Bogen ProHold digital players for on hold messages have been replaced with new, more reliable technology. For over a decade this early digital equipment (and earlier Bogen digital models) was one of the standard on hold players, having been installed as original equipment with many telephone systems and supplied by many on hold companies when the on hold market was “going digital.”
Bogen Prohold systems lost their advantage
As years passed, the Bogen Prohold lost its edge. Production moved from Israel to other locations and quality suffered. Warranties did not keep pace, and my clients started experiencing increased problems playing their hold messages. When we realized that the Bogen Prohold was less reliable than other hold message players, we quickly switched, and swapped out all the digital players for our clients.
New more reliable than the Bogen Prohold, and made in the USA
We experimented with several different brands, finally settling on the Nel-Tech line of digital players. Unlike the Bogen Prohold, Nel-tech has always had a policy of manufacturing all their equipment in the United States, in New Hampshire. The Informer has worked with Nel Tech since they were a start-up and has stayed with them ever since. When the Bogen Prohold was becoming less reliable, Nel Tech actually increased their warantee from 3 to 5 full years.
Technology becomes less of an advantage
For years providing new playback technology like the Bogen Prohold was an advantage.
But the technology wars have ended, and there are many suppliers of industry standard on hold players. We’ve seen technology move from “carts” (similar to 8-track cartridges!) to “auto reverse cassettes” to “endless loop cassettes” to “floppy disks” (very short lived) to CD’s to digital players like the Bogen Prohold. Today, the most popular systems on the market play mp3 files on specialized heavy duty on hold players, or simply play your on hold messages right on advanced telephone system servers.
What do you do if you have an old player, like a Bogen Prohold?
According to a Bogen spokesperson, the company stopped manufacturing digital players like this Bogen system over a decade ago. If you have an older system that’s still working fine (there are few if any moving parts to wear out, so they can last a long time) we’re happy to provide Informer Messages in the format that your player uses. And when that system finally wears out, we’ll have the newest and easiest to use systems on the market to replace it.
Bogen Pro Hold is a copyright of the Bogen Company, and not affiliated with The Informer.