State of knowledge

May 2025


Music on hold

The term "music on hold" is generally used within the telephone system for the acoustic output that is played when a call is put on hold.
For the telephone system, individual music on hold consists of one or more audio files. A distinction must therefore always be made between these two terms. For example, whether a new music on hold is created or whether new audio files are added to an existing music on hold.

Audio files must be of the type "wav" (mono, 16kHz, 16 bit, PCM).


The editing icon can be used to edit any music on hold stored on the telephone system. In the Music tab, you can use the Listen button to listen to the audio files of the music on hold via a telephone.
The volume of an audio file can be reduced or increased using the two buttons and .

Frequent use of this function will massively reduce the quality of the audio file and should therefore be avoided.

Create new music on hold

The + or New music on hold button can be used to create new music on hold. The first step is to assign a name that is as unique and descriptive as possible.
The audio file or files can now be uploaded in the Music tab.

Audio files must be of type "wav" (mono, 16kHz, 16 bit, PCM).

Assign music on hold

After creating a new music on hold, it can be assigned to a phone number, a group or a user via the corresponding tabs.
The default music on hold of the telephone system applies to all other phone numbers, groups and users.

The assignment options described do not exist for the "default" music on hold.

Macros

This editor is used to create your own extensions or macros for the dialplan. In simple terms, the dialplan is the entirety of the rules and routines for handling all VoIP connections (see also Asterisk documentation).

Intervention in the telephone system using macros should be avoided and should only be carried out by experienced administrators!

Global variables are configured in the upper text field "Global Includes", which can be used in the "Macro definitions" in the lower text field. The syntax is deliberately kept simple:

One variable in the form of variablenname=value must be entered per line. However, a macro definition does not necessarily require predefined variables.

Macros created in this area can be found in the user administration of a user account in the "Phone numbers" tab as an additional option under "Standard rule". The prerequisite for this is that the name of the macro is written in the following format, which differs from the official spelling:

[[macro-...]]; ${...}