Ipod for Music On Hold

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Ipod for Music On Hold

raytaylor

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#37647 16-Jul-2009 10:50

Does anyone know if you can use an ipod to play music while it is connected to a usb wall charger?

I havent owned an ipod for a while now and cant remember.

I have a client who keeps running winamp on a sbs server for their music-on-hold / telephone system which is crashing it and I need to suggest an alternative.

thanks

Ray Taylor

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paradoxsm

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#237068 20-Jul-2009 08:41

I had one successfully running rockbox attached to a proper charger, not a usb cable as that will simply put it into usb mode. i'm unsure about the regular ipod software (the regular apple one) but it should be the same.

we went a bit fancy and had m3u files programmed for in-store promos. do check that it's legal however. (apra)

sbiddle

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#237073 20-Jul-2009 09:11

Just be aware that whatever you do you MUST pay APRA licencing fees for paying music includes MoH) in any public locations (that ias Paradoxsm pointed out.

There are some reasonably priced MP3 flash based MoH players I saw a few months ago, just can't recall who sold them now.

raytaylor

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#237240 20-Jul-2009 18:19

We ended up using a second hand computer off trademe. Worked out cheaper for him.
I just set it up and said he is only allowed to play classical music otherwise he has to go to the rianz and get a licence for anything they cover.

Ray Taylor

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sbiddle

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#237320 20-Jul-2009 23:25

What do you mean by "classical" music? All music is covered by APRA - the only free stuff is royalty free tracks that are available from plenty of sites online.

Bung

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#237346 21-Jul-2009 08:06

sbiddle: What do you mean by "classical" music? All music is covered by APRA - the only free stuff is royalty free tracks that are available from plenty of sites online.

APRA collect on behalf of the writers or composers. They've probably given up on those born in the 18th Century :)

There may be someone else collecting on behalf of the performance.

tonyhughes

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#237371 21-Jul-2009 09:38

Why use a seperate PC?

Why not change application (VLC? or some other light music player), or even use a supported Virtual environment to run lightweight XP/2000/Linux VMs to run stuff you dont want sitting on the SBS?

Having said that, I have a grunty C2D workstation class machine here that runs stuff I don't want on the SBS, but that includes streaming music to half a dozen client devices, and processing massive amounts of OCR work.

old3eyes

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#237435 21-Jul-2009 12:47

You mean people pay APRA for MOH??? That would be a first..

By the way. If you going to use an ipod make sure you have spares ans they seem to go missing.

Better way is to use an old PC and load it up with MP3s and play out thru the sound card.. via the PTC certified LIU of course

Regards,

Old3eyes

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raytaylor

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#237645 21-Jul-2009 20:08

Its just a computer with mp3's playing with winamp thru the sound card hooked up to an Aria phone system.

It is in a locked communications room so ipods wouldnt go missing
The reason why i used a separate device rather than a virtual server or any other application is there happens to be the owner of the company who has been taking it upon himself to fix problems with the computers before he calls me. I dont want him going anywhere near the sbs or terminal servers. They quite happily will run for 3 months without a reboot untill he walks into that room for various stupid reasons. So now he has a big sign that says push power button for 5 seconds, wait 5 and then push for 1 second. He is able to do that without a problem through one of our practices. ipod would have been easier but it was taking too long to find an answer and my boss doesnt like spending money on 'projects' that may not work.

Ray Taylor

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