Set up music on hold

Organizations typically get their music on hold from one of these three sources:

• Use an artist's music and make sure that you get a license for using the music, so that the artist gets paid for your use of their work.

  Which organization handles licensing depends on the country in which you want to use the music. In Denmark, for example, such licenses are handled by KODA, who offer a price calculator for music on hold on their website.

• Buy your music on hold from companies that specialize in such music.

  A simple web search for music on hold (you may want to do the search in your own language) will typically find you numerous companies that offer such services. Some companies sell rights-free music, other companies sell music together with the right to use it.

• Find rights-free (royalty-free) music online, for example on freemusicarchive.org.

  Note that music from such sources may be legal for certain types of use, but not for others. Make sure that the music you choose is legal to use for music on hold.

The music that comes with your Zylinc solution by default is rights-free.

Because telephone audio is typically compressed for performance reasons, not all music will sound perfect when used as music on hold. That's why many organizations use neutral music for music on hold, rather than music that callers are likely to have heard often on the radio, etc. That way, callers are less likely to notice the possible difference in quality.

The best rule of thumb when you need to determine the quality of your music on hold is to upload the music to your Zylinc solution, and then make a call to the Zylinc solution in order to try it out.

Music on hold that you want to upload to your Zylinc solution must be in one of these file formats:

• .mp3

• .wav

1. Log in to your Novus Configuration Manager, and, in the Audio section, select Music on hold.

2. Click the Upload button.

3. Click the Browse button to select the required music on hold file.

4. Specify a descriptive Name for the music on hold file. The name mustn't contain spaces, only letters, digits, hyphens, and underscores.

5. If you want your music on hold file to overwrite an existing file with the same name, select Overwrite.

6. Music on hold files must be grouped into categories. This is because when you later select music on hold for a queue, you don't select individual music on hold files directly. Instead, you select a category, and the queue will then use all music on hold files that belong to that category.

   A category must contain a minimum of one music on hold file, but if you include multiple music on hold files in a category, you can create a “playlist” of music on hold files that you can use for one or more queues.

   Either select an existing Category, or select - Create new- and specify the required New category name in the next field.

7. Optionally, type any Comments.

8. Specify a Volume factor.

   Enter 100 to use the original volume of the music on hold file.

   To use a lower volume, enter a number that's smaller than 100. For example, 50 will halve the original volume.

   To use a higher volume, enter a number that's higher than 100. For example, 200 will double the original volume.

   If you use a volume factor that's higher than 100, it can result in a form of distortion known as clipping. When that's case, the caller experience will be negatively affected, and clipping can also damage the audio file. That's why you shouldn't normally use a volume factor that's higher than 100.

   To make multiple audio files have the same volume level, it's often a better idea to use audio editing software, such as the free, open-source tool Audacity that has a feature called Normalize for this purpose.

9. Click Save.

   Repeat as required for other music on hold files.

If you want to manage the content of your music on hold categories, log in to your Novus Configuration Manager, and, in the Audio section, select Music on hold. Then click the name of the required category. You can now:

• Click the names of individual audio files in the category to listen to them

  Don't use this feature to determine the audio quality that callers will experience. The best way to do that is to call the actual queue.

• Place your pointer over the names of individual audio files in the category to view their volume factor

• View the size and upload time of individual audio files in the category

• Delete individual audio files from the category

• Upload new audio files to the category

In Zylinc Novus you don't assign a music on hold category directly to a queue. Instead, you assign the music on hold category to a bundle of many types of queue-related audio settings, called a Queue announcement configuration, and you then assign that bundle to the queue. It works like this:

1. Log in to your Novus Configuration Manager, and, in the Contact center and PBX configuration section, select Queue announcements.

2. If you're going to assign the music on hold category to an existing queue announcement configuration, click Edit next to the name of the required queue announcement configuration.

   If you're going to assign the music on hold category to a new queue announcement configuration, click the Create new button, and give the new queue announcement configuration a name.

3. Scroll around halfway down the page to the Music on hold menu, and select the required music on hold category.

4. If you want to use a different music on hold category if callers are asked to wait after their call has been answered, you can select a different music on hold category in the Music on hold when answered menu.

5. Click Save, but remember that a queue announcement configuration contains many types of queue-related audio settings, and that during this process you've only specified settings for music on hold, so the queue announcement configuration may not yet be ready for use on a queue. This especially applies if you created a new queue announcement configuration.

6. When you think that the queue announcement configuration is ready for use, go to the Contact center and PBX configuration section on the Configuration Manager home page, and select Queues.

7. Click Edit next to the name of the required queue.

8. Scroll around halfway down the page to the Audio announcements menu, and select the queue announcement configuration that contains the required music on hold category.

Zylinc Novus is still a new product line, and you can help us improve the Novus Configuration Manager if you tell us what you think is good or bad about this configuration workflow.

Use the Zylinc Idea Portal to give us feedback, and make sure to include information about which Novus configuration workflow you're writing about.

That way you can help shape the future of the Configuration Manager. Thanks for your help!