Can I have music on hold with a small analog phone system?
~ This was posted on - February 18, 2009
If your phone system was purchased at an office supply store, it’s not going to have a music on hold port to plug a player into. In fact, it may not even have a way to put people on hold. But there are third party adapters that can add this capability to your phone system. Installed correctly, it can be as smooth as a commercial grade phone system.
For commercial grade systems, check out this page http://www.holdtimestudios.com/phone-system.php. For office-depot type systems, call us at 800-521-5570 and we’ll point you in the right direction. Really, searching about the internet is going to be harder than just calling us…
Type #2 – The keystroke
These third-party units manually activate the on-hold music with a keystroke, like #, or by physically pressing a button on the unit itself. It works like an on-off switch.
Good:
- Inexpensive and simple.
Bad:
- Require a manual keystroke everytime a caller is put on hold.
- Only works with the phone it is attached to.
Type #3
Intellitouch makes a product that emits a signal tone from a dongle attached to each phone reciever. When the phone is put on hold and the hand held phone receiver is no longer electrically connected to the base unit… the signal disappears and the player begins to play the on hold messaging feed.
It sounds innovative, but in our experience… it doesn’t always work. Hold Time Studios does not sell or support this unit anymore.
Good:
- The player and the adapter are one unit.
Bad:
- At least 30% of our installations with the OHP 6500 failed, and we ordered a Skutch adapter.