Live Music on Hold to Callmanager 10.5 VM. Is this possible?

[NPT_2]

We have virtualized our Callmanager and other Voice Applications onto 2 MCS servers running VMware ESXi 5.5.  Since the Callmanager servers are no longer physical servers what is the procedure, or is it even possible to connect live music on hold from an external source such as a radio? 

Also, is it possible, rather than connect to a physical audio connection to setup a connector to go directly to an internet radio stream and pull it in live as music on hold? 

Jim

[Aditya Gupta]

Hi Jim

Yes there are several ways actually you can active Live MOH.

1. Configure an ISR to stream audio input on a FXO or E&M interface to a multicast address and integrate the same with CUCM. With this option you ll need to do some wiring or maybe use some kind of adaptor .

2. You can use certain third party products such as "Barix Annuncicom line" which can accept audio input and convert that into the ip packets.

Regards

Aditya Gupta

[NPT_2]

I would rather not have to setup an ISR with an FXO or E&M interface, just a little clunky for my taste. 

I'll have to look into your second option.  Would the "Barix Annuncicom line" setup a multicast stream or just a unicast stream to the Callmanager servers? 

[Aditya Gupta]

Hi 

I have never used the solution myself. Just came across on internet while doing some research. I am sure you can find others as well.

These kind of solutions are mostly used for multicast streams, where you can just tune into the continuous playing audio.

Regards

Aditya Gupta

[NPT_2]

That's what I'm seeing too.  In a lot of ways it sounds like more trouble than it is worth and I likely will probably just keep our pre-recorded hold music, just thought it would be nice to have the local radio station as our hold music.  Too bad I can't just pass through audio from the VMware host to the Callmanager VM. 

Thanks for the ideas though. 

Jim

[James Hawkins]

William Bell wrote a great blog about using Barix products to stream MoH a couple of years ago.

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

Barix also published an appnote describing how to configure this

http://www.barix.com/fileadmin/data/howto/MoH_CUCM_Instreamer_02.pdf

[Jaime Valencia]

Barix injects the music as a multicast stream in your network, it's a lot like the SRST-as-MOH config, you simply instruct your phones to listen to the IP/port on which you're streaming and let barix inject the multicast.

[timbrownEOH]

We have devices and also VMware appliance that will produce RTP and/or PCM streams of live audio. https://easyonhold.com/integrations/cisco - Cisco Compatible Cert.

[Javier Morales]

Hi

I have seen on the Internet and on this forum information about this. We tried some of those examples without success.  Do you have an example configuration with E&M port we can use?

We have an E&M port on a router.

Using pins 3 & 6 to connect an iPod.

Our environment is:

CUCM<-VLAN10-->L3 Switch <--VLAN20-->Router<--VLAN30-->Telephone

The configuration last configuration tested on the router is this:

ip multicast-routing

interface GigabitEthernet0/0
 ip address dhcp
 ip pim sparse-mode
 duplex auto
 speed auto
!

interface Vlan30
 ip address 172.30.2.1 255.255.255.0
 ip pim sparse-mode
!

dial-peer voice 7777 pots
 destination-pattern 7777
 port 0/0/0
!
gatekeeper
 shutdown
!
telephony-service
 max-ephones 1
 max-dn 1
 ip source-address 172.17.0.109 port 2000
 max-conferences 8 gain -6
 multicast moh 239.1.1.1 port 16384
 transfer-system full-consult
!
ephone-dn  1
 number 3333
 moh out-call 7777

[timbrownEOH]

We make a device that receives a stream and provides RTP for your multicast use. We have just added a way to receive a stream from the cloud on a known port, then forward to our software on your VM that will make multiple streams in RTP available for multicast. easyonhold.com