DIYbanter - Phone mute - how does that work

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Phone mute - how does that work

Waiting to get through to Plusnet's support, they play music whilst
waiting. If their is any noise in the room, the music mutes, however
they also break into the music to make a regular voice announcement -
the voice announcements are NOT affected/ NOT muted by noise in the
room. Best guess is that Plusnet's system listens for noise on the line
and mutes just the music.

Phone mute - how does that work

On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 18:45:23 GMT, Harry Bloomfield
coalesced the vapors of human
experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...

Waiting to get through to Plusnet's support, they play music whilst
waiting. If their is any noise in the room, the music mutes, however
they also break into the music to make a regular voice announcement -
the voice announcements are NOT affected/ NOT muted by noise in the
room. Best guess is that Plusnet's system listens for noise on the line
and mutes just the music.

I don't really know why they are doing this but I am prepared to
engage in speculation.

It occurs to me that their music on hold might be configured to mute
when inbound audio is heard in case a valid DTMF tone is sent by you
to their IVR, so the music does not swamp it.

In theory this is not necessary as the TX and RX is separated out,
including in the "hybrid" circuit of your telephone, but in practice
there is always some leakage, some of it intentional (sidetone)

On a related matter I have pondered whether, when you call an office
dealing with "benefits" or insurance claims, if they record the call
while you are waiting to be put through to the department, in the
"hope" that you will conspire with someone else in the room about the
fraud you are engaged with.

--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%

Phone mute - how does that work

Graham wrote
Harry Bloomfield wrote

Waiting to get through to Plusnet's support, they play music
whilst waiting. If their is any noise in the room, the music mutes,

Never seen that and I have been on hold quite a bit
lately due to changing various service providers, in
fact due to changing all but the local council with
some glitches with every single one.

however they also break into the music to make a regular
voice announcement - the voice announcements are NOT
affected/ NOT muted by noise in the room.

Presumably to reassure you that you are still on hold and
that the call hasn't got lost in the system or something.

One of my banks has very elegant and quiet
music on hold, but the voice announcements
spoil that by blasting thru as usual.

Best guess is that Plusnet's system listens for
noise on the line and mutes just the music.

There isnt any other way to do it unless I am missing your point completely.

I don't really know why they are doing this
but I am prepared to engage in speculation.

Particularly with the longer times on hold, I would prefer to
be able to do what I normally do and have my system mute
what I am currently listening to when they eventually come
off hold and a human is there to talk to. One of ours is notorious
for an hour on hold at times and another isnt much faster to
answer. And neither is a govt dept.

It occurs to me that their music on hold might be configured
to mute when inbound audio is heard in case a valid DTMF
tone is sent by you to their IVR, so the music does not swamp it.

Surely a decent system should have a good enough pll filter so
that the tones can be detected thru almost any background noise.

In theory this is not necessary as the TX and RX is separated out,
including in the "hybrid" circuit of your telephone, but in practice
there is always some leakage, some of it intentional (sidetone)

On a related matter I have pondered whether, when you call an office
dealing with "benefits" or insurance claims, if they record the call
while you are waiting to be put through to the department, in the
"hope" that you will conspire with someone else in the room about the
fraud you are engaged with.

If they did, you'd expect that some ****ed off employee
would have spilled the beans on them by now.

Phone mute - how does that work

Rod Speed explained :
Never seen that and I have been on hold quite a bit
lately due to changing various service providers, in
fact due to changing all but the local council with
some glitches with every single one.

When ringing such organisations, I normally put it on loudspeaker. The
reason I noticed it, was that the music would constantly break up. I
traced it to the phones mike picking up noise in the room from the TV
and me moving about. I then progressed to experimenting, by tapping the
mic, whereupon it would mute and covering the mic where the music would
play without a break. The voice announcements were never muted.

It was annoying in as much as I thought when it went quiet, I was about
to get put through. Next time I need to ring, I will resort to a bit of
bluetack over the mic..

Phone mute - how does that work

Brian Gaff formulated on Wednesday :
Are you sure, I assume this is a speaker phone. Most of these have a monitor
to stop feedback, and it affects everything. You can often here this on skype
calls too, Awfully annoying effect.

That doesn't happen at all, other than affecting the music.

Phone mute - how does that work

Brian Gaff wrote

Are you sure, I assume this is a speaker phone. Most of these have a
monitor to stop feedback, and it affects everything.

No it doesn’t. I make all my calls on speakerphone
except when out and about in public and don’t
get that effect at all. With the Panasonic cordless
phones, the only effect I get is that with very noisy
backgrounds like with some call centers, they do
get broken audio from my end, but I don’t hear
anything at all with muting of stuff from their end.

Don’t even get that effect with the iphones.

You can often here this on skype calls too, Awfully annoying effect.

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
Waiting to get through to Plusnet's support, they play music whilst
waiting. If their is any noise in the room, the music mutes, however they
also break into the music to make a regular voice announcement - the
voice announcements are NOT affected/ NOT muted by noise in the room.
Best guess is that Plusnet's system listens for noise on the line and
mutes just the music.

Phone mute - how does that work

Harry Bloomfield wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Never seen that and I have been on hold quite a bit
lately due to changing various service providers, in
fact due to changing all but the local council with
some glitches with every single one.

When ringing such organisations, I normally put it on loudspeaker.

I always do with everyone except when out and about in public.

The reason I noticed it, was that the music would constantly break up.

Never seen that at all with the panasonic cordless phones or the iphones.

I traced it to the phones mike picking up noise in the room from the TV
and me moving about. I then progressed to experimenting, by tapping
the mic, whereupon it would mute and covering the mic where the music
would play without a break. The voice announcements were never muted.

So presumably that difference must be at their end.

It was annoying in as much as I thought when it went
quiet, I was about to get put through. Next time I need
to ring, I will resort to a bit of bluetack over the mic..

Weird.