Interface marries media card with speech server

Aculab has released the beta version of its telephony interface manager (TIM) for the Microsoft Speech Server 2004.

Aculab has released the beta version of its telephony interface manager (TIM) for the Microsoft Speech Server 2004.

Solution providers who are looking to develop applications based on Microsoft Speech Server 2004 will soon be able to take advantage of the reliability and price performance offered by Aculab's media processing resource card, Prosody, in addition to Aculab's support of an extensive portfolio of worldwide protocols including: Q.SIG, SS7, DPNSS, and ISDN.

The high level of interest received concerning our support for Microsoft Speech Server 2004 has been overwhelming", said Faye McClenahan Head of Strategic Marketing.

"Aculab has always endeavoured to provide customers with choice".

"Supporting Microsoft Speech Server 2004 on Aculab hardware provides customers and prospects with a cost effective alternative, which can be deployed globally".

MSS is a platform for developing and running speech enabled applications, such as IVR.

It includes Microsoft's ASR and Scansoft's TTS technology, as standard, and presents a SALT interface for application development.

A key driver behind the development of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 is to make speech enabled applications mainstream.

"Aculab's support for Microsoft Speech Server opens up new opportunities for its deployment throughout the world, reinforcing our mutual commitment to making speech technology mainstream", said James Mastan Director of Marketing for the Microsoft Speech Server group at Microsoft Corp.

"The release of an Aculab TIM enables application developers and enterprise customers to choose proven telephony components from a company that brings a great deal of expertise to this solution space".

Microsoft Speech Server 2004 needs to connect to the PSTN and have access to low level media processing resources.

Aculab's TIM allows developers using the Microsoft Speech Server 2004 to take advantage of Aculab's extensive portfolio of worldwide digital network access protocols and media processing resources.

The tight integration of the Aculab TIM with the Microsoft Speech Server 2004 platform means developers don't have to worry about low-level call control and resource provisioning - they simply focus on creating applications using the Microsoft Speech Server 2004 application interface.

Prosody provides the essential media processing resources for operation of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 and offers the option of adding a primary rate trunk module (PM) for digital network connectivity.

All the features required by the Microsoft Speech Server 2004 platform have long been part of Prosody's extensive portfolio of media processing resources.

Compared with traditional speech cards (high per channel cost, multiple APIs, limited functionality) Prosody is an excellent investment, with Aculab's media processing resources provided via a cost free licence.

This best places Prosody to help achieve the objective to lower the total cost of ownership for speech enabled solutions, as set out by Microsoft.

A requirement of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 is to ensure applications can accommodate essential call scenarios.

Call transfer would be a good example, where a caller having gone through an IVR system needs to be transferred to a live agent.

Aculab's TIM provides access to Aculab's feature rich call control capabilities The digital network access capability of Aculab's Prosody card is used to connect the Microsoft Speech Server 2004 to enterprise voice networks.

For solution providers who are planning to deploy their Microsoft Speech Server 2004 solution internationally, selecting Aculab for its protocol coverage presents a wealth of additional benefits and includes both E1 and T1 interface connections.

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