Music NOT on hold?

Hi guys,
I was wondering if there is an option to listen to the MoH playlist without being on hold
e.g. my kitchen staff likes to work with the music, but the phone needs to be free…

Thanks

Before anyone jumps up and says you’re crazy, I used to have a Panasonic PBX that could do that, but I can’t really think of a way to do it with Asterisk. @jfinstrom might have some insight on that.

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+cmd+MusicOnHold

add a context in extensions_custom.conf and a custom destination to suit. Fun stuff, add a menu to choose the “class”

or, less gui friendly, add to extensions_custom.conf something like:-

[ext-local-custom]
exten => 6000,1,Answer
exten => 6000,2,MusicOnHold(hiphop)
exten => 6000,3,HangUp()
exten => 6001,1,Answer
exten => 6001,2,MusicOnHold(boringkitchenmusic)
exten => 6001,3,HangUp()
.
.
.
.

Make sure the phone has call waiting enabled of course.

Thanks dicko, I’ll try it
Followup question(s),
from my understanding, I’m creating a new extension (6000 and 6001), and by dialing that extension the music will play?
Will it interfere with intercom, autoanswer and/or announcements ?

Thanks

Probably it will mess with autoanswer as the extension is technically “off-hook”, paging/intercom stuff can be “forced”.

If the phones support it perhaps look into multicasting to them which should allow the extension to remain “on-hook” another suggestion would be to buy them a radio :slight_smile:

I love the idea of buying them a radio… but, they destroyed 2 or 3 radios already :rage:

I setup an Miscellaneous Application going to “Hang up call” by playing MOH forever.

Dicko made a good suggestion in another thread - build a small Asterisk “server” and set it up as a “phone”. Use the console speaker as the “handset” and set it up so that it calls into your “on hold” context and connects the output to the audio output on the back of the computer. After that, set the intercom up on the line so that, if you need to break in on them, you can. It will end up being a big overhead intercom.

To clarify :slightly_smiling:

Setup a “Misc Application” with the destination set to “Terminate Call” and choose “Put caller on hold forever” in the sub menu.

When you dial the feature code that you chose it will play your music on hold automatically, continually.

I stream a radio station that plays music 24/7 as my default MOH. In FreePBX13 you can set a streaming category as default, from inside the GUI.

I think this is getting a little complicated…
I’ll just tell them to get an mp3 player and speakers, and I’ll copy the music to it…
Thanks for the help guys

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Yup - we knew it would be.

What you are asking for is specific to a couple of PBX and phone combinations. Asking for a SIP phone to do it is always going to be a tech challenge.

Almost every common solution involves placing a call to the PBX and putting it on hold. Using this model, the only way you could get it to work would be to have a two-line phone and placing a long-duration call to the server. In the config of the phone, set it up so that, if line 1 rings, you put line 2 on hold and answer line 1.

Your mp3 player solution should work fine though.

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I know this is old, but a way to do this via the GUI might be to make a conference bridge, you can hear hold music until the leader arrives (never).

You may also want to set up a stream server, and do a multicast stream to the phones… maybe.

Not sure how you’d toggle it on and off.