Cisco
Music On Hold and greetings for Cisco
Cisco covers an on-premises call manager and a cloud calling service, and they are administered in quite different places. Your recording suits either — what changes is who loads it and where.
The file
What Cisco needs
The file your system expects, prepared for you. There is nothing to convert, and no setting for you to work out.
Generic Phone System
Works with most other phone systems. Pick this if you are not sure.
Cisco is not listed by name in the studio, so choose Other / Not sure and you get the generic phone system file — prepared for a phone line in exactly the same way, just without a system name on it. It is what the great majority of systems accept.
We would rather say that plainly than invent a Cisco option that is only a different label on the same file. The systems named in the studio are named because we have something specific to do for them.
Every purchase also includes an MP3 you can play on any device to check it or send it around your team, plus the full-quality original in case someone ever asks for it. Downloads are unlimited.
Music On Hold is your phone system name for the slot that plays while a caller waits. Recordings are produced voice only while the music library is closed, and a spoken recording fills that slot just as well — the levels, the timing and a clean start and finish are still handled for you.
Where it goes
Getting the file onto your system
Choose Other / Not sure in the studio, then take the download to your system.
- Choose Other / Not sure in the studio, which prepares the file most systems accept.
- Download both that file and the MP3 that comes with every purchase.
- On an on-premises call manager, the audio is loaded through its administration interface, in the area that holds media resources and music on hold audio files.
- On a cloud calling service, it is loaded through the administration portal your organisation signs in to rather than on any hardware.
- Point the queue, hunt group or greeting at the new audio once it is loaded — uploading alone changes nothing.
If the screens do not match
Cisco deployments are usually built and maintained by an IT partner, and the exact screens depend on the product and release. If you have an IT provider, sending them the file with one line about what it is for is faster than finding your way in.
What usually goes wrong
The things that catch people out on Cisco
Almost every one of these ends with somebody deciding the file is faulty when it is not. They are worth two minutes before you start.
Uploading is only half of it
A call manager keeps its audio files in one place and its audio sources in another. A file sitting in the list does nothing until a source points at it and a queue or device pool is pointed at that source.
The system makes its own copy
Some Cisco products convert an uploaded file into their own internal formats before use, and that step can take a moment or need a service restarted. If nothing has changed immediately, that is often why.
On-premises and cloud are not the same product
Instructions written for an on-premises call manager will not match a cloud calling portal, and vice versa. Confirm which one your business is on before following any guide, including a Cisco one.
Multicast hold music
Larger Cisco sites sometimes send hold music out across the network rather than from each device. It works well, but it is configured by your IT partner and is not something to change from the audio end.
Questions
Before you start
Write your script, pick one of the Australian voices, and hear five seconds of your own audio before you decide anything. Pricing is one payment for the recording you make, and the file for Cisco is included in it rather than charged as an extra.
Elsewhere
Guides for the other systems
The recording does not change from one system to the next. Where the file goes does.
We'll prepare the file. You just upload it.
Start from a blank page or let the assistant draft it. Either way you hear five seconds of your own audio before you decide anything.
No account needed. Payment comes after the preview, not before.