Broadcast Messages in CUE
Broadcast messages are notifications sent to all users of the telephony system. The recipients hear the message immediately after logging in to their voice mailboxes. The recipients cannot interrupt the message with any DTMF key.
Once a user is allowed to send broadcast messages, the option appears when the user logs into VoiceView Express. Broadcast messages can not be sent any other way than with VoiceView Express. Messages are recorded on the IP phone, have the start and end time set within the VoiceView interface, and are sent from the one convenient interface. The user doesn't absolutely need to set start and end time - if the message is sent immediately using the VoiceView Express TUI, the system default lifetime for a broadcast message is used (this is configurable), and the start time is immediate.
Enabling broadcast messages in CUE requires:
- Granting users with the privilege to send broadcasts, either local only within the single CUE system, or to all integrated Unity systems
- Enabling VoiceView Express. This is extremely important since, from an end-user perspective, broadcast messages can only be created and sent via the VoiceView Express Telephony User Interface (TUI). A guide to enabling VoiceView express in CME can be found here: http://www.ccievoicestudy.com/Cisco/VoIP/Enabling_CUE_VoiceView_Express_for_CME/
In the following example, the maximum broadcast length is set to 180 seconds, with a default expiration time of 2 days. A custom group is created to allow local broadcasting only for users Steve and Terrance.
voicemail broadcast recording time 180
voicemail default broadcast expiration time 2
groupname LocalBroadcasters create
groupname LocalBroadcasters privilege local-broadcast
groupname LocalBroadcasters member Steve
groupname LocalBroadcasters member Terrance
By default, Message Wait Indication (MWI) notification is disabled for Broadcast messages. The feature is enabled using the command voicemail broadcast mwi. Observe the output in CUE of trace mwi all
Messages-Waiting: yes
Message-Account: sip:7001@192.168.255.98
Voice-Message: 1/0 (0/0)
Fax-Message: 0/0 (0/0)
Messages-Waiting: yes
Message-Account: sip:7002@192.168.255.98
Voice-Message: 1/0 (0/0)
Fax-Message: 0/0 (0/0)
Observe in the following output a broadcast message waiting for both Steve and Terrance. Look in the column "BCST".
se-192-168-255-98# show voicemail mailboxes
OWNER MSGS NEW SAVE DEL BCST FUTR FAX MSGTIME MBXSIZE USED
"Steve" 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 180 0 %
"Terrance" 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 180 0 %
Observe specific details about the broadcast message including the sender, message ID, and message lifetime.
se-192-168-255-98# show voicemail broadcast messages
Message ID: FHK0945F0HE-NM-FOC11170DSQ-1234688565548
Sender: /sw/local/users/Terrance
Length(secs): 6
Start time: 20:03:19 Feb 15 2009 EST
End time: 20:02:52 Mar 17 2009 EST
Observe a variety of information about current voicemail usage including, importantly, the broadcast message count.
se-192-168-255-98# show voicemail usage
personal mailboxes: 2
general delivery mailboxes: 0
orphaned mailboxes: 0
capacity of voicemail (minutes): 6000
allocated capacity (minutes): 6.0
total message time used (seconds): 6
total message count: 1
average message length (seconds): 6.0
broadcast message count: 1
future message count: 0
networking message count: 0
greeting time used (seconds): 0
greeting count: 0
average greeting length (seconds): 0.0
total time used (seconds): 6
total time used (minutes): 0.10000000149011612
percentage used time (%): 1
messages left since boot: 0
messages played since boot: 0
messages deleted since boot: 0
Lastly, broadcast messages can be delete on a per-message basis, or all messages can be immediately removed. There is a small amount of lag in clearing MWI, if MWI notification for broadcast messages is set.
se-192-168-255-98# voicemail broadcast messages delete
Are you sure you want to delete all broadcast messages? (y/n) y
1 broadcast messages deleted
Send Broadcast Messages via the VoiceView Express TUI
Send Messages to Local Location
Record Broadcast Message
Select Broadcast Message Options