CUCM 11.5. MoH Rebroadcast External Multicast Source

bradley.mcrae · ‎05-01-2017

I have a customer who wants to broadcast MoH from a local radio station via 3.5mm or USB connector.

There have been posts about using an E&M or FXO port in a Cisco ISR to do this.

In the 11.5 SRND, the following information is given:

"Beginning with Cisco Unified CM 11.5, Cisco IOS routers can be configured to provide a multicast
audio RTP stream from a .wav file or externally
connected audio source. The audio source can be from
a .wav file, CD player, radio, or other audio device connected to the Cisco IOS router."

1) What is really different here than what was previously done?

2) Is there any way to leverage the USB connection on an ISR4000 series?

3) Has anyone successfully used the 3.5mm connection to FXO and what did you use to interface (ie. a commercial 3.5 to RJxx connector or a DIY connection by cutting a 3.5 and crimping into the appropriate RJxx)

Thanks for any insight!

Brad.

Jonathan Unger · ‎05-02-2017

Hi Brad,

To answer your questions:

The feature you are describing at the beginning of your post has to do with ability of CUCM 11.5 to re-broadcast a multicast MoH stream coming from an external source (such as a router) via unicast to an end device. The ability to connect an analog music source to a voice-port on a voice gateway has been around for quite a while and is not new.
The USB connection on the ISR4000 series can not be used to re-broadcast an analog music source. You could potentially use USB stick to host a static music file (I have not played around with the ISR4K USB capabilities). However, I can't think of a very compelling reason to use USB based storage for this purpose.
In the past we needed a few of these made up for a customer and got a local electronics shop to make us some nice cables (although you could totally make one yourself as well).

James Hawkins · ‎05-13-2017

Bill Bell did a great blog about this topic a few years ago

http://www.netcraftsmen.com/live-stream-music-on-hold-and-cisco-uc-on-ucs/

bradley.mcrae · ‎07-26-2017

Ultimately I came up empty on this. After lots of testing/troubleshooting and working with TAC we found this:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/access/interfaces/NIM/software/configuration/guide/b-ConfVoiFxNIM.html#con_1136968

I deployed Cisco 4XXX gateways using 4th Generation NIMs. In the document above, MoH from a live feed is explicitly unsupported.

I'm sure the CUCM rebroadcast of a multicast stream will work just fine... I would just need to find a different source.

It turns out what the customer really wanted is a way for employees to listen to the local radio station while at their desk. MoH really wouldn't be a great solution for that.

If I had time, I may have found a way to configure a phone service which would simply listen for a multicast stream and play it on the speakerphone. I'll leave that for an exercise when I have lots of free time.

Brad.