BT Versatility system - Adding music on hold

[chrisjc]

Hello,

We've got a BT versatility system installed at the small company I work at here. Being the IT guy, I get purposed with other things that are slightly technical - like the phone system and changing the hold music.

I've had a look in the menu from the programming extension, and the hold music seems to be internal at the moment. I've had a look at the box and wiring and I can't see anywhere obvious to attach a cable to supply the hold music but its in a cupboard and its quite difficult to see what's going on properly. I have attached some pictures so that hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me can identify what we've got on our phone system. 

I'm guessing we need the cable that attaches to a spare extension via a jack cable (don't know how many spare extensions we've got?) and some sort of (preferably solid state + cheap) player to supply the music. Not to mention the 'royalty free' music to play to people. I could probably compose something myself using various self-generated sounds, but I'm not sure what the customers would think 😉

If anyone could cast their expert eye over the pictures and tell me what's going on I'd be very appreciative 🙂 I'm quite curious to know what the bit sticking out to the right with the big port with lots of holes on it.

Sorry about the blurring in the pictures, its difficult to take good pictures in such a small space.

Thanks,

Chris Clancey

[cardare]

Hiya,

I'm no expert, but I'm a Cisco Unified Comms guy that just so happens to be backtracking on my telephony system knowledge and happens to be building out a home Versatility system. My general field of expertise is actually IT networks, server technologies and CUCM. 🙂

BT versatility has a "Music-On-Hold" module you can pick up at around £20-£30 on eBay. It's a little black box with two leads coming from it, one with a 1.5mm jack on one end and the other with two speech-only wires. The speech wires connect to any of the krone connectors marked "EXT X" (X being 1 to 8). The krone connector with the name EXT 1 is (providing this wasn't changed) by default extension 20, EXT 2 is 21, EXT 3 is 22 and so on.

Once you get a hold of the MOH module (Triton Telecom in Birmingham has some of them I believe), connect the two exposed wires to the A/B pair of any unused extension (A = White/Orange, B = Orange), and change the MOH Settings to "External", then specify the MOH extension (the telephone extension, not the number of the krone connector) behind it to complete setup. You can easily test this by turning on "Background Music" on extension 20. Connecting the 1.5mm jack to a PC with music running on it (or, as commonly used, a CD player repeating the contents of a CD, music on which you own the broadcast rights to, as MOH is essentially broadcast I believe) will result in the phone playing the sound from the PC. If this works, MOH will be all set up.

I notice you have the ports module, but can't see any free extensions from your photos. I believe it's ok to connect the MOH module to this if you don't have any free EXTs in the CCU (don't see why not as phones have to behave in the same way as those connected to the CCU directly).

I should note that (just in case someone else does) if you have an active support contract with BT for this you may want to speak to them about doing this as they may have a slight freakout if they see things added if something goes wrong and they have to fix it, but this is what I did and I have it working fine.

Do you need any photos from me of the working setup I have?

BTW, to answer your question about the thing sticking out the side, it's the backplane. You have the ports module there connected to it, but behind the blank panels are plugs for other modules, such as the broadband module for example, that allows SIP phones to work with your Versatility, along with offering general ADSL/internet router facilities. The ports module allows you to add more V8, V16 or standard POTS telephones to your Versatility, along with the ability to add new network modules (The two red modules in your main unit are ISDN modules, the blue one is voicemail) also. You can connect up to a maximum of 5 modules of any type, one slot you are already using. Again, Triton Telecom on eBay can help you if you are interested in additional ports modules or the Broadband module, and you don't have an active support contract. 🙂

BTW 2 (regarding music to use), for tracks to use it will be difficult to obtain some free or cheap. It might be worth giving Audio Network (http://www.audionetwork.com/) a call to discover what type of licence you need for this. If you are an educational institution they may be able to provide a discount, but I could be wrong. At the school I was managing the CUCM system for, we just had students compose something and after they gave the OK we applied that!

Regards,

- Cardare

[kewtech]

hi

thi infomation you have put on is very helpful but im still a bit confused in where i can plug my moh mule in to as i think i have no more free spaces. please could you put a pic on of your moh module wired up so can fill me with a bit more confidence many thanks 

[Samualpbx]

thanks yeah thats some great help thanks- telephone engineer leicester these people told me to come here as it is great help and advice