White noise before playback of recorded name & voicemail greeting

[Wilbur Terwilligeroc]

I support an Avaya CM with Aura Messaging in conjunction with “9611G” IP phones.

I got a support ticket from a user who keeps hearing a brief “white noise” type sound immediately before the playback of her voicemail greeting and recorded name. The noise fades away and is gone as soon as she starts speaking.

However, this only seems to occur when she produces the recordings at her desk. When she records from another location in the office, the noise does not occur.

The problem also does not occur during regular phone conversation; only during playback of her voicemail / recorded name greetings.

We tried replacing the phone and handset, and the problem persists.

I had a network analyst check the network quality of her connection using NetScout, and it looks good.

I switched her to a different POE port in the communications room, and the problem persists.

I tried deleting and recreating her voicemail account, and the problem persists.

I also had her adjust the Automatic Gain Control settings on the phone, and the problem persists.

I asked her to try to mute the handset before selecting the option to record her name, and then disengaging the Mute after the beep and recording that way, and the problem persists.

Out of desperation, I changed her LAN cables, and the problem persists.

She doesn’t have a radio, wireless headset, or similar device nearby that could be causing interference.

The only other thing I can think of is something acoustic in her area, like background noise from a ventilation fan or something, although it doesn’t seem that loud.

What do you experts think? Any thoughts?

 

[kyle555]

Ground of the POE switch vs ground of the electrical circuit at the desk? Enable/disable shuffling/direct IP...maybe its a flaky DSP in a gateway that her calls process through?

 

[smokinjoe2938]

does another user sit close to her and does this person have the same issue?

 

[Wilbur Terwilligeroc]

Thanks for your response. The closest person to her is on vacation, but I've asked her to inquire as soon as they're back. In the meantime, I'm just trying to see what else it might be.

 

[smokinjoe2938]

However, this only seems to occur when she produces the recordings at her desk. When she records from another location in the office, the noise does not occur. I would have to agree that it seems to be some soft of interference at her location, did this just start to happen or has it been this way from day 1?

 

[Wilbur Terwilligeroc]

Hi SmokinJoe

It's been happening for her ever sice we transitioned her from Avaya Blue (CS1K with CallPilot & M3904 digital phone) to Avaya Red (CM with Aura Messaging & 9611G IP phone), about a month ago.

 

[smokinjoe2938]

sounds like she is in an area with lots of interference such as EMI, is she in an open area or does she sit in a cube setup? need to get to the source of the emi

 

[Wilbur Terwilligeroc]

She's in a cubicle.

What might be some typical sources of EMI in an office environment?

Certain types of printers?

Power line in cubicle wall?

Proximity of phone to PC or monitor?

I would agree that it sounds like it could be some type of interference, only it wasn't an issue on her old phone at the same location.

 

[montyzummer]

Was the old set TDM or IP ??

APSS (SME)
ACSS (SME)
ACIS (UC)

 

[smokinjoe2938]

that logic is the same as comparing an apple to an orange, not an electrical engineer so could be a motor etc.... I understand it did not do this on the Nortel phone but the phone is picking up some sort of interference causing the white noise, also how is she recording her voicemail message? from the handset or the headset?

 

[Wilbur Terwilligeroc]

Montyzummer: Old set was TDM (M3904 on CS1K with Callpilot). Current set is Avaya 9611G IP phone on Avaya CM.

Smokinjoe: She's tried both handset and headset (wired). And I've also replaced the entire phone.

Thanks!

 

[ddog6601]

Does she have a desk light near the station ? As silly as it sounds we had a similar issue and by luck we found if we shut of the lamp on her desk the noise went away. The stranger thing about that was that we all have the same lamp and phone setup as that user but we did not have an issue. For some reason when we turned on the light the distortion would come back instantly. Slim chance this is your reason but just putting it out there.

 

[Wilbur Terwilligeroc]

Worth a shot. I'll also ask her to temporarily relocate her phone to the opposite corner of her desk in case her neighbour on the other side of the cubicle wall has a power bar or radio or something that might be causing it. Thanks Ddog!