PipeBeach and SVOX Announce Alliance

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN and ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - PipeBeach AB and SVOX AG announced an alliance with the aim to provide mixed-lingual synthesized voices with the PipeBeach speechWeb system for telephony services. The mixed-lingual text-to-speech technology enables end-users to listen to correctly pronounced content provided as text in more than one language. The alliance gives direct improvements to widely used voice applications, such as email/SMS-reading, directory assistance and news briefs. When using telephony voice services, including a text-to-speech, end-users often have difficulties understanding the synthesized voice when text includes words in another language than the text-to-speech engine was developed for. For example an email in German containing English words, would be pronounced incorrectly by a standard German TTS engine. SVOX mixed-lingual TTS solves this problem with its software architecture. This improvement of email reading over the phone offered by PipeBeach AB and SVOX AG is important for global corporations and organisations. Under the partnership, the SVOX text-to-speech engine has been integrated into the PipeBeach speechWeb VoiceXML platform. The combined offering is available for operators, service providers and enterprises for instant deployment. In a directory assistant application, company names, persons, streets etc. often have both native and international names, for example "B hler Technologies, Francesco Alagia, World Trade Center, Av. De Gratta-Paille 2, Lausanne". The mixed-lingual text-to-speech architecture from SVOX solves the pronunciation problem when reading a native language including foreign words using the same voice in one single sentence. Additionally, application developers and service providers can save costs and time by using the PipeBeach speechWeb VoiceXML platform and SVOX multi-lingual text-to-speech software. No manual tuning and adjustment are required for correct pronunciation of mixed languages. "PipeBeach's speechWeb VoiceXML platform unique features in combination with SVOX's mixed-lingual and natural sounding Text-to-Speech is a perfect solution for Telecommunication companies and global corporations interested in implementing voice solutions", says Alexander Fries, Chief Marketing Officer at SVOX. "We provide our customers with cost-efficient implementation of voice solutions in a wide range of languages. SVOX's innovative technology and exciting roadmap is an excellent fit with PipeBeach applications and speechWeb platform. We foresee the creation of a range of new revenue generating and cost saving services enabled by our combined offering", says Christer Granberg, CEO and co-founder of PipeBeach.