Change Background Display On Polycom SoundPoint SIP Phones

Another task I recently completed for a client of mine was to modify the background image for Polycom SoundPoint SIP phones connecting to the companies VoIP network externally. Depending on the model of the Polycom SoundPoint you can modify the background image that displays on the LCD panel using a URL. In this case the phone type was a Polycom SoundPoint 550 and he phones connecting via an external network were not displaying the background image that was set for phones on the internal network. Below is information on where you can find where the background image is set and an example configuration file that explains what could be changed to have different phones locate the background image on the Polycom SoundPoint SIP phones also known as the home display.

CFG File Settings That Modify Default SoundPoint Home Display:

One setting that can provide a different home display image such as the companies logo is called “mb.idleDisplay.home”. This is going to be in a configuration file (.CFG) that is specified in each phones initial provisioning file that it grabs from the TFTP server. These provisioning files are typically named by the phones MAC address such as 1234567890AB.cfg which is 12 hexadecimal characters long. The various other configuration files will be set in the initial provisioning file via the CONFIG_FILES setting such as the below example.

Mac Address Provisioning File Config Files Setting Example:

CONFIG_FILES="sip.cfg,registration.cfg,group-settings.cfg"

In this example the group-settings.cfg file has the necessary configuration information to set the home display URL via the GROUP_OVERRIDES group of settings as shown in the below example.

GROUP_OVERRIDES SoundPoint Configuration File Example:

<GROUP_OVERRIDES>
<OVERRIDES
voIpProt.SIP.alertInfo.1.value="Ring Answer"
voIpProt.SIP.alertInfo.1.class="4"
voIpProt.SIP.alertInfo.2.value="Internal"
voIpProt.SIP.alertInfo.2.class="5"
voIpProt.SIP.alertInfo.3.value="External"
voIpProt.SIP.alertInfo.3.class="6"
se.stutterOnVoiceMail="0"
se.appLocalEnabled="1"
se.rt.enabled="1"
se.rt.modification.enabled="1"
se.rt.4.name="Ring Answer"
se.rt.4.type="ring-answer"
se.rt.4.timeout="500"
se.rt.4.ringer="13"
se.rt.4.callWait="6"
se.rt.4.mod="1"
se.rt.5.ringer="4"
dialplan.digitmap="#6xx|[2-9]11|0T|011.T|[0-1][2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxT|[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxT|[2-9]xxxxxxT|xxxxxT|xxxxT|xxxT|*xxT"
up.oneTouchVoiceMail="1"
msg.bypassInstantMessage="1"
msg.mwi.1.callBackMode="contact"
msg.mwi.1.callBack="*98"
voice.volume.persist.handset="1"
voice.volume.persist.headset="1"
qos.ip.rtp.dscp="EF"
qos.ip.callControl.dscp="AF31"
feature.1.name="presence"
feature.1.enabled="1"
feature.9.name="url-dialing"
feature.9.enabled="0"
presence pres.reg="1"
call.offeringTimeOut="0"
call.ringBackTimeOut="0"
mb.idleDisplay.home="http://192.168.1.50/company-logo.php"
mb.main.home="http://192.168.1.50/home/"
mb.main.statusbar="0"
mb.main.idleTimeout="60"
prov.polling.enabled="1"
prov.polling.time="03:00"
se.pat.misc.1.inst.1.type="silence"/>
</GROUP_OVERRIDES>

As you can see in the above example the mb.idleDisplay.home configuration file setting is where there URL to a background URL that should be HTML formatted. Below is the exact setting pulled from the entire configuration file.

Polycom SoundPoint LCD Background Display Configuration Setting:

mb.idleDisplay.home="http://192.168.1.50/company-logo.php"

Notice in the above setting a PHP file is specified that will return formatted HTML created to display a specific background image on the Polycom SoundPoint SIP phones.