23 - System Recordings - FreePBX 101 v15

New for 2021! FreePBX 101 v15 is a comprehensive tutorial series that covers everything you need to know to plan for, install, and configure the open source FreePBX phone system from Sangoma.

System recordings are exactly what they sound like - they are recordings you create that can be used in many places throughout the FreePBX system. There are 3 ways to record system recordings - let's explore all of them!

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[geraldh.]

At 11:30 you imported your beautiful high quality 44kHz wave file from the professional microphone, but had only selected "Convert to: wav". As far as I know, wav in FreePBX means downsample to 8kHz only. When importing a high quality audio external recording make sure that also g722 is enabled so a 22kHz sample-rate version of the recording gets stored on the FreePBX box for calls done in HD-Audio. To further limit cpu usage by eliminating transcoding, it could be useful to also enable ulaw (US) or alaw (Europe).

[SkittleKicksPlays]

Some pro tips I've learned over the years building IVRs with FreeBPX:

Don't make your opening message so long that people will hang up (gov agencies, hospitals, and so on love doing this all the time).

Avoid using the "press 1, 2, 3" as the lead in.

Make it a bit more inviting than that, but keep it simple. Script out your recording dialog. Believe me this makes it it far more professional. Avoid making layers deep IVR systems (it should not take 10 minutes to navigate and have to start over if your screw up).

Don't slam the phone down if you record though that because it will show up in the final render. Just carefully press the line key or the on hook button to end it. Nothing is worse than some slamming down their phone after a record.

Make the IVR inviting to customers/clients. Make them feel part of the company, because too often dry, monotone, boring IVRs can actually be a turn off for them.

If my business is closed, I generally thank them for calling and use the hang up feature as a destination. I'll even use a gentle sound effect when my business is closed (or opened). It;s a nice little touch that makes it stand out more.

[sarhtaq]

Audacity is available for both Windows, OSX and Linux.
I use it on all three platforms depending on the situation (on windows I tend to use Reaper though, as my go to DAW )

[tzisorey]

So here's a question - if you link the recording to a feature code, is that only accessible from internal phones? For example, if there's a massive storm that prevents *_anyone_* from making it into the office, can they dial into the system from externally, and record the appropriate message?