PBX Phone System On Hold Music
Phone system on hold music, also known as pbx music on hold, is the most common on hold system in use today. If you are hearing any type of telephone advertising on hold, most likely this means it is being delivered through a phone system on hold music input on a business phone system or PBX.
How To Know If Your Phone System Is Music On Hold Compatible
A phone system with on hold music capabilities typically has a central box (also called a KSU or PBX) that is the brains of your phone system. If you have a VOIP or IP Business phone system, please visit our page on IP music on hold. If you have regular phones (such as those you might buy from an office supply store, or any phone that would work in a standard phone jack like you might have at home), then please visit our pages detailing how to hook up a standard phone on hold music system and our music on hold adapter page.
Installing Your Phone System On Hold Music
If you have a business phone system with a music on hold capability built in, there are two ways a music on hold player is typically connected:
- Via An Audio Input Jack. The input will usually be located on the side or bottom of the phone system box, and will be labeled “music” “music on hold”, or “MOH”. The most common connectors are RCA (like on the back of home stereo), mini plug (like a headphone jack on an mp3 player) or occasionally, a screw down terminal (where you screw down the bare leads from your music on hold cable).
- Via Punchdown Block. This is when the bare wire leads from your music on hold player will need to be punched down onto a wiring block. Only a small percentage of phone systems use this technique. If yours does, you will likely want to have your phone vendor make a quick service call to hook up your music on hold device.
Once your music on hold player is connected for you phone system on hold music, it will typically work right away. If your on hold device is hooked up, plugged in for power and playing properly, but you are not hearing your telephone advertising on hold, then your phone system may need to be programmed to “turn on” the music on hold feature. Programming like this generally just takes a minute or two, but again, it is something you may wish to have your phone system vendor do for you. In most cases programming is not necessary.
If you need help evaluating whether or not your phone system is compatible with your music on hold, we recommend contacting your phone vendor, or if necessary, the manufacturer of your phones. If that fails, please feel free to contact us or visit our “Ask The Music On Hold Expert” page and post your question online!
