Newfound Communications and Voice Partners Enter Partnership
BOSTON, Mass. and PALO ALTO, Calif. - Newfound Communications and Voice Partners, LLC partnered to improve the audio experience over-the-phone using the Newfound MediaMixer 1.3 [VoiceXML edition].
"Newfound's MediaMixer opens up a whole new audio palate allowing non-verbal audio to play during system prompts and caller responses," stated Wally Brill, principal and co-founder, Voice Partners.
"Voice Partners is the world's leader in VUI design. We believe that with our media server technology and their VUI expertise, we can take our client's systems to the next level with an enhanced audio design experience," added Kris Hopkins, CEO of Newfound Communications.
The Newfound MediaMixer delivers engaging, branded and entertaining speech applications by overlaying a second channel of audio during a phone call. Working in concert with VoiceXML and VoIP, the MediaMixer feeds audio independent of the IVR prompts and dialogs with effects such as fade in, volume control or fade out as well as voice navigation tools such as fast forward, rewind or pause. The MediaMixer utilizes many of the most prominent audio formats available for telephony applications (.ulaw, .alaw, .WAV, etc.).
To showcase the Newfound MediaMixer and other Newfound technologies, Voice Partners and Newfound will also be co-hosting a contest at this year's SpeechTek 2005 in New York City. Voice Partners has designed the first way to test attendees acting skills by phone with "Screentest." SpeechTek conference-goers can stop by the Newfound booth and pick up a script, call the number, and star opposite Hollywood greats like Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, and even Star Wars' Jedi Master, Yoda. A team of casting experts will then rate the performances and the winner will receive a valuable prize.
About Newfound
Newfound Communications, Inc. offers technology, tools, and expertise to fuel the speech recognition revolution. By working with Newfound, companies and developers bypass the largest impediments to creating speech-driven applications. For Newfound's customers, the combination of software and professional services provides unparalleled value: best-of-breed applications, sound telephony deployments, fast and affordable development and satisfied callers. For additional information regarding Newfound Communications visit their web site at www.newfoundcomm.net <http://www.newfoundcomm.net/> .
About Voice Partners
Voice Partners is the World's leading User Experience Design consultancy, focused on end-to-end, cross-mode interactions...with particular focus on the primary contact device of the 21st century: the phone. Co-founders Melissa Dougherty and Wally Brill created the SWAT team of speech, bringing together the leaders in linguistics, voice user interface design, deployment and usability. Voice Partners takes a zero tolerance approach to compromised customer experience over-the-phone. "Do it right or get the other guys!"
From its headquarters in Palo Alto, CA, and locations across North America, South America and Europe, Voice Partners works with Blue Chip clients who care about providing better over-the-phone customer service that reinforces their valuable brand image. Voice Partners is technology agnostic, and has designed systems using all major speech recognition engine providers and telephony platforms. For more information about Voice Partners, please visit www.voicepartners.com or contact Melissa Dougherty at 650-493-5866 (info@voicepartners.com).
Media Contact:
Rina Neiman
Public Relations
Voice Partners
(mobile) 415.505.7099
press@voicepartners.com
James Loeber
VP of Business Development
Newfound Communications, Inc.
(phone) 978.794.3878
jloeber@newfoundcomm.net