-6FXO, and EM2-HDA-4FXO.

You can directly connect a live-feed source to an FXO port if the signal loop-start live-feed command is configured on the voice port; otherwise, the port must connect through an external third-party adapter to provide a battery feed. An external adapter must supply normal telephone company (telco) battery voltage with the correct polarity to the tip and ring leads of the FXO port and it must provide transformer-based isolation between the external audio source and the tip and ring leads of the FXO port.

Music from a live feed is continuously fed into the MOH playout buffer instead of being read from a flash file, so there is typically a 2-second delay. An outbound call to a MOH live-feed source is attempted (or reattempted) every 30 seconds until the connection is made by the directory number that has been configured for MOH. If the live-feed source is shut down for any reason, the flash memory source will be automatically activated.

A live-feed MOH connection is established as an automatically connected voice call that is made by the Cisco Unified CME MOH system or by an external source directly calling in to the live-feed MOH port. An MOH call can be from or to the PSTN or can proceed via VoIP with voice activity detection (VAD) disabled. The call is assumed to be an incoming call unless the optional out-call keyword is used with the moh command during configuration.

The Cisco Unified CME router uses the audio stream from the call as the source for the MOH stream, displacing any audio stream that is available from a flash file. An example of an MOH stream received over an incoming call is an external H.323-based server device that calls the ephone-dn to deliver an audio stream to the Cisco Unified CME router.

How to Configure Music on Hold

Configuring Music on Hold from an Audio File

To configure MOH when you are using a file to supply the audio stream, perform the following steps.

Prerequisites

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A music file must be in stored in the router's flash memory. This file should be in G.711 format. The file can be in .au or .wav file format, but the file format must contain 8-bit 8-kHz data; for example, ITU-T A-law or mu-law data format.

Restrictions

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If MOH from an audio file and MOH from a live feed are both configured on the Cisco Unified CME router, the router seeks the live feed first. If a live feed is found, it displaces an audio file source. If the live feed is not found or fails at any time, the router falls back to the audio file source.

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To change the audio file to a different file, you must remove the first file using the no moh command before specifying a second file. If you configure a second file without removing the first file, the MOH mechanism stops working and may require a router reboot to clear the problem.

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The volume level of a MOH file cannot be adjusted through Cisco IOS software, so it cannot be changed when the file is loaded into the flash memory of the router. To adjust the volume level of a MOH file, edit the file in an audio editor before downloading the file to router flash memory.

SUMMARY STEPS

multicast moh ip-address port port-number [route ip-address-list]

DETAILED STEPS


	Command or Action	Purpose
Step 1	enable Example: Router> enable	Enables privileged EXEC mode. •Enter your password if prompted.
Step 2	configure terminal Example: Router# configure terminal	Enters global configuration mode.
Step 3	telephony-service Example: Router(config)# telephony-service	Enters telephony-service configuration mode.
Step 4	moh filename Example: Router(config-telephony)# moh minuet.au	Enables music on hold using the specified file. •filename—Source of the audio stream for MOH. Note If you specify a file with this command and later want to use a different file, you must disable use of the first file with the no moh command before configuring the second file.
Step 5	multicast moh ip-address port port-number [route ip-address-list] Example: Router(config-telephony)# multicast moh 239.10.16.4 port 2123 route 10.10.29.17 10.10.29.33	Specifies that the MOH audio stream should also be multicast as specified. Note This command is required to use MOH for internal calls and it must be configured after MOH is enabled with the moh command. •ip-address—Specifies that this audio stream is to be used for multicast and also for MOH, and specifies the destination IP address for multicast. •port port-number—Media port for multicast. Range is 2000 to 65535. We recommend port 2000 because it is already used for normal RTP media transmissions between IP phones and the router. •route—(Optional) Specifies a list of explicit router interfaces for the IP multicast packets. •ip-address-list—(Optional) List of up to four explicit routes for multicast MOH. The default is that the MOH multicast stream is automatically output on the interfaces that correspond to the address that was configured with the ip source-address command. Note For MOH on internal calls, packet flow must be enabled to the subnet on which the phones are located.
Step 6	exit Example: Router(config-telephony)# exit	Exits telephony-service configuration mode.
Step 7	ephone phone-tag Example: Router(config)# ephone 28	Enters ephone configuration mode.
Step 8	multicast-moh Example: Router(config-ephone)# no multicast-moh	(Optional) Enables multicast MOH on a phone. This is the default. The no form of this command disables MOH for phones that do not support multicast. Callers hear a repeating tone when they are placed on hold. Note This command can also be used in an ephone template that is applied to one or more phones.
Step 9	end Example: Router(config-ephone)# end	Returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Configuring Music on Hold from a Live Feed

Prerequisites

Restrictions

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The signal loop-start live-feed command for FXO ports is supported in Cisco IOS Release 12.4(11)XJ, 12.4(15)T, and later releases.

SUMMARY STEPS

17.

moh [out-call outcall-number] [ip ip-address port port-number [route ip-address-list]]

DETAILED STEPS


	Command or Action	Purpose
Step 1	enable Example: Router> enable	Enables privileged EXEC mode. •Enter your password if prompted.
Step 2	configure terminal Example: Router# configure terminal	Enters global configuration mode.
Step 3	voice-port port Example: Router(config)# voice-port 1/1/0	Enters voice-port configuration mode. Note Port argument is platform-dependent; type ? to display syntax. For more information, see the Cisco IOS Voice Command Reference.
Step 4	input gain decibels Example: Router(config-voice-port)# input gain 0	Specifies, in decibels, the amount of gain to be inserted at the receiver side of the interface. Acceptable values are integers from -6 to 14.
Step 5	auto-cut-through Example: Router(config-voice-port)# auto-cut-through	(E&M ports only) Enables call completion when a PBX does not provide an M-lead response. MOH requires that you use this command with E&M ports.
Step 6	operation 4-wire Example: `Router(config-voice-port)# operation 4-wire`	(E&M ports only) Selects the 4-wire cabling scheme. MOH requires that you specify 4-wire operation with this command for E&M ports.
Step 7	signal immediate Example: Router(config-voice-port)# signal immediate	(E&M ports only) For E&M tie trunk interfaces, directs the calling side to seize a line by going off-hook on its E-lead and to send address information as dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) digits.
Step 8	signal loop-start live-feed Example: Router(config-voice-port)# signal loop-start live-feed	(FXO ports only) Enables an MOH audio stream from a live feed to be directly connected to the router through an FXO port.
Step 9	no shutdown Example: Router(config-voice-port)# no shutdown	Activates the voice port. •To shut the voice port down and disable MOH from a live feed, use the shutdown command.
Step 10	exit Example: Router(config-voice-port)# exit	Exits voice-port configuration mode.
Step 11	dial peer voice tag pots Example: Router(config)# dial peer voice 7777 pots	Enters dial-peer configuration mode.
Step 12	destination-pattern string Example: Router(config-dial-peer)# destination-pattern 7777	Specifies either the prefix or the full E.164 telephone number to be used for a dial peer.
Step 13	port port Example: Router(config-dial-peer)# port 1/1/0	Associates the dial peer with the voice port that was specified in Step 3.
Step 14	exit Example: Router(config-dial-peer)# exit	Exits dial-peer configuration mode.
Step 15	ephone-dn dn-tag Example: Router(config)# ephone-dn 55	Enters ephone-dn configuration mode. •dn-tag—Unique sequence number that identifies this ephone-dn during configuration tasks. Range is 1 to 288.
Step 16	number number Example: Router(config-ephone-dn)# number 5555	Configures a valid extension number for this ephone-dn. •This number is not assigned to any phone; it is only used to make and receive calls that contain an audio stream to be used for MOH. •number—String of up to 16 digits that represents a telephone or extension number to be associated with this ephone-dn.
Step 17	moh [out-call outcall-number] [ip ip-address port port-number [route ip-address-list]] Example: Router(config-ephone-dn)# moh out-call 7777 ip 239.10.16.8 port 2311 route 10.10.29.3 10.10.29.45	Specifies that this ephone-dn is to be used for an incoming or outgoing call that is the source for an MOH stream. If this command is used without the out-call keyword, the MOH stream is received from an incoming call. •out-call outcall-number—(Optional) Indicates that the router is calling out for a live feed for MOH and specifies the number to be called. Forces a connection to the local voice port that was specified in Step 3. •ip ip-address—(Optional) Indicates that this audio stream is to be used as a multicast source and also for MOH, and specifies the destination IP address for multicast. Note If you specify a multicast address with this command and a different multicast address with the multicast moh command under telephony-service configuration mode, you can send the MOH audio stream to two multicast addresses. •port port-number—(Optional) Media port for multicast. Range is 2000 to 65535. We recommend port 2000 because it is already used for RTP media transmissions between IP phones and the router. •route ip-address-list—(Optional) Indicates specific router interfaces on which to transmit the IP multicast packets. Up to four IP addresses can be listed. The default is that the MOH multicast stream is automatically output on the interfaces that correspond to the address that was configured with the ip source-address command.
Step 18	exit Example: Router(config-ephone-dn)# exit	Exits ephone-dn configuration mode.
Step 19	ephone phone-tag Example: Router(config)# ephone 28	Enters ephone configuration mode.
Step 20	multicast-moh Example: Router(config-ephone)# no multicast-moh	(Optional) Enables multicast MOH on a phone. •This command is enabled by default. The no form of this command disables MOH for phones that do not support multicast. Callers hear a repeating tone when they are placed on hold. Note This command can also be made part of an ephone template that is applied to one or more phones.
Step 21	end Example: Router(config-ephone)# end	Returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Verifying Music on Hold

Step 1

Use the show running-config command to display the running configuration. MOH commands are listed in the telephony-service part of the output.

Step 2

Use the show telephony-service command to display only the telephony-service configuration information.

Configuration Examples for Music on Hold

MOH from an Audio File: Example

The following example enables music on hold and specifies the music file to use:

The following example enables MOH and additionally specifies a multicast address for the audio stream:

MOH from a Live Feed: Example

The following example enables MOH from an outgoing call on voice port 1/1/0 and dial peer 7777:

Additional References

The following sections provide references related to Cisco Unified CME features.

Related Topic	Document Title
Cisco Unified CME configuration	• Cisco Unified CME Command Reference • Cisco Unified CME Documentation Roadmap
Cisco IOS commands	• Cisco IOS Voice Command Reference • Cisco IOS Software Releases 12.4T Command References
Cisco IOS configuration	• Cisco IOS Voice Configuration Library • Cisco IOS Software Releases 12.4T Configuration Guides
Phone documentation for Cisco Unified CME	• Quick Reference Cards • User Guides

Feature Name	Cisco Unified CME Version	Feature Information
Music on Hold	4.1	Music on hold for SIP phones was supported.
	4.0	•Music on hold was introduced for internal calls. •The ability to disable multicast MOH per phone was introduced.
	3.0	The ability to use a live audio feed as a multicast source was introduced.
	2.1	Music on hold from a live audio feed was introduced for external calls.
	2.0	Music on hold from an audio file was introduced for external calls.

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