The following diagram illustrates the digital recording/playback system at work.

It is possible for an IVR unit to record telephone conversations and to play back conversations or segments to users and/or customers. In one case there is a dedicated port connected in parallel to each agent station through which calls are recorded and played back. Another option is to connect the IVR/voice processor to a switch, PBX, etc. The IVR unit accesses a conversation for recording by using the silent supervisor monitoring feature of the switch. Two typical methods of signaling the switch with this configuration are as follows:

Using in-band signaling. The control application sends a command to the IVR instructing it to go off hook on the desired port and dial a sequence of DTMF tones and possibly other characters such as pause and flash. This will cause the switch to connect the IVR to the desired port.

Providing an out-of-band CTI link between the IVR and the switch.