MoH - Network Hold issue for Call Handler

[echong481]

Hello!

I am on Cisco Unity Connection 8.5, and have just started to scratch the surface of the capabilities of Unity.  I'm coming from a Asterisk back ground, so it has taken a bit to get used to, but I am starting to get the gist of how Cisco CM and Unity work. 

I have however come across a bit of a problem dealing with MoH function for the Call Handler.  Wherever I look i can't seem to find the correct place to add MoH to my call handler.  What I want my Call handler to do is essentially add MoH whenever a call is transfered from the Call Handler to a destination that is offered in the system. 

Here is a hypothetical real life situation.  Caller dials into our number and is greeted by our call handler.  Call handler gives them a recorded message with a list of options to choose from, i.e. press 1 for sales, press 2 for accounting, press 3 for blah blah... etc...  Once caller choose an option they are put on hold while the call is transfered to it's destination.  While on hold there must be music playing.  At the moment our system has no music playing as the call is in the hunt group.

I've looked through various documentation to no avail, possibly because i just don't understand this system well enough.  I have seen things about network hold, but can't seem to find where to change the network hold function for specifically the call handler.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks from Cisco unity noob

[William Bell · Accepted solution]

Ed,

There are a couple of things in play here.  On the Unity Connection side, you just need to make sure that when you execute the transfer, you aren't doing a "blind transfer" or "release to switch". The opposite (which is what you want) is a consultative transfer. I believe this is the default, but I may be mistaken. In any case, where you modify this depends on how you are executing the transfer. For instance, if your hunt pilot is a subscriber on the system, then you can tweak the subscriber's parameters to force a consultative transfer.

On the UCM side, MoH is a needle you must thread. First, you have to identify the source for the music. There default is source 1. You don't need to do anything unless you want to modify the source. Second, you need to link the source to your SIP trunk or SCCP ports (depending on how you integrated CUC to UCM). I'll guess that you chose SIP. So, go to the SIP trunk and you should see some MoH audio sources.

The next part of the MoH equation is that the holdee (the party put on hold) must have access to the MoH server. You do this by either ensuring that the MoH server is NOT in a media resource group or by putting the MoH server in a media resource group (MRG) that is a member of a media resource group list (MRGL) which is assigned to either the phone/gateway directly OR to the appropriate Device Pool.

Things to keep in mind. If you are doing mcast MoH, then you need to ensure you have mcast end-to-end. You also need to ensure that the audio source and MRG is mcast enabled.

HTH.

Regards,

Bill

[echong481]

Thanks so much for your help Bill

With that I've finally figured this out!!  Music on Hold was so much simpler in Asterisk.  You were absolutely correct when you mentioned that the transfer couldn't be a release to switch.  This seems to have been my problem the entire time.

once again thank you for help!

- ed

[William Bell]

Ed,

Glad to help. If you think that your question is answered, would you mind marking it as correct?

Thanks,

Bill