Text to speech expert CereProc adds two youthful accents to its range of English commercial synthetic voices

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:01:36 GMT

Leading text to speech company, CereProc, has added male Southern English and female Northern English accents to its wide range of English language synthetic voices, making them available for download and deployment across multiple platforms using Windows, Mac OS X, CereVoice Cloud, SDK or cServer products.

Freely accessible throughout the further, higher, and continuing education sectors in England as part of the TechDis Voices initiative, the male Southern English and female Northern English voices - named Jack and Jess respectively - are now commercially available to developers or individuals seeking to integrate CereProc's patented voice creation technology - delivering high quality synthetic voices that retain the character and sentiment of the voice artist - in the English language with specific regional accents.

Having been recently added to CereProc's growing number of commercially available voices, the two text to speech (TTS) voices were formally launched last month - in partnership with leading UK advisory service JISC TechDis - for use in the education system throughout England. Supported by funding by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), the youthful male and female synthetic voices were developed by CereProc following intensive research and beta testing among active users to ascertain the most effective and well received voices.

Designed to support individuals who require assistive and alternative communication aids for speech output, and those visually impaired users dependent upon the TTS technology to access digital resources, the voice software also serves as a tool to improve productivity when embedded into wider mainstream multichannel practices.

Available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and compatible with screen readers and many other widely used applications, the Jack and Jess synthetic voices are 22khz for excellent clarity and naturalness.

"We're delighted to offer the Jack and Jess voices to a wider audience via the online store, cServer, SDK and CereVoice Cloud services. They've had such a fantastic reception so far within the English education system so we're pleased to add them to our armoury of English language voices currently available for download," explained Paul Welham, Chief Executive at CereProc.

ENDS

With patented Emotional Speech Synthesis technology that is available on multiple platforms, CereProc offers the world's most advanced TTS technology. Continually pushing market boundaries to expand its product range and service areas, CereProc works with a raft of global clients - individuals, brands, businesses and academic institutions - to create synthetic text to speech solutions that are fit for purpose. Designed to provide an engaging user experience, CereProc delivers realistic, emotional, custom built voices in multiple languages.

CereProc offers a wide range of solutions including multichannel TTS software for servers, application development tools, and custom built branded voices, alongside voice bundles for resale and individual voices for direct download.

John Hayes MP announces launch of JISC TechDis text to speech voices by CereProc

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:33:36 GMT

eading UK advisory service, JISC TechDis has today formally launched TechDis Voices, two synthetic voices – created in partnership with text to speech (TTS) company, CereProc – developed for use in the education system throughout England, at the Go On: National Digital Conference (NDC2012) in London.

Announced by John Hayes MP, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, the development of the TechDis Voices, funded by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), serves to make youthful and modern voices freely available throughout the further, higher, and continuing education sectors.

Working in collaboration, JISC TechDis and CereProc developed the text to speech voices - one male, Jack and one female, Jess – to encourage the use of text to speech TTS tools among, students, staff and life long learners throughout the education system in England.

At an event celebrating the campaign for digital inclusion, the launch marks a recognition of the increasing importance of text to speech (TTS) technology and voice software, supporting CereProc’s broad research and development strategy to explore how individuals and organisations can benefit from the integration of text to speech (TTS) technology.

“We’re delighted that the TechDis voices have had such fantastic reception at this year’s Go On: NDC 2012. A truly multi faceted project in terms of application and user benefits, it’s great to have the backing of John Hayes MP, and to be given such a fantastic stage to launch the TechDis voices among an audience with such an open and forward thinking attitude,” explained Paul Welham, Chief Executive at CereProc.

Primarily designed to support individuals who require assistive and alternative communication aids for speech output, and those visually impaired users dependent upon the TTS technology to access educational resources, the TechDis voices also serve as a tool to improve productivity when embedded into wider mainstream multichannel practices.

Blending CereProc’s efficient patented voice creation technology with JISC TechDis’ commitment to driving forward awareness of the value of providing freely available text to speech (TTS) voices, the collaboration has produced two high quality, youthful and modern voices that retain the character and sentiment of the voice artist.

Supported by JISC TechDis by being given access to thousands of potential users, CereProc carried out intensive research, selection and a period of beta testing among active users to ascertain the most effective and well received voices.

Explaining the significance of the TechDis Voices, Alistair McNaught, Senior Advisor with JISC TechDis added: “Text-to-speech has been very poorly used in the education sector. We believe that by having learner focussed voices, that learners themselves have helped to choose we can transform its mainstream acceptance and availability.”

“We are hoping that Jess and Jack will help bring text-to-speech out of the shadows and into the light of mainstream education provision. There are so many benefits for so many different types of people,” concluded Sal Cooke, Directory of JISC TechDis.

Free to access for education users, the voices are available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X and compatible with screen readers and many other widely used applications. During his plenary speech, John Hayes also launched the TechDis Toolbox alongside the TechDis Voices.

For a video introduction, go to http://vimeo.com/42704700

Visit the website for more information www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/voices

CereProc’s Paul Welham gets call up to the EU LT Innovate Steering Committee

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:30:31 GMT

Global text to speech technology company CereProc today announced that CEO Paul Welham has agreed to take up a position in the Steering Committee of LT-Innovate - The Forum for Europe’s Language Technology Industry

Welham is one of three company representatives appointed to the board, and the position will see him take an active role in supporting the LT Innovate organisation establish a progressive strategy moving forward in the coming year, consistently working to satisfy the agreed Charter. In particular, Welham will be drawing upon his own and CereProc's extensive experience in multilingual text to speech, voice and speech technologies with the aim of bringing the benefits of the advancing language technologies to European citizens and businesses.

Commenting on the appointment, Welham stated: “It’s an honour to be selected to take part in the LT-Innovate Steering Committee, alongside such highly respected individuals. Language technology is continuing to develop at an incredible rate thanks to the research carried out across Europe, and the LT Innovate Forum provides the perfect opportunity to harness advancing technologies and the huge level of expertise that Europe currently boasts, initiating dialogue between European companies, research bodies and potential commercial partners.

“Of fundamental importance to me in playing a role in the LT Innovate Steering Committee is to ensure that the value and potential of innovative language technologies are fully explored, focusing on the challenges we face in pushing forward the commercialisation of language technology, and enabling, where possible, business collaboration and relationships to develop across Europe throughout the industry. I’m looking forward to drawing upon my own and CereProc’s experience to help the European language technology industry compete on the global stage, and thereby to create more high value jobs in Europe. Europe now more than ever needs a successful IT industry to ensure continuing success in all existing and new markets,” Welham added.

CereProc and Telisma voice the announcement of an ideal partnership

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:34:58 GMT

Advanced Text to Speech (TTS) solutions company CereProc has agreed a partnership with Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems expert Telisma, enabling the creation of the most natural voice input and output systems available on the global market.

In an agreement which marks the connection of two speech technology industry giants, CereProc has been selected by Telisma to support a multi server deployment initiative which demands high quality French, English, Spanish and German voices.

Telisma, an OnMobile Global Ltd company, recognised the potential of integrating the complementary technologies of CereProc, with its own software speech technology, to form powerful and scalable solutions for customers seeking enhanced natural and accurate voice input and output carrier-grade systems which are tuned into specific vernacular language and accents.

Ideal for the project with Telisma, CereProc delivers speech content in multiple languages offering a natural prosody and characterful voices which are pleasant to listen to for long periods of time, essential when interacting with screenless, remote entertainment devices. Setting the standard in TTS technology and custom built voices, CereProc is recognised for English, Spanish German and French, with the latter ‘Metropolitan French’ voice existing as the most natural, realistic and characterful French TTs voice available.

“The partnership with Telisma is certainly a very exciting one. Both companies are operating at the cutting edge of speech technology, so it really is the coming together of the best technologies available on the market and we are thrilled to be involved in the production and delivery of such ground-breaking systems,” said Paul Welham, CEO at CereProc.

Going beyond a partnership of technologies, Telisma and CereProc also worked closely on MRCP server integration with the teliSpeech platform to facilitate the deployment of CereProc voices in telephony environments along with Telisma's technology.

An advanced programme of onsite training provided by CereProc, together with a professional responsiveness - turning around patches and voice updates for Telisma in a timely manner - ensured an efficient and effective integration process. Following CereProc’s training, Telisma now holds the expertise required to harness the unprecedented levels of control and modification capabilities of the core speech synthesis engine CereVoice, optimising the performance and effectiveness of this partnership of such pioneering speech technologies

Top Articles Tagged with tts

Text to speech expert CereProc adds two youthful accents to its range of English commercial synthetic voices

John Hayes MP announces launch of JISC TechDis text to speech voices by CereProc

CereProc’s Paul Welham gets call up to the EU LT Innovate Steering Committee

CereProc and Telisma voice the announcement of an ideal partnership