With Built-in-Bridge (BiB), the Cisco phone itself sends a copy of each call to RockRecorder: one stream for the person at the phone (the agent) and one for the other party (the caller). RockRecorder saves them as one stereo recording, agent on the left and caller on the right.
You need to be a SuperAdmin, and the server needs the Cisco BiB license. A server has one Cisco BiB interface.
1. Add the Cisco BiB interface
- Open the user menu (top right) and go to Administration > Recording > Recording Interfaces.
- Click Add recording interface.
- Give it a name, choose Recorder Type: Cisco BiB, and pick the Network Interface (NIC) Cisco Unified CM reaches the server on.
- Click Create Recording Interface.
On the interface's Settings tab, under SIP and RTP ports:
| Setting | What it is | Default |
|---|---|---|
| SIP port | Where Cisco Unified CM sends the calls to record (SIP over TCP) | 5060 |
| RTP ports | The range the audio arrives on, one port per call leg | 20000 to 30000 |
Click Save, then Apply. Allow TCP on the SIP port and UDP on the RTP ports through any firewall between the phones, Cisco Unified CM and RockRecorder.
There's no Channels tab: a channel is created automatically for each phone the first time it records.
2. Set up Cisco Unified CM
Your Cisco administrator sets up call recording in Cisco Unified CM to send recordings to RockRecorder. In outline:
- A SIP trunk to the RockRecorder server's address, on the SIP port above, over TCP.
- A route pattern for the recorder that uses that trunk, and a recording profile that uses the route pattern as its destination.
- On each phone to record, Built In Bridge turned on.
- On each line to record, the recording option (automatic recording, or selective), the recording profile, and the recording media source set to the phone.
The exact menus depend on your version of Cisco Unified CM. Cisco's own documentation covers them under call recording.
3. Name the phones
Each channel is named after the phone's display name, or its extension if it has none. To use your own names, go to Administration > Alias Banks > Cisco BiB alias bank, add each Extension and its name (or import a CSV), and click Apply. New recordings from that extension use the name.
To give a group every Cisco phone, including ones that record for the first time later, turn on Every Cisco BiB channel on the group.
4. Check it's working
Make a call on a phone set up for recording. When it ends, it appears on the Recordings page under the phone's channel, with the agent's name and extension as the alias and the caller's number as the UID. Play it: the agent is on the left, the caller on the right.
Stereo takes twice the space of other recordings, about 115 MB per hour of calls. See Requirements.
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| No calls arrive | Cisco Unified CM's trunk points at the right address and SIP port over TCP, and the firewall allows it. In the log (/opt/rockrecorder/logs/cisco_bib.log) each call shows as an INVITE |
Calls are turned away (503 in the log) |
Record on this interface is off, 50 calls are already recording, or the RTP port range is used up |
| Only one side is heard | The RTP ports are blocked for one of the two streams |
| A channel for a phone never appears | That phone or line isn't set to record in Cisco Unified CM |