Overview

Music On Hold (Music On Hold) settings allow you to control the music your callers hear when they are placed on hold.

To enable MoH, you must first increase your MoH channels to 1 or more under "Inbound Call Settings > Music on Hold".  Please check to see if this feature is already included in any plan you currently subscribe. You will only be charged if you are over your plan's allotment.

 

The MoH feature can be customized in the following interface locations:

• Under the “Inbound Call Settings > Music on Hold”, you can set the number of simultaneous channels for your phone system, set a default MoH stream for your PBX, and enable Enhanced Music on Hold.
• From the "Users>Call Settings"page, you can set the MoH stream for each individual user.
• Under Inbound Call Settings>ACD Queues>Caller Settings you can choose what music the caller hears while on hold or add a music source.
• Under Inbound Call Settings>Conference Suite>Music on hold you can choose what music the caller hears while on hold.

While OnSIP offers MoH to every customer, certain phones do not support this service. Click here to see Phone Limitations.

 

Configuring MoH

Setting Channels and Enabling Enhanced MoH

Set Number of Channels

The number of simultaneous channels is the maximum number of calls on hold that will hear music at any one time. After the simultaneous MoH limit is exceeded, you may continue to place calls on hold, but the calls will not hear the music.

To increase the number of simultaneous channels for your PBX, select "Edit settings" under Music on hold.  Use the "Number of channels" dropdown to select the desired number of channels (see screenshot below). Please note this will incur additional costs per current pricing for any number of channels over what your plan includes.

"Channels" refers to the number of callers that can be put on hold with music at a given time. It does not have to do with choices or type of music. For instance, if you have 5 channels configured, up to 5 callers can be placed on hold at a given time and hear the music. Once a 6th caller is put on hold, that 6th caller will not have music as they wait. As long as 5 or fewer callers are put on hold at a given time, MoH will play.

 

Set the Default Music Stream

Unless you choose a specific stream for a user (under the "Users>Call Settings" tab), the user's MoH stream will be set to the default stream. You can choose which stream (Jazz, Classical, or Elevator) is the default for your PBX in this setting. You may also choose an external file or Shoutcast/Icecast music source as your default, but Enhanced MoH must be enabled for your users to stream that as their hold music.

 

Set Enhanced MoH

With standard MoH, you can choose from three music sources: Jazz, Classical, and Elevator.  Enhanced Music on Hold (EMoH) allows you to specify an externally-hosted file (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) or any of over 100,000 Shoutcast/Icecast streams as your EMoH music sources within the " Inbound Call Settings > Music on Hold ". To enable Enhanced MoH, select the option as seen below.

Note: this will incur additional costs per current pricing.

 

Users Tab: Select MoH Stream for Individual Users

From the "Users" option, you can set the MoH stream for each individual user. Go to the “Call Settings” tab and select “Edit Info” .  If you have not enabled Enhanced MoH, you will be able to select from the three standard choices. If you wish to add a specific stream that is not within the standard choices (as seen below), you must enable Enhanced MoH in the Inbound Call Settings>Music On Hold.

 

OnNet Conference Suites and ACD Queues

 

OnNet Conference Suite

The OnNet Conference Suite MoH is the music that plays when only one user has entered the conference call and is waiting for the others to join. You can edit the MoH for a particular OnNet Conference Suite by clicking on a specific OnNet Conference suite to expand boxes and edit the Music On Hold box (screenshot below).

ACD Queues

When setting "Caller Settings" under ACD Queue, select "While on Hold Caller Hears" and select music stream.

Add Music Sources (Enhanced MoH)

If you have enabled Enhanced Music on Hold (EMoH), you can specify any customer-hosted file (a URL) or Shoutcast/Icecast stream as your EMoH music source. To add a music stream to your MoH options, choose the "Administrators" tab then select “Inbound Call Settings” and choose "Music on Hold" and create a new "Music Source". From there, either add your own custom URL or use our station browser to browse the station directory and choose your own music source. While browsing, you have the option to preview a music station. Once the music source is named and saved, you can choose that music source for individual users under “Users” then “Call Settings” and the "Music on Hold" section.

How Can I Create My Own Customized MoH Stream?

For a custom music on hold stream, there are three options.

• Choose from our list of thousands of online music stations in the station Browser when creating a new music source.
• Create a high-quality mp3 file (it *must* be mp3.  WAV files will not work for MoH), and host it on a file sharing service like Dropbox, Rackspace or Google Drive.  For Dropbox, make sure the file is shared and you have ?dl=1 at the end of the URL.
• Host on an Icecast or Shoutcast server. (Created externally by the customer)

Please review this link for additional helpful information regarding uploading your own stream of music

 

Important: Phone Limitations

Not all phones support MoH. Please check our Knowledgebase to see if there is a MoH URL field, or contact the phone manufacturer for a MoH URL setting. We can confidently say MoH is available for Polycom phones configured on our boot server and Panasonic desk phones (not DECT - see top of article ) configured on our boot server. Cisco and Linksys support our MoH standard; however, there seems to be an issue with their support for an outbound proxy with MoH. In particular, we have support threads open with Cisco on the matter.

 

Polycom Phones

If you use Polycom phones, you must use the OnSIP Polycom boot server to utilize MoH.

• Polycom: All Polycom phones on our boot server support MoH.  This support also includes the Polycom VVX D60 wireless handset.

 

Panasonic Phones

If you use Panasonic phones, the desktop phones are the only phones that will support MoH, but you must use the OnSIP Panasonic boot server to utilize MoH.

• Panasonic: KX-UT113, KX-UT123, KX-UT133, KX-UT136, KX-UT248-B, KX-UTG200B, KX-UTG300B, and KX- HDV130 support MoH
• Panasonic Kx-TGP5xx/600 do not support MoH

 

Grandstream Phones

If you use Grandstream phones, MoH support is limited to the desktop phones (specifically GXP21xx and GXP16xx models).  This option is enabled by default on our boot server for desktop phones.
UPDATE: as of October 2017, Grandstream GXP1760, the GXP1780 and the GXP 1782 no longer support MOH.

The Grandstream GXV3240 and GXV3275 only have the ability to upload an MP3 file via the phone's web interface. Details on how to do this would be in either the User Manual or reaching out to Grandstream.

The Grandstream GXV31xx-series and DP750/720 and DP710/720 DECT phones do not have the ability to either upload nor use URL file for MOH. MOH is not an available feature with these models.

 

Cisco/Linksys Phones

If you are using Cisco/Linksys phones there is currently a problem with the firmware for the 5xx (firmware version 7.5.2b and 7.6.2) and 9xx (firmware version 6.1.5(a)) SPA phones. The phone does not send the music on hold requests through the outbound proxy. This has been recognized as a bug by Cisco forum administrators; no known patch exists. For more information please follow these Cisco forum threads:

• SPA 942
• Linksys/Cisco SPA: 5XX Phones = Very limited functionality and depend on firmware.  **504 & 508G do NOT work.  Some customers have had success with 525G2 phones.

Update: May 2016 - We continue to work with Cisco to find a solution

 

Yealink Phones

Yealink desk phones, that can handle firmware version .80 or .81, now work with our implementation of music on hold as of August 2017. This does not include DECT or conference phones.

 

Softphones

With the exception of the OnSIP Desktop and Web app, at this time, we are unaware of softphones that support MoH. You will still be able to place callers 'on hold,' but there will be no music.