When your custom music and message on hold is produced by Easy On Hold, the highest recording studio standards are upheld. Files are 100% digital and of the highest quality sound. Our voice studio uses industry-standard equipment and practices. When you receive your digital audio, it sounds clear. Perfect. So why doesn’t it sound as good when you hear it on your phone system?

Listening On A Telephone Device Limits Sound Frequencies
Telephones are unable to transmit high-quality audio. Frequency response is a term that refers to a range of sound, typically measured in Hertz, a measurement of cycles per second. The smaller the number, the lower the frequency. The human ear is said to be able to hear between 20 and 20,000 Hertz. (more information). Now take a look at various communications systems and notice that the smallest frequency range (or poorest sound) is represented by the telephone.

(Chart courtesy of  diracdelta.co.uk.)

Your Phone System Has Its Own Limits On Sound
Understanding why your particular phone system does not produce better sound would require a discussion of bit rate, throughput, bandwidth, compression, encoding and the like. The summation of these variables is the reason your phone system sounds the way it does. Phone systems use various methods to squeeze sound into small spaces. The result can be disappointing and unpredictable. Yet, we’re all used to it. We all know that the tiny little speaker on the telephone handset is going to sound “tinny” to some extent.

External Player Settings
If your phone system uses an external player as the music on hold source, that music on hold device may be putting too much audio into the phone system (overdriving), causing the sound to be distorted. The overall volume may not change because the phone system is compensating for the audio level, attempting to maintain a sound limit. Try backing off the volume of the playback device. Most phone systems require a 600-Ohm input from an external device.

File Format May Be Incorrect
If your phone system uses an audio file upload as the music on hold source, the correct file format must be used. These files are highly compressed, as the phone system is designed to conserve memory. The file compression further reduces sound quality in many cases. This is another reason why an external device is the best choice, if possible, for music and messaging on hold.

VOIP System May Be Converting Files
Once an audio file is uploaded to a VOIP Off-Site (hosted) phone system, the host may process or compress the audio file further, possibly converting it to a different format. This process can vary between phone system providers. Again, this is out of your control. Some VOIP systems do not allow a volume control for audio playback, so it may be best to send the audio file to your phone system host and request that they make the music sound as pleasant as possible.

Listening On A Cell Phone
Cell phones employ noise-cancelling technology, which can cause sound distortion. By emphasizing voice frequencies, a cell transmission can help your call recipient find your voice among the background and wind noise. The result when listening to music, however, is that a warble or distortion occurs. When testing your music on hold, use a land-line phone for the most accurate results.

There’s a steady buzz about VOIP phone systems, but choosing the right system for your business is a challenging study. CNet says, “Even the most savvy technology guru may have a blind spot when it comes to office phone systems.”

Your office environment will dictate the necessary features, such as intercom, voice mail, call transfer, etc. A small proprietorship may be interested in a “cloud” solution, such as offered by Internet Service Providers (Comcast, Vonage, TDS Metrocom, AT&T, Time Warner, Speakeasy). In addition, there are companies that use your existing broadband Internet connection to set up cloud-based phone service. These include Ring Central, One Box, 8 x 8, and many more.

Cloud refers to the majority of the phone equipment being hosted off-site, or “up in a cloud”. These are actually server farms that your phones connect to through a modem. The equipment in your business consists of the phone handsets and the modem.

As you study VOIP options, be aware of the challenges. David Trad, a Pre-Sales Consultant and Engineer at Connect Tel North Pty Ltd., in Brisbane Australia., posted this advice on LinkedIn:

Hosted services have to be setup properly, using second rate hosted providers will eventually be your undoing

Hosted services require you have sufficient amount of bandwidth. To date this is my sole biggest headache, we have this exact problem with a client that we deployed a Cisco system where the phone system is hosted at the head office and all the branch offices (9) have their phones connect back to the HQ system (Centralized setup which is identical to a hosted or “Cloud” setups).

Have contingencies in place… in the event that the network goes down.

Cloud, Hosted, Centralized or anything way you wish to call it, relies on the very network it overlays. …Calls that travel over the Internet (Public or otherwise) are subject to Contention Ratios, Back-Haul constraints, Upstream Links, Public Utilization, Competing Network Data etc..etc… the list can go on. As long as you know this, are aware of it, and are willing to spend some money to protect you (shield you) from it as much as possible, your experience should be a fairly good one.

While these Internet-based phone systems offer many features, the music on hold service typically falls short. Files must be uploaded to the “cloud”. This is a hands-on, manual application. If you want to use your on hold time as a marketing tool, you may be in for a disappointment. Changing messages is much easier when using an external music on hold device. Such messages-on-hold players are usually not compatible with VOIP “cloud-based” phone systems.

Internet and phone system providers are pushing hosted PBX (VOIP phone/off-site cloud based) systems. Getting locked in to an off-site system is not your only option. Consider a Hybrid PBX system that you can use on-site. The CNet article quoted earlier will cover these options.

Be sure to discuss music on hold with your new VOIP phone system provider. You may be disappointed in what they aren’t telling you. Here’s a short story about a business that just switched to a “cloud” phone system (hosted PBX or hosted I.P.) and the problem that the new system poses with music on hold.

I just got off the phone with Dr. Simms, a cosmetic dentist and Easy On Hold client.  Prior to switching phone providers, Dr. Simms enjoyed knowing that while his patients endured on-hold time, they were treated to professional-sounding  greetings and announcements on a variety of relevant topics. Since the 4-minute on hold message production would rotate 24/7, Dr. Simms was sure that his patients would hear a different snippet of information every time they called and were placed on hold (ever so briefly).

Today Dr. Simms has traded his old phones for one of those snappy new “VOIP” systems, in this case a “cloud” or “hosted” system provided by Fonality. The doctor called Easy On Hold to find out how to plug in his on hold message player to his new phones, so that he could continue to utilize the hold music feature. We looked into Fonality for him. The Fonality website says, “ Music On Hold (MOH) is as simple as uploading MP3 files using the web-based administration panel. Use MOH creatively to highlight promotions for new customers, up sell current customers, or calm angry customers calling your support team.” Somehow, Dr. Simms was not informed that he would need to manually upload files, or what the format was. “That’s OK,” we told him, we can get you an .mp3 file for you to load–you just need to know how to log in and load the file to the system.

Then we asked, “Are you aware of whether the hold message file will play from the beginning each and every time the hold button is pressed, or whether the file will play in rotation as before?” No, the doctor did not know. We placed a call to Fonality to find out.

The “talk to an expert” line was picked up by the Fonality voice automation, which announced at the end of the menu that calls that are technical in nature must be placed to a different number. After giving the number, the automation said, “To hear this message again, press pound.” Having missed a few digits, I hit pound. “That is not a valid option, ” announced the voice automation. “Hmmm. I guess I’ll press one then.”

Pressing one gets you to a salesperson. Surely a sales expert will be able to answer my question. I stated who I was and why I was calling and asked whether the Fonality on hold message plays from the beginning each time the hold button is pressed. “That’s a technical question,” I was told. “Actually, no one has ever asked that before. I have no idea.”

To his credit, the salesperson was kind and spoke clearly.  The gentleman offered to take my number and have a technician call me back. Sounds like a plan. Still, I can’t help wonder how or why the music on hold function is not discussed more completely between salespersons and their clients.

Yes, we will find out how the music on hold works at Fonality. Yes, we can help anyone with the proper audio file formats for VOIP hosted phone systems. No, we really don’t get why these providers leave their customers so uninformed. I’m hoping we can put something together with some leading VOIP hosted PBX providers so we can provide better service and more flexible and professional solutions.