How do I change tones and sounds for Lights?

In BlueNote Communicator Lights, Tones serve as audible signals that announce office events without requiring anyone to look at a screen. Converting a visual event - like a light turning on - into an audio cue allows the team to remain focused on patient care until they are needed elsewhere.

Customizing or muting these sounds ensures that the office’s audible notifications are helpful rather than overwhelming. By selecting the right tones, a calmer environment is created, where the team stays informed through gentle audio cues instead of constantly needing to watch a monitor.

Where do Tones come from?

Tones are managed in two different ways: System Wide (the sound assigned to the Light for everyone) and Local (whether or not a user hears that sound at their workstation).

System Wide: A BlueNote Administrator within the office chooses the default sound from the Tone Library when a Light or BlueNote is created.
Local: Each individual user uses the Alert Manager to decide if they want to hear that specific sound or mute it entirely.

How to change the Tone for a Light (System Wide)

If you want to change the sound that a specific Light makes for everyone in the office, you must do this from a computer with Administrative access.

Go to Menu > Preferences > Advanced > System Wide Changes.
Select Edit Lights Configuration and stay on the Light Panels tab.
Click on the Light you wish to change. This will open the Light Editor.
Look for the Tone tab and click "Select Tone." From here you can select from the library of over 300 built-in BlueNote sounds.
To hear the sound before committing, click the Play Icon ▶️ to the right, or double-click the tone after choosing the green "Select Tone" button.
Once you’ve selected the new sound, click Save Light.
Important: Your changes won't take effect until you click Publish to send the update to all other computers on the network.

Playing BlueNote Tone before Light Tone

Note that if the Light Name is a location, be sure to check the option "Play any associated BlueNote tone before this one." This way the end result is that the tones play in the order of "Dr X" to "Room 1" instead of "Room 1" then "Dr X". The person's assigned tone should always play first to get their attention. Then the Location or action tone will play, informing them of the notification more effectively.

How to change tones for internal BlueNotes (System Wide)

If you want a BlueNote Message within one or more Lights to play its own sound when tagged to a Light, follow these steps:

Go to Menu > Preferences > Advanced > System Wide Changes.
Select Edit Lights Configuration and click the BlueNotes tab at the top.
Select the Tab number or name where the message is located.
Click on the BlueNote you wish to edit - this will open the BlueNote message editor.
Use the Tone tab to select a new sound or spoken alert and Save it.
Click Save BlueNote.
Important: Go to the Publish tab and click Save and Publish Changes to update the rest of the office.

How to Delete/Remove tones on Lights or BlueNotes

Click the 🔈X icon alongside "Select Tone" will remove the tone and "No Tone" will appear as the selected Tone.

How to Mute a Tone from the Alert Manager (Local)

If a specific Light is making a sound and you want to disable it at one computer without affecting the rest of the office, use the Alert Manager.

Choose Menu > Notifications > Alert Manager.
Locate the Light that is making the sound.
Click the Green Tone icon next to that Light. It will turn Red, indicating that the tone is now "Off" for your workstation only.