Music On Hold News

The Most Expensive Message On Hold Player

iProMOH Internet Connected Music and Message On Hold Player from Easy On Hold

At $575, the sophisticated iProMOH from Interalia, offered at Easy On Hold, is not out to compete with tape, CD, mp3 or flash drive music and message on hold players. It’s in a class all its own.

Curvaceous, yet demure, this on-hold “box” is anything but. It’ll greet callers, “Good morning,” or, “Good afternoon”. It’ll change music styles to more closely fit its audience. It’ll load everything it needs from a standard port-80 Internet connection in about 20 seconds. It’ll never play an out-of-date message.

You don’t need to be an I.T. geek to get the picture: the iProMOH has the right stuff for taking your ho-hum-hold to a new level.

Let’s say you’ve got a restaurant. Before 11am, callers hear about the lunch special. After 1 callers hear about dinner.

At a car dealership, showroom and service hours change from day to day in some cases. At one Easy On Hold customer, Maple Hill Auto Group, callers on Wednesday morning hear, “Thanks for calling us this morning. Our extended hours tonight mean you can shop our showroom until eight pm.”

Music runs on a special schedule, too. Lighter tunes early; more energetic after lunch, for example.

Each announcement is programmed with a specific schedule, including an expiration date. That means no more plugging Christmas specials in January or summer specials in October. When a new message on hold announcement is needed, the Easy On Hold client logs in online and types some verbiage (or requests script writing from the Easy On Hold staff) and the voices are recorded and uploaded to the iProMOH in a hurry.

The iProMOH actually mixes the music and voice tracks “live”, meaning the music rotation and voice rotations are never likely to repeat. The result is a fresh sound for frequent callers.

So, what is it worth to:

• Target your callers
• Sound intelligent
• Play time-sensitive announcements without worry of start and stop dates
• Pre-arrange announcements to come on and off as needed all month, or all year long
• Use a totally hands-free unit that you never have to touch
• Use a unit that reports its current condition and settings nightly to let everyone know that everything’s alright?

$575 may be the best bargain in on-hold messaging.

For purchase plans, including how to use an iProMOH for free or have a demo unit shipped to your I.T. department, check the iProMOH page at Easy On Hold.com.

Message On Hold Adapters For 2-4 Line Phones

The Skutch Adapter is an interface between your phones and your music on hold player.

There’s a way to do it! If you purchased your phones at an office supply store, you’ll have a hard time finding where to plug in the music on hold. These ordinary 2 and 4 line phones are made without the brains to tell music to start and stop when a caller is holding. We can, however, trick the phone into acting like a big office system.

Easy On Hold offers a line of music on hold adapters made by Skutch Electronics. These devices “listen” for the small voltage shift that takes place when the hold button is pressed. This triggers the music on and off at the appropriate times.

Tips For Adding Music On Hold to Your Small Office Phones

• All phones must be the same make and model. Because each phone on the market is different, there is a unique on-hold adapter for each.
• One Skutch device is all you need to activate hold music all of the phones in your office.
• The adapters do not generate music on hold–they activate it.You still need a professional music on hold player.
• While the cost of these on hold adapters can run up to $300, they work with your  less-expensive phones, and your office will sound as though you’ve got a big, expensive telecom system.

Easy: Music On Hold Player With Internet Connection

Easy On Hold offers iProMOH by Interalia

Using an Internet-connected music on hold player is not as complicated as it might sound. Here’s a quick guide.

There are several music on hold players in the marketplace today that will connect to a “host server” using a standard Internet connection. The differences between these devices are mainly in the capabilities of the software that controls them. From an installation point of view, an Internet-connected device is very similar to any other hold music player. For our discussion we will be using the Interalia iProMOH device.

Installs with 2 simple connections.

1. As with all music on hold players, the audio output (600-Ohms standard, 8-Ohms available) is connected to the MOH input (hold music bus) on the phone system (PBX or KEY systems may have an MOH input or one may be created at the punchdown block). If you are replacing your current music on hold player, simply plug in the new player just as the old one had been.
2. The iProMOH connects to the router with a standard Ethernet cable. Many Internet-connected players use Port 80 for an Internet connection, meaning it will use the same traffic port on the firewall as standard Internet traffic. This makes setup much easier, as you may not need to make any firewall settings to get the unit to connect to its home server.

DHCP or Static I.P.
Inform Easy On Hold of your choice of DHCP or static I.P. for each iProMOH. In the case of DHCP,  if Port 80 access is available without assigning a unique I.P. to the iProMOH, installation takes just minutes. Once Internet access and power is provided, the iProMOH instantly connects to the Easy On Hold studios.

If your network administrator requires networked devices to use static I.P., Easy On Hold will ship each iProMOH with the proper settings programmed. Required information is:

• Unit I.P.
• Default Gateway
• Network Mask
• DNS Server 1
• DNS Server 2

The iProMOH uses a safe, secure connectivity procedure.
Easy On Hold programs your iProMOH to call out to the host server, then brings in audio to internal memory. Your network is never vulnerable. The iProMOH also supports proxy server.

Why use an Internet-connected music on hold player?
The complex scheduling capabilities of an Internet-connected player, such as the iProMOH by Interalia, means that your office will never play an out-of-date announcement. This allows more targeted messaging and better results.

The iProMOH is also an easier way to make frequent changes to the message without involving office personnel. Changes are programmed into the unit, which then carries out the desired announcement schedule over days, weeks, months, etc.

Finally, multiple locations can be managed by the Easy On Hold studio using the Internet. A reporting feature lets you know if the units are having any problems; you can control volume and message mix remotely.

Home Brew Options For Tinkerers

I have heard from dozens of businesspeople who have pasted together a home brew music on hold system. Some are using iPod or CD players in repeat mode. Once in a while I hear of a re-purposed PC being used as a music player.

NCH Software makes a program that lets you use a PC with a standard sound card. While they say you can continue to use the PC for other purposes, remember the idea behind music on hold is that it plays continuously. 24-7-365. My question is, “Can you be sure your hold messages are still on?”.

The NCH program, called IMS, is nifty for the handyman or woman who likes tech tinkering and might be a fun project. You can still utilize a professional music on hold producer or studio for the best sound.

The system allows real time mixing of messages and music to create an endless presentation. The manufacturer says, “the software is usually used with professionally recorded messages” but the software also allows you to record your own messages directly and simply by plugging in a microphone.

The automatic Internet connection ensures that if you are using a studio to produce your messages regularly, your messages can be uploaded automatically by your production studio.