How Advertising on Hold Works
The "how" of ads on hold is quite simple: your music and message program is played into a special circuit on your phone system, callers will hear that audio program when they are placed on hold.
The hardware that plays the audio program is commonly called a "digital repeater". A digital repeater is a specially designed unit that plays an audio file (most take MP3's these days) in a constant loop from digital memory. There are a wide variety of digital repeaters, offering a range of memory capacities (from 4 minutes to 30 minutes) and media options (USB Flash drives, floppy discs, CDs, etc.). All models work in fundamentally the same manner: they take an audio file and transfer it into Flash memory with no further moving parts for improved mechanical reliability. Read about the digital repeaters we offer.
On the phone system end, the feature that allows callers waiting on hold to hear an audio program is called Music on Hold, or MOH. If you currently have a radio or another on hold service, you're ready to go. Most business phone systems have MOH. These systems have a central sorting unit (called a KSU) that sorts calls to extensions around your office. Read more about phone systems and music on hold.
Most "off the shelf" office phones (2- to 4-line "systems" sold at Office Depot, Staples, Best Buy, etc.) do not have the MOH function. However, you can get an after-market adapter that will give you MOH. You can get an adapter from us if you have one of these phones. View a list of phones we can adapt.