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All-rights-included audio files: Acapela-box.com adds attractive new price packs to its online audio production service.

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0200

June 28th, 2010

Acapela Box, the online service launched in March 2010 by Acapela Group to allow any Internet user to easily generate all-rights-included sound files on demand, is expanding its range of purchase options.
The introduction of new intermediate packs creates a wider choice for users and enables a closer match between vocalization required and price.
Acapela-box users can convert text to speech from as little as 5 euros, rising to 300 euros, depending on the volume of vocalization needed. There are now 6 different price packs.
Since the creation of the service 3 months ago, over 2500 subscribers from around the world have already created an account on Acapela-box, for private or professional use.
Language learning, personal productivity, e- learning, web page or blog vocalization are popular uses of text to speech, as well as video voice-over, answering machine or recorded messages for telephony services.
Acapela-box enables everyone to benefit from high quality voices and turn any written text into vocal messages, as easy as a click. Just type in your text, listen, adjust, fine tune with the setting tools, generate the voice message and download all-rights-included files. http://www.acapela-box.com

Webinars for iPhone/iPad developers: Create talkative apps and bring a smiling voice to your interface!.

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0200

June 15th, 2010

The Acapela text-to-speech voices convert any text into highly natural speech in 22 languages. Thanks to the Acapela TTS for iPhone and iPad Software Development Kit (SDK) you will be able to include this feature in your next app, with only a few lines of code.
Interested?
Register to join one of our 30 minutes webinars*:
>> In French/en francais on June 30th at 10 am CET - Click here to register
>> In English on July 1st at 3 pm CET - Click here to register
Jean-Michel Reghem, Acapela Product Manager for Developer solutions, will present the SDK and demonstrate how you can easily create apps integrating Acapela natural voices.
Who should attend the webinar?
Anyone working with development of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch applications.
App Gallery
More than 20 talkative apps using Acapela text-to-speech are already available on the Apple App Store for different purposes: GPS navigation, news & books reading, language learning, travel guides, emails, RSS and tweets reading, AAC & communicators for speech disabled persons, and much more. Take a look for yourself in our online app gallery.
Acapela TTS for iPhone and iPad key benefits:Easy integration of voice for enhanced intuitive interfaceVery natural and pleasant voicesMultilingual offer: 22 languagesChoice of Voices: 44 voicesApp Store compatible business modelAudio integration allows users to interact effectively with iPod music (interrupt, mix, etc.)
More information about the Acapela TTS for iPhone and iPad SDK on our dedicated web site.
Interested in receiving email invitations and newsletters about the Acapela TTS for iPhone and iPad, please sign up to our mailing list.
* System Requirements for attending the webinar
PC-based attendees: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000
Macintosh®-based attendees: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

Calling all savvy iPhone developers: connect to and enjoy www.acapela-for-iphone.com, the comprehensive, number one website for talking apps.

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0200

June 7th, 2010

Moscone West, San Francisco, June 7th, 2010.
Acapela Group today is launching its brand new website, www.acapela-for-iphone.com, fully dedicated to the developer community, providing straight forward information, support and solutions to develop smart talking applications, easily.
Stay tuned with acapela-for-iphone.com!
... and learn what speech synthesis can bring to your application.
Register and join us on acapela-for-iphone.com, share the latest news, follow our topics on twitter and on the blog, access our FAQ, make direct contact with Acapela's Product Manager, take a stroll through our Gallery to hear more about talking apps already available on the Apple Appstore and enter the vocal dimension.
Acapela TTS for iPad and iPhone SDK will add a friendly voice to your iPhone, iPad or iTouch application with a few lines of code, in 22 languages and a choice of 44 voices.
Follow us on twitter @Acapela_iPhone and meet the Acapela team at WWDC 2010, Moscone, San Francisco, June 7-11.
Key advantages of Acapela TTS for iPad and iPhone:Supernatural and pleasant voices: easy integration of voices for enhanced intuitive multilingual interface (22 Languages, 44 Voices)AppStore compatible pricing: royalties are based on a percentage of the selling price. Other models (inAppPurchase, etc.) are available too.Two voice formats: Low Footprint 20 to 30MB/voice and High Quality Medium (40 to 250MB/voice)iPod audio friendly: perfectly integrated with AudioSession, allows users to work effectively with iPod music (interrupt and resume, mix, ...)Multi-devices: Acapela TTS for iPhone and iPad are static libraries compatible with all iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad versions, as well as the iPhone and iPad simulator on Mac OS X.Easy integration: thanks to the High Level API written in Objective C, developers will be able, with a minimum of code lines, to quickly and easily integrate speech synthesis into their application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
www.acapela-for-iphone.com is part of the new acapela-for-developers.com portal, brought to you by Acapela to provide developers with the information they are looking for, quickly and efficiently.
www.acapela-vaas.com, the Acapela cloud computing service, is also part of this portal which will soon be extended to other products and solutions.

ebook reader on iPad: books can finally talk with vBookz and Acapela voices..

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0200

June 3rd, 2010

vBookz is an extraordinary ebook reader that actually reads for you up to 30 000 titles available for free, using Acapela pleasant voices, in already 13 languages.
vBookZ is intuitive, easy to use, and offers to the iPad users a whole new reading experience. Acapela speech synthesis comes in to turn the written content into pleasant speech, without ever having to watch the screen.
vBookz is NOT 'books on tape': it is a live text-to-speech generator with no need for conversion nor stored books files. It is a new way to enjoy reading: eyes-free reading while on the move, driving or just relaxing, assisted reading for the sight impaired or audio feedback for children or those learning to read in a foreign language.
vBookz adds to speech capability orientation and navigation tools that enhances the reading experience, combining two senses together - sight and hearing. An interactive cursor allows users to follow along, pause reading or even repeat lines or paragraphs to ensure reading comprehension.
'Our goal is to convert reading into a rich user experience, where text to speech quality and acceptance is obviously a key ingredient. We relay on Acapela wide portfolio of languages and voices to deliver the right audio result' said Dror Kalisky, co-founder and CEO of vBookz.
'Acapela voices have already been deployed in many iPhone apps and are now entering the iPad environment, to add value to rich content and inspire new ways to transform content and tell stories. We are very pleased to give the say to this powerful ebook reader and work with an innovative player such as vBookz to contribute to the creation of new ways to access and read books' said Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.
The vBookz application comes with US English built in voice. Books in English can be heard from the first moment you purchase it. The language portfolio can be enriched by using the in-app purchase option.
Multilingual: Acapela voices already available in English US, Czech, Danish, Dutch NL, French, Greek, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Swedish.
Pricing is $4.99 for US English app, and an additional $4.99 per foreign language, with over 30,000 book titles available today
Availability: The Apple Store: http://itunes.apple.com/app/vbookz/id366703930?mt=8
More information at http://vbookz.com

Meet Acapela at WWDC 2010.

Mon, 31 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

May 31st, 2010

Acapela Group will be present at The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the premier technical conference for developers innovating with Apple technologies, from June 7-11 in Moscone, San Francisco, California. Meet Acapela team and follow Acapela WWDC hot topics at http://twitter.com/Acapela_iPhone
Advanced audio content: hear all about Acapela TTS for iPhone and iPad SDK and use Acapela supernatural voices from Acapela Group to develop your own talkative apps, with the easy creation of vocal applications for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
Check out Acapela TTS for iPhone & iPad gallery.

Portable accessibility: Infovox inKey V2.0 now available.

Wed, 26 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

May 26th, 2010

Designed to offer to visually impaired people Portable Accessibility, Infovox inKey is a USB product including a powerful SAPI text-to-speech engine and a quick and smart screen reader. It fits in the pocket and empowers the end user with the capability to access any computer, anywhere, anytime.
The V2.0 version offers new voices, faster response time with 64-bit support and updated Thunder screen reader for optimal use.
New languages & voices have joined the Acapela super natural voices smiling family:Rasmus, a new Danish male voiceLaia, a new Catalan female voiceTracy, a new American English female voiceMargaux, a new French female voiceNizar, a new Arabic and English voice

64-bit support:
Infovox inKey v2.0 is fully compatible with 64-bits version of screen readers, providing a faster response time, both when working with a 32-bit and with a 64-bit screen reader.

Updated Thunder:
Infovox inKey v2.0 includes an updated version of Thunder screen reader
Read more on Infovox inKey webpage

It Speaks!, the indispensable travel companion & award-winning language app for iPhone, uses Acapela voices.

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

May 5th, 2010

It Speaks! - a smart language application designed by Traduko - uses Acapela speech synthesis to turn words and phrases in 11 languages into natural voices with perfect accents, and works both online and offline.

The application has recently been awarded in the Excitera Mobile Cup, the world's largest platform-independent competition for mobile services, where the theme this year was "mobile services that will change the world".
It Speaks! is a great tool when travelling abroad, giving access to more than 1200 words and 300 phrases. The application includes a number of different phrases for different situations, such as at a restaurant, when you need medical help, making conversation or finding your way. At any time, the user listens to a natural voice that reads words and phrases instantly. It Speaks! is currently available in 11 languages: English, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian, with more to come. And all combinations of languages are possible.
'Providing text to speech for mobile applications and services is an increasingly important and rapidly growing part of Acapela's business. The limited screen size of the mobile device makes a speech interface the optimal solution. In the case of language learning it has of course a particularly important role. We are delighted that Traduko has chosen Acapela voices for It Speaks!, which is a very innovative and useful app', says Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.
'Choosing to use Acapela voices was an easy decision. The Acapela SDK (Software Development Kit) for iPhone is both well written and very quickly integrated. We are also very happy being able to offer a large selection of voices. Today we have 41 different voices but this is only the beginning', comments Erik Olsson, CEO of Traduko and creator of It Speaks!
The It Speaks! app for iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (iPhone OS 3.0 upwards) is available on the Apple AppStore. The basic application is free of charge while each text to speech voice costs 15 SEK (1.59 euro). For most languages the user can select among different male and female voices.

Read more about It Speaks!
Read more about Acapela text to speech solutions for mobile applications

About Traduko: Traduko is a translation agency working with professional translators, helping companies and organizations translate text to and from almost all existing languages.

About Mobile Cup 2010: Excitera Mobile Cup is the world's largest platform-independent competition for mobile services.

SightCity: Meet Acapela in booth F3 and learn more about Acapela Kiosk, a new solution for accessible publishing .

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

April 26th, 2010

Acapela will be present at SightCity, Germany's biggest exhibition for aids for blind and visually impaired people. The exhibition takes place at the Sheraton Hotel Frankfurt am Main in Frankfurt on April 28-30, 2010.
You are very much welcome to visit Acapela in booth F3 to get the latest news about our Infovox products, to learn more about Acapela Kiosk, a new solution for converting audio in different formats and to see how Acapela text-to-speech voices can be used in mobile applications for many different purposes.
Acapela Kiosk is a smart audio content production solution for newspapers & publishers to easily vocalise contents in up to 30 languages and with over 50 voices. Accessible publishing, Daisy books, vocalization of newspaper content, self publishing, blogs and podcasting are application areas that can all benefit from the Acapela Kiosk service. Acapela Kiosk has already been successfully proven, with the audio production of the Swedish Parliament's newspaper, Riksdag & Department, and the vocalisation of Telefonavisa, a fully automated phone service deployed in Norway which allows blind and visually impaired people to access news gathered from 9 national newspapers and updated every 15 minutes, 24/7. Acapela Kiosk distribution of audio content is possible in many different formats and shapes: Daisy text & audio files, CD, download of mp3 files, Podcast and audio streaming.
Look forward to meeting you in Frankfurt
The Acapela Team

Acapela TTS for iPad: Highly natural voices from Acapela add audible value to rich content, in a choice of 22 languages and 44 voices!.

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

April 16th, 2010

Acapela is proud to announce that following the success of its TTS for iPhone, additional support for iPad is also now available, allowing developers to create vocal applications for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
Acapela TTS for iPhone SDK, already well known, extensively deployed and used in a broad range of talking apps available on the Apple appstore, is widening its support to the developer community. Acapela is bringing its super natural voices to the iPad environment, adding value to rich content and inspiring new ways to transform content and tell stories.
'Acapela's iPad support demonstrates our determination to provide advanced yet easy to integrate speech solutions to developers and reinforces the company's long term commitment vis à vis the Apple community. Acapela voices are ready to serve the rich content iPad challenge, to help developers bring added value, to both delight and inform the iPad user, and contribute towards designing a new efficient but not intrusive content experience formula' comments Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.
The new version provides developers with the same High Level API written in Objective C, enabling them, with a minimum of code lines, to quickly and easily integrate speech synthesis into their applications. Acapela's super natural tones will continue to spread the word for smart talkative applications. E-books, e-mails, navigation, education, productivity, social networking, whatever the application, Acapela naturally keeps enriching the visual and touch-sensitive interface with the speech experience.
AssistiveWare, leader in innovative Assistive technology software for Mac OSX and the iPhone, has already adopted Acapela TTS SDK for iPhone & iPad to extend its proloquo2Go AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) solution to iPad.
AcapelaTTS for iPhone and iPad Key benefitsEasy integration of voice for enhanced intuitive interfaceVery natural and pleasant voicesMultilingual offer: 22 languagesChoice of Voices: 44 voicesAppStore compatible business modelAudio integration allows users to interact effectively with iPod music (interrupt, mix, ...)
What's new about Acapela's iPhone and iPad 1.100 ?Support for iPhone OS 3.2 (including iPad)Updated code of demo app and new helloworld sample codeNew languages and voices: Dimitris (Greek Male), Alyona (Russian Female), Antonio (Spanish Male), Olav (Norwegian Male), Jeroen (Belgian Dutch Male), Marcia (Brazilian Female), Julia (German Female), Margaux (French Female), Ipek (Turkish Female), Arabic voices (Salma and Youssef) with diacritizer
Full Product presentation and iPhone apps gallery on
http://www.acapela-group.com/acapela-tts-for-iphone-26-speech-solutions.html

Acapela awarded Best M-learning at Swedish E-learning Awards 2010 .

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0200

March 30th, 2010

Celebrated a few days ago with a gala dinner in Stockholm, the Swedish E-Learning Awards declared Acapela Group winner in the category 'Best M-learning'.
Founded in 2007 to highlight companies and people with a passion for learning, the Swedish E-learning Awards have become an annual event where the e-learning industry's best training initiatives are nominated in various classes, both by purchasers and suppliers. Acapela Group was announced winner in the 'Best M-learning' category, selected from 30 nominees.
'We are very proud to receive this prestigious award', says Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group. 'It is the result of our determination and very hard work to create voice solutions available to all. The number of varied mobile applications integrating Acapela voices has expanded enormously and continues to do so, especially in the iPhone field, where we see innovative solutions smartly making excellent use of Acapela's pleasant voices.'

Acapela Group, expert and inventor of innovative vocal solutions, has provided high quality, natural voices for an extensive range of applications and products developed by its customers and partners in Mobility and e-learning domains. Acapela voices speech empower their learning programs to effectively convey content to their users, whatever the size of their mobiles, whilst successfully meeting the user-interface challenge. Text to speech is crucial to providing users easy access to content, simply impossible to do without speech solutions, which turn written content into an easy-to-listen-to audio result.
The three judges from the Swedish mobile industry (Anders Linger, Mobil Business; Tomas Bennich, Swedish Mobile Association; Annica Englund, Kista Science City) explain why they chose Acapela as the winning company in the 'Best M-learning' category: 'Mobile learning of the highest class, useful to a big number of people in Sweden and internationally. The nominated company combines the strengths of the mobile device with a high level of pedagogy. Through their model they act as a catalyst for the whole M-learning phenomena.'
Organizers of the Swedish E-Learning Award are:Promise (www.promise.se) - trade association for learning, entertainment and communication through digital media, and Swedish Learning Association (www.swedishlearningassociation.se) - an association for all those actively involved in skills development, learning and change within companies and organizations.

Advanced Voice Solutions Support for the Telephony Industry: Acapela Group Announces Full Support for MRCPv2.

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

March 16th, 2010

Acapela Speech Synthesis Powered by UniMRCP Open Source Project
Acapela Group, a leading Voice expert, and UniMRCP, an open source MRCP project, are announcing the release of Acapela MRCP add-on 2.000, an extension of Acapela TTS for Windows and Linux servers, providing customers with a greater choice of high-end speech solutions using MRCPv2.
Telephony providers can now benefit from Acapela's high quality and pleasant voices while relying on MRCPv2 for optimized integration of speech into their services and applications.
MRCP (Media Resource Control Protocol) allows telephony applications to communicate with speech resources, controlling media processing resources over the network using a distributed, client/server architecture. The main media processing resources specified by the MRCP standard are the Speech Synthesizer (TTS), Speech Recognizer (ASR), Speech Recorder (SR), and the Speaker Verifier (SV).
UniMRCP is an open source cross-platform MRCP project, which provides everything required for the implementation and deployment of both an MRCP client and an MRCP server. UniMRCP encapsulates SIP/MRCPv2, RTSP, SDP and RTP/RTCP stacks and provides integrators with an MRCP v1 and v2 user level API.
'We are very happy to announce the compliance with MRCPv2 of our Acapela TTS Server solution realized in cooperation with UniMRCP Open Source Project, which has been an outstanding partner in this process. Acapela Group, as a voice expert dedicated to innovation and finding the best possible voice solutions, fully supports market standards to ease and optimize text to speech use in telephony applications. The full interoperability of Acapela's speech engine with MRCPv2 is part of the company's commitment to support the industry and help optimize the easy test and deployment process'- comments Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.
'I am proud to announce the availability of Acapela TTS voices, based on the UniMRCP server software library. The number of languages and set of high quality voices Acapela supports are quite impressive. Through the integration with the UniMRCP server, Acapela MRCP add-on 2.000, makes its TTS engine available to the users of any MRCPv2-aware platform. This solution might be an ideal choice to be used in conjunction with well-known open source, as well as commercial products for the deployment of IVRs, Call Centers, IPPBXs', said Arsen Chaloyan, author of UniMRCP.
The Acapela MRCPv2 add-on is available on both Acapela TTS for Windows and Linux servers. It enhances Acapela's capability to fully respond to the telephony market's requirements and reinforces the company's position as an unequalled partner in the domain of computer-based voice processing. Acapela's expertise and commitment to quality and service covers all aspects of voice, from the ease of integration and deployment to the delivery of custom voices, providing unique voice personas for companies or brands and- guaranteeing highest customer satisfaction and affinity.
About UniMRCP:
Open Source MRCP Project, http://www.unimrcp.org
Contact Arsen Chaloyan, arsen.chaloyan@unimrcp.org, tel:+1-858-9263504

acapela-Box Self service vocalization - easy as A B C .

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

March 15th, 2010

Use speech synthesis to create your voice messages at acapela-box.com, a new service from the Acapela Group.

Acapela Group - the leading Voice expert, owner of its technology, offering bespoke solutions adopted by millions of users throughout the world - is launching acapela-box, the innovative, simple answer to your vocalization needs.
No volume of messages is too small
Acapela-box allows all internet users - whether private individuals or professionals - to easily produce their voice prompts using Acapela's highly natural speech synthesis, in the language and voice of their choice.
Acapela-box enables everyone to benefit from high quality voices and turn any written text into vocal messages, as easy as a click. Just type in your text, listen, adjust, fine tune with the setting tools, generate the voice message and download. It's child's play. Generate and use all-rights-included voice messages in the wink of an eye and bring a speaking smile to wherever they're employed.
E-learning, video, presentation, answering machine, blog, website, IVR, animation and mp3 player are just some of the applications that can easily be speech-animated using acapela-box, free from any rights issues.
'Acapela-box is the next step towards Acapela's aim of creating a vocal world accessible to anyone, whatever the size of their project, in all fields. This brand new service comes from our commitment to meet a growing demand for light vocalization, based on easy access to speech synthesis, unconstrained by budget or technical barriers' comments Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.

Anyone can start enjoying acapela-box voices with a 5 euro pack.
Discover speech synthesis for the first time, using any of the 25 languages, to share, learn, animate, communicate, listen, keep informed…Voice settings and a pronunciation editor are available to adjust and fine tune the audio result, to provide the vocalization you are looking for. The file is then ready to download and use!
http://www.acapela-box.com

Viral marketing: Advertising agency Forsman & Bodenfors chooses Acapela to create helium voices from Popular TV commercial.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

March 3rd, 2010

Record your voicemail message with helium voices known from Swedish TV commercial.
There are probably not many Swedes who have missed the TV commercial for Triss, the most popular instant win game in the country, where a company receptionist, a lady of a certain age, suddenly one day starts speaking to everybody with a very strange squeaky voice (by inhaling helium gas from a balloon). This campaign for Svenska Spel, the largest gaming operator in Sweden, and the Triss lottery, known as 'Imagine having work a bit more like a hobby', was created by the agency Forsman & Bodenfors.
In the follow-up web campaign on the same theme, web visitors are invited to record their voicemail messages with helium voices and in that way try by themselves to imagine work a bit more like a hobby. In a flash-based application (banner) connected to Acapela's online service for text-to-speech conversion, the user types in his/her reply message, selects a male or a female voice and listens to the result. When satisfied, he/she looks up the recording mode for the voicemail on the mobile phone and holds it against the computer's speakers. The reply message is recorded.
The web application is developed by the digital production agency Rebenga and the campaign is launched through web site banner advertising.
Have a look at the application and try it for yourself on:
https://svenskaspel.se/p4.aspx?pageid=1025#pinfo=140
Forsman & Bodenfors chose Acapela to help them implement the text-to-speech part of the campaign. By manipulating the pitch and speed of Acapela standard voices they managed to create voices similar to so-called helium voices.
Acapela Voice as a Service
This is just one example among many illustrating how Acapela's text-to-speech, through Acapela Voice as a Service, is being used by leading advertising agencies in web-based campaigns. Clients who have benefitted from Voice as a Service include easyJet, Nestlé, Lacoste, Mac Donalds and IT Resurs. Thanks in large part to the viral effect, these campaigns have generally been very successful and attracted a lot of attention.
Acapela Voice as a Service is an online text-to-speech cloud that allows you to easily speech-enable any web application. Whenever your application needs to talk, connect to our VaaS server, send the text and let VaaS do the talking. 25 languages and up to 50 voices at your disposal, 24/7. Whether you use Flash, or any other language that can communicate over HTTP (PHP, ASP, JSP, Java, or .Net) our API lets you access all the possibilities of Voice as a Service.
To get more information and sign up for an evaluation account, check out the Acapela Voice as a Service dedicated website: http://www.acapela-vaas.com.To see examples of creative solutions illustrating how to combine text-to-speech and online applications, visit www.acapela.tv
About Forsman & Bodenfors: www.fb.se
About Rebenga: www.rebenga.se

Voice as a Service: Acapela gives a voice to nationwide ad campaign for Swedish bank SEB.

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

February 15th, 2010

Advertising agencies Storåkers and MRM Starsky have created an advertising campaign on behalf of the Swedish bank SEB. Called 'Simplify your everyday life', the campaign promotes the bank's main services. It has been launched widely through different media such as direct marketing, billboards, web advertising and radio spots. A dedicated website created by MRM Starsky, www.seb.se/enkla, is the focus of the campaign.

Acapela's voices feature in one of this website's applications, "Easy refunding". The home page of the site, looking like a bulletin board with a number of Post-it notes, presents various services and packages offered by the bank but also other things that can help simplify the daily life of its new and old customers. By clicking on the Post-it note "Simple refunding - Help to get back small loans " the visitor has the opportunity to use Acapela's voices to remind a friend to repay what they owe. In other words, the bank is now offering a creative and amusing way to recover small loans from friends, a situation which can sometimes be awkward.
Easy refunding
On entering the application "Easy refunding" you first choose whether you wish to send the reminder via Facebook or by e-mail. Then you select the type of expense concerned, such as lunch, gift, or badminton game, and the amount your friend owes (up to 200 SEK). Finally, you choose which of Acapela's three Swedish voices, Elin, Emma or Erik, will read out the message to the recipient. The selected options are then inserted into a predetermined standard phrase. After you have tested it and agreed, the message is sent to your friend. When he or she gets the e-mail, or the post on Facebook, the message is read out loud: "Hello John Smith, I'm missing 39 kronor from the badminton game the other day. Is this something to do with you?"
"The Acapela text to speech function is an excellent tool, giving extra spice to the campaign site. The quality of the reading of the text, chosen by the visitor, comes as a surprise to many people and encourages them to recommend the application to their friends, which is brilliant," says Markus Thirl, project manager at MRM Starsky.
"We are really happy to contribute to this highly creative campaign. The growing use of text to speech in interactive web campaigns makes more and more people aware that the speech synthesis we can offer today is of very good quality", comments Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.
This is just one example among many illustrating how Acapela's text-to-speech, through Acapela Voice as a Service, is being used by leading advertising agencies in web-based campaigns. Clients who have benefitted from Voice as a Service include easyJet, Nestlé, Lacoste, Mac Donalds and IT Resurs. Thanks in large part to the viral effect, these campaigns have generally been very successful and attracted a lot of attention.
Acapela Voice as a Service is an online Text to Speech cloud that allows you to easily speech enable any web application. Whenever your application needs to talk, connect to our VaaS server, send the text and let VaaS do the talking. 25 languages and up to 50 voices at your disposal, 24/7. Whether you use Flash, or any other language that can communicate over HTTP - PHP, ASP, JSP, Java, or .Net - our API lets you access all the possibilities of Voice as a Service.
To get more information and sign up for an evaluation account, check out the Acapela Voice as a Service dedicated website: http://www.acapela-vaas.com.To see examples of creative solutions illustrating how to combine text to speech and online applications, visit www.acapela.tv

Easy talking online mobile apps: Acapela Group provides online speech synthesis capability for iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms. .

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

February 9th, 2010

To be unveiled at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, Barcelona
VISIT Acapela booth to try out our talking demos, live!
Acapela Group, expert and inventor of innovative vocal solutions,will be announcing the availability of its cloud computing service to mobile developers, for easy talking apps deployment to speech empower iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms, at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Acapela aims to create a vocal world accessible to anyone, whatever the size of their project, and to promote and open the use of speech to all developers. As such the company fully supports the increasing demand for online resources and is enhancing its cloud computing service by providing cross-platform access which meets the demands of the mobile market.
iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile or Symbian developers will all benefit from Acapela's on-line service, to easily add the ability to talk to their app, temporarily use text to speech resources to vocalize interactive campaigns, mobile advertising, games or e-learning, or introduce speech capability for the first time.
Acapela's online text to speech grants mobile developers full access to all its highest quality voices and languages, at a controlled and low cost, free from any footprint issues.
Acapela VaaS for Mobile is an invitation to all developers to easily experience speech synthesis for the first time. They then choose the voice interface best adapted to their project: connect the app online, use sound files or integrate the speech engine. Acapela offers the full range of speech options, to shape and meet all vocalization needs.
Acapela VaaS will be available for iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian Smart phones, in 25 languages and 50 voices.
Check out http://www.acapela-vaas.com and apply for your free test account.
Acapela VaaS for Mobile will be unveiled during the Mobile World Congress - further information will be available on the acapela-vaas website from Feb 15th.
Hear more about Acapea VaaS and meet the Acapela Team during the GSMA Mobile World Congress expo in Barcelona, booth 2E59
http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/exhibition/whos_exhibiting.htm

Audio Guides for iPhone: Hiking and tourist trails - just follow the guide with Geolives-M!.

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

February 2nd, 2010

Geolives, editor of maps & GPS solutions for outdoor activities, has launched Geolives-M, an iPhone application designed to search and share audio guides, vocalized with Acapela voices, in more than 20 languages and a wide choice of voices.
Wherever you are in the world, visiting a capital city or hiking off the beaten track, Geolives-M allows you to select routes sorted by activity around your GPS location.
Follow the guide!
Find your way with only an iPhone, without the need for a bulky book or printed map.Throughout your itinerary, and according to your GPS positioning, you automatically access images, youTube videos and written information read out loud by a synthesized voice. You also get acquainted with Wikipedia geo-localized articles (already more than 80000 articles available in 13 languages) which are read to you, on the spot, by highly natural voices from Acapela.
20 languages and a wide choice of voices to show you the way
Acapela speech synthesis is your perfect guide, reliably turning written information into speech, reading proper names, dates and figures with precision. Choose among Geolives-M's repertory of voices the one, female or male, which will be your companion throughout your route.
'Geolives-M must provide high quality and fast to download audio guides. Acapela voices allow us to perfectly vocalize information from any text format, with an excellent audio result in many languages. It was the right choice for our application which offers to the end user a cheerful talking interface which fully meets their needs' said Yves Peeters, Geolives General Manager.
Community websites allow users to make the most of their experiences with additional features and to share their favorite trails and itineraries on line. Geolives.com enables the selection of specific topographic maps for a range of European countries and routeyou.com paves the way to over 180 000 hikes and outdoor activities the world over.
Geolives-M - Features
flashelement:geolives
- Access to maps from Google Maps worldwide and possibility to order topographic maps (offline) for some European countries
- Search feature for places or sights
- Search for trails by criteria: type of activity, nearness, duration, etc.
- POI associated with downloaded routes are highlighted (by pins)
- Record and classify trails by activity, save and send to e-mail or Geolives account
- Unit display in miles/feet or km/m
- Real time trail information (distance, time, etc.)

Sold at 4.99 €, the Geolives-M application is provided with one synthesized voice from Acapela.
Additional voices can be acquired for 1.99 €/voice.

Available languages : Czech, Dutch NL, Dutch BE, English UK, English US, Danish, Finnish, French, French Canadian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish .

About Geolives
Geolives has been offering geo-localized audio guide solutions to community websites (B2C) and professionals (B2B) since January 2010. Geolives aims to provide content editors working in tourism and tourist offices complete solutions to create and distribute guides for the GPS Smartphone consumer market.
For more information contact@geolives.com
www.geolives-media.com and www.geolives.com

New uses for Text to Speech: Acapela Group changes the image of Voice.

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

January 27th, 2010

Hear more about Acapela Group new positioning and check out the new website!
Acapela Group, expert and inventor of innovative vocal solutions, is creating a vocal world accessible to anyone, whatever the size of their project, in all fields, and positions itself as a key partner, giving its customers a powerful voice, helping them successfully take the floor.
Acapela is continuously reinforcing its strong commitment to the market while introducing numerous innovations to promote the use of text to speech for offline and online solutions, aimed at both professional developers and a wider public.
Owner of its technology, offering bespoke solutions, chosen by over a thousand customers and adopted by millions of users throughout the world, Acapela has considerably evolved since its creation in 2004. Acapela has harnessed its know how as a technology provider to become a Voice expert, ideally placed to answer all vocalization needs, at all levels.
New vocal developments
With over 50 million talking e-cards sent around the world since its creation in November 2008, the success of acapela.tv - Acapela's online sparkling laboratory- confirms the enormous interest of a non-specialist audience. Acapela VaaS, the online voice generation cloud computing service, Acapela TTS for iPhone, in the highly creative appstore world, Acapela Kiosk, which allows the easy vocalization of newspapers or the upcoming Acapela Box, for online and on demand voice file production, are the latest developments demonstrating Acapela's determination to provide efficient and simple solutions, across a wide range of environments and uses.
'Acapela is dedicated to improving the quality of voice synthesis through R&D and creates new opportunities for its use, inventing new vocal solutions and business models to provide highly natural voices to all users' says Lars-Erik Larsson, Acapela Group CEO.
New uses are being introduced offering solutions which open the vocal universe to a wider public. To help guide everyone, Acapela has grouped its products and services into four main families, featured on the new corporate website (www.acapela-group.com):
- Integration and development of text to speech engines, which remains its core activity,
- Production of sound files, to allow easy generation of files from any computer, without the need for any technical knowledge,
- Accessibility solutions to answer specific user groups needs, for whom text to speech is essential to gain in autonomy and access information,
- Tailor-made voice creation, to meet a growing trend for the use of personalized voices in corporate marketing activities, helping create a company or brand audio strategy.
The growing speed with which companies are adopting 'tailored-made' voices thanks to 'Acapela Voice Factory' is another strong market signal validating Acapela expertise and capacity to help its customers with their audio marketing strategy. Developed on behalf of prestigious customers such as Accor or Banverket, exclusive voices created by Acapela shape the customer's charter and enrich its image with a full vocal dimension. The Voice becomes one of the company's spokespeople, delivering and promoting a consistent and identifiable voice to distinguish the application or service.
25 languages and 50 voices are already available in the Acapela repertory. New ones are under development. Acapela vocalizes many services and applications throughout the world and is at present particularly talkative in e-ducation, books, mobile internet and cloud computing to keep facilitating content access for all. R&D teams are actively working on new and upcoming innovations, to create and produce more emotions, reflect all accents and come ever closer to the natural voice.

Happy 2010: easyJet invites its customers to share talking e-cards..

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

January 14th, 2010

Happy 2010: easyJet invites existing and future customers in Europe to share talking e-cards with their contacts. A successful collaboration in 4 languages between 1000mercis, producing the viral campaign, and Acapela, providing the voice.
Talking e-greetings cards in several languages
easyJet is demonstrating its dynamism and capacity to surprise in four countries where it operates; France, Italy, Germany and Denmark; by sending innovative greetings with talking e-cards. This campaign, conceived by easyJet and produced by 1000mercis, running from 8 December 2009 to 8 February 2010, functions in the four languages of the countries concerned and is addressed to three million internet users.
Each e-card, sent by e-mail, starts with a short message from easyJet to the recipient: 'easyJet has many New Year's resolutions for 2010. And you, what are your New Year's resolutions?':
http://www.bonnes-resolutions-easyjet.com (France) http://www.buoni-propositi-easyjet.com (Italy) www.neujahrsvorsaetze-easyjet.com(Germany) www.gode-beslutninger-easyJet.com(Denmark)
What about Your New Year's resolutions?
easyJet allows each internet user to create their own e-card by choosing a theme, either « for celebrations », « for my friends », « for my colleagues », « for my sweetheart » or « for travel », enabling them to adapt their greeting depending on the recipient or event. The sender types their message and can listen to it before sending to one or several friends.

Advanced technology that makes the difference
The words typed by each internet user are instantly transformed into a vocal message thanks to Acapela's synthetic voice technology, which transforms any text, in real time, into a very natural sounding human voice, using male or female voices, in a total of 25 languages and 50 voices.
Acapela, which benefits from 20 years of expertise and owns its technology, was created in 2003. Acapela's voice synthesis technology has already been used in a number of campaigns, notably to provide a voice for T mobile, Nestlé and Lacoste.
'We wanted to reach all our existing and prospective customers in Europe' said François BACCHETTA, Director General of easyJet for France and south Europe, 'this effective collaboration between 1000mercis and Acapela enabled us to overcome the language barrier, make personal contact with all our customers and follow up on each one'.
'For a while now we have collaborated very successfully with easyJet' said Yseulys COSTES, Co-Founding President of 1000mercis 'We have created numerous campaigns with easyJet across all media, such as the Web, Mobiles, Facebook, etc. and we are preparing to launch an impressive project for easyJet by the end of the first quarter.'
About easyjet:
http://www.easyjet.com
Press contact, Thomas Meister, thomas.meister@easyJet.com
+44 1582 525252
About 1000Mercis:
http://www.1000mercis.co.uk
Press Contact: Dorothée Lacroix, dorothee.lacroix@millemercis.com

Operation Save the Forest: Makro Cash & Carry chooses Acapela to talk about the environment with Mr Owl.

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

November 17th, 2009

Makro Cash & Carry Belgium, part of Metro Cash & Carry, used a synthetic voice created by Acapela, for a big environmental awareness campaign, orchestrated by LBi, an international interactive marketing and technology agency.
From 1st July to 31st August 2009, Makro launched an innovative green initiative, unique in large-scale retailing, a sector which traditionally uses a large quantity of paper to print brochures.
'We have been working with Makro Belgium since the creation of their website in 2003. With the campaign 'Save the Forest ', we aimed to encourage clients to switch completely to using on-line tools. We suggested to Makro that they should capitalise on the lovable, well-known owl from the children's TV programme 'Petit écho de la forêt', to create a viral, talking campaign which was also broadcast in-store' explained Nathalie Dumont, consultant at LBi.
It's therefore Mr Owl, spokesperson at Makro for this project, who invited clients to 'Save the Forest' and spread the word. A playful, talkative card which passed on Makro's environmental message was sent to all clients. Mr Owl spoke directly to the clients inviting them to support the initiative by signing-up and suggested that they spread the idea by sending the card on to their contacts - the card could be made extra special by adding a personal message. Thanks to Acapela's speech synthesis all this was read to the recipient in a clear and distinct voice which immediately caught the attention and created an impression, guaranteeing Makro's message was listened to.
In this way, each Makro client was invited to choose between the paper or on-line editions. As an incentive, in addition to the reduced consumption of paper, Makro undertook to plant one tree for every 5 people choosing the on-line version.
The campaign took place between 1st July and 31st August. 94% signed-up on line and 6% via Makro shops. Nearly 171,000 individual's visited http://www.sauvezlaforet.be and http://www.redhetbos.be and 6522 personalised messages from Mr Owl were sent throughout the summer.
A total of 30 000 registrations were recorded, meaning 6000 trees will be planted across Belgium. This first campaign will enable a saving of 177 tonnes of paper.
'The very good impact of this campaign, which was entertaining and at the same time conveyed an important message, reinforces our commitment to our environmental initiative. Many clients already had the habit of consulting catalogues on-line and had asked us to stop sending the paper editions. Mr Owl was an excellent spokesperson. His characteristics - viral, talkative and capable of personalisation - have no doubt contributed to making our message heard, in the full sense of the word, in a very effective and memorable way. For Makro it's the first step in this project which aims to increasingly reduce the amount of paper consumed and the signing-up of more than 30 000 clients is definitely encouraging us to continue this way' said Vincent Nolf, Customer Management Director at Makro Belgium.
About Metro Cash & Carry
Metro Cash&Carry is a division of the Metro Group.Based in Düsseldorf, Metro AG is a retail group, which specialises in wholesale trade to professionals. It is present in 31 countries in Europe, Asia and North Africa, including nearly 2200 sales outlets. The group has more than 280 000 employees coming from more than 150 countries.
About LBi
LBi Belgium, created from the merger of DAD, Winsome and OX2, is the largest European web agency in Belgium. LBi has been active on the Belgian market since 1995 and is a recognised expert in interactive marketing and digital technologies. LBi operates in Belgium through its offices in Brussels and Ghent. It is part of the LBi Group which includes nearly 1,600 employees throughout the world. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, LBi develops innovative multi-channel solutions, for domestic and international clients. http://www.lbi.com

Tailor-made voice synthesis: Acapela Voice Factory used by 3999.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

November 5th, 2009

The first French free information service offering multi-theme search available through the internet and different communication devices, provides information thanks to Colette, a tailor-made synthesized voice created by Acapela Group exclusively for 3999.
Launched on October 13, the information service, unique in France, provides a free service to users through its website, the telephone, SMS and a dedicated iPhone application.
Professionals, the cinema, the stock exchange and weather forecasts are among the first research categories available.
Entirely based on the use of vocal solutions, 3999 offers a carefully designed vocal interface, which allows the caller to easily navigate through the services and information provided. Automatic Speech Recognition, registered voice samples and advanced speech synthesis are smartly combined to create an intuitive and natural dialog interface.

Putting its faith in Acapela Voice Factory, 3999 has chosen to go for its own exclusive Acapela voice, giving a unique voice persona to the service and offering to end users the highest quality speech synthesis available. The information, vocalized in real time by the Acapela voice, perfectly matches with voice recorded audio files to offer an exceptional, advanced and easy to listen audio result.

'The voice developed by Acapela exclusively for 3999 is a key element in our service approach. The quality and voice persona must be perfect because Colette will be acting as spokesperson. She will be identified as the voice of the service and deliver the information the caller is looking for. Acapela Voice Factory was the solution to create our own unique, high quality voice' says Stéphane Médioni, General Manager of 3999.
3999's synthetic voice provides real time weather forecasts, reads film summaries and details of shows and helps the caller find the right professional among the 4 000 000 companies already registered.

'3999 trusts Acapela Voice Factory to bring to the company quality and a perfectly conceived and created voice persona . Audio identity is strategically important to our customers in the deployment of their services and several Acapela Voice Factory voices are already being used. We are very confident about the future of Acapela Voice Factory, our voices allow companies to develop a unique voice identity, build an audio image and increase public awareness' adds Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.
For more information visit http://www.3999.com

A Voice in the cloud: Acapela Group speech empowers any application online, with its innovative 'Voice as a Service''.

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

October 27th, 2009

Acapela Group, the European leader in speech synthesis, is launching Voice as a Service (VaaS), an online, cost effective, very easy to use, straight talking solution that gives any content a natural voice and enables customers to profit from the power of the spoken word.
Online service
With Acapela VaaS, speech empowering an application is simple: connect to Acapela VaaS server, send the text and let VaaS do the talking. An appropriate connector (Flash or http) gives life to the application. 25 languages and up to 50 voices are available, 24/7, to make the cloud talk.

'Acapela VaaS is a major new step in Acapela's strategy, designed to offer a vocal solution for all needs. Acapela VaaS has already voice empowered prestigious campaigns and programs and actively promotes the use of speech in new fields, demonstrating how far Acapela speech solutions can help bring content to life. Vaas is also efficient - there are no integration or development issues, a wide range of languages and a large choice of voices' says Lars Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.

Simple API and customizable voice parameters
Using Flash, or any other language that can communicate over HTTP, our customers can access all the possibilities of Voice as a Service with the Acapela VaaS API.

Speech capability is very easy to integrate in the application and voice generation can be fully controlled using various features, parameters, settings and effects; to synchronize the animation and the generated sound.

Free evaluation account
Test Acapela VaaS free for 30 days with up to 100 messages a day. All features, languages and voices are available.

Subscription options
Yearly or Peak Subscription plans are available depending on your needs.
Our cloud has already handled more than 100 million transactions and can speak volumes.

Already using Acapela Vaas :
Major companies such as 1000 mercis, Canal J, Dassault Interactive, Ecards & more, Kärnhuset, Grouek, LBI, Refleximmo, Reverso, Saatchi & Saatchi and SNCF have already used Acapela VaaS for very different applications.

The online service has already successfully provided speech animation for creative characters, voice-enriched real estate video ads, speech empowered online translation tools and vocalized real time information for public address systems.

Easyjet, EMI Music, Grazia, IT-Resurs, Lacoste, McDonald's, Makro, Milka, Nestlé and T-Mobile are among the prestigious names which have already chosen Acapela to voice empower their marketing campaigns, to make themselves heard in the cloud, and ensure people remember and talk about them.

acapela.tv, the sparkling laboratory peopled by online chatty characters helping create talkative ideas, is also using Acapela Vaas. Launched by Acapela Group to demonstrate how far speech synthesis can help companies to add audible value to their content and messages, Acapela talking e-cards and talkative games are sent the world over for free by thousands of users, from Greenland to Chile. Over 31 million talkative messages have been shared around the planet with Acapela voices.

To get more information and sign up for an evaluation account, check out the Acapela Voice as a Service dedicated website: http://www.acapela-vaas.com.

Meet IbnSina and and talk with the world's first Arabic speaking android at Gitex!.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0200

October 19th, 2009

Gitex 2009 - Booth Acapela Group (B2-1)
Acapela Group and the IRML from UAE University demonstrates world's first Arabic conversational humanoid robot, speech empowered by the Acapela brand new bilingual voice Nizar.
Acapela Group, the Vocal solution expert, is welcoming the Interactive Robots and Media Lab (IRML) of the United Arab Emirates University to jointly demonstrate IbnSina during Gitex, unveiling to the IT community new breaking research achievements associating robot and social communication.

Robotics will soon start to change our daily life tremendously, in multiple different ways. However, in most existing conversational robots, the interest of users seems to curb after a while due to a lack of novelty, personalization and character in their dialogues and encounters.
'At the IRML, a major development is taking place: robots that can have shared memories and shared friends with humans are being created; promising more interesting encounters, and a sustainable and long-lasting friendly relationship between Humans and Robots!' says Dr. Nikolaos Mavridis, Director of the IRML.
Created by the IRML, Ibn Sina, the world's first Arabic-speaking humanlike humanoid robot, is part of a new family of robots which aims to move a step forward in the way robots interact with humans - by using novel face recognition, vision, speech solutions and other advanced technologies, and also by using and publishing online social information - available on FaceBook, towards better relationships with humans.
Acapela speech solutions come in to voice empower Ibn Sina allowing him to voice-interact and communicate with its environment. The robot is using both ASR and TTS technologies from Acapela to set up a full dialogue and add a natural Arabic voice to Ibn Sina persona. The information is vocalised using Nizar, the brand new voice from Acapela, super natural and fully Arabic/English bilingual.

'A central modality for interaction with IRML's novel robots is Natural Spoken Language: and this is exactly where Acapela's strengths really catalyze the future. For example, IbnSina is using Acapela text-to-speech as well as Acapela speech recognition - enabling it to carry out fluid conversations in Arabic, speaking about himself and his story. And Facebots-tech enables also speaking about previous encounters with the human the robot is conversing with and his friends, and about online news and facebook minifeeds!' comments Nikolaos Mavridis.
'We are very happy to contribute to the IRML Robots projects. Acapela is by nature always working on innovations and use in Robotics is obviously a hot topics. The Group participates to different initiatives and programmes around the world. Ibn Sina is a major step forward in the way we consider robotics interaction in our daily lives. Adding memory and social dimension to a robot will dramatically change the way bots may help to achieve daily tasks for us. Speech is of course such a strategic issue and we are very proud to take part of this approach, supporting the IRML prestigious laboratory with Acapela voice expertise' adds Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.
Listen to Acapela brand new Arabic voice Nizar samples:
http://www.acapela-group.com/Upload/Nizar-salma_dialogue.mp3
http://www.acapela-group.com/Upload/nizar.mp3

About the IRML:
The IRML laboratory, is home to Ibn Sina as well as to the Microsoft distinguished award winning 'FaceBots' social robots project - where the idea of robots utilizing and publishing social information was first proposed. The director of IRML, Dr. Nikolaos Mavridis, a PhD graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had also created Ripley, a conversational robot with sensorymotor-and-linguistic abilities comparable to those required for passing the 'Token Test', a psychological test for 3-year olds. IRML is also currently developing numerous other related technologies, including interactive theatres, virtual museums, robotic embodied tele-presence, and even brain-computer interfacing towards robots controlled... by your thoughts!
IRML website

Word of mouth & Fashion: Grazia.fr invites Internet users to spread the word with Acapela.

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0200

October 13th, 2009

Grazia.fr is the online version of the printed magazine launched on August 29th by Mondadori France, subsidiary of the Italian Group and third editor of magazines in France with 43 publications.
Since its launch, Grazia.fr invites Internet users to surprise their social network by using an original and unusual communication tool. By choosing among 5 'emotional cards' (from the grazia.fr 'Play' rubric), the visitors send to their contacts talkative cards which will read out the 100% personal typed in message, using Acapela voices.
'Speech synthesis is an amazing tool which create powerful buzz around Grazia.fr. The emotional cards campaign offers the possibility to each woman to create its own content, Grazia-like, and share info with her network. One month only after the launch of Grazia.fr, emotional e-cards are already traveling over the networks to convey the Grazia spirit' comments Nathie Nakarat, Marketing Manager of Grazia.fr.
Acapela speech synthesis allows Grazia's trendy online characters to spread the word about 'must-to' topics, and gives to Grazia.fr a vocal tone.
Discover the Grazia emotional cards and hear how Acapela speech synthesis can contribute to give the say to a company or a brand and speech empower a marketing campaign.

Nizar, the brand new Arabic voice synthesis by Acapela Group, will speak volume at Gitex.

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0200

October 12th, 2009

Acapela confirms its leading position in the MEA market with the launch of a new super natural & fully bilingual Arabic/English voice, available for all platforms.
Acapela Group, the vocal solutions expert, confirms its leading position in the Middle East countries.
Bespoke player in speech synthesis with a high quality multilingual offer including Arabic, Acapela Group enriches its voice portfolio with the venue of Nizar, a brand new Arabic voice which sounds super natural and perfectly speaks English.
Nizar joins Salma and Youssef voices to give the say to any application or service, using different Arabic voices and choosing between female and male tones.
Acapela exclusive: a pleasant Arabic voice which perfectly speaks English
"Text-to-Speech" also known as speech synthesis, transforms in real time any written text into words which are read out loud in a very natural manner. Text-to-speech speaks several languages, even with accents, and modulates the speed, pauses and tones of the spoken word, with male, female or children's voices.
To create high end voices and reproduce each language naturally, Acapela selects a speaker, professional and native, to record a script which contains all possible sounds of the language. The speaker reads the sentences from the script.
In the case of Nizar, in addition to the Arabic corpus, an English one has been elaborated to make it read perfectly any content in English, from single words to whole texts, with the same voice, which is a real guarantee of comfort and easy listening for the end user and a significant advantage and differentiator.
Leaning upon extensive language expertise
The team of Acapela specialists has acquired since several years cutting edge knowledge in the Arabic language. The Acapela team has created a process to turn the Arabic language into a vowel transcription thus allowing the speech synthesis to turn the written Arabic content into natural speech.
Arabic natural voice available for all platforms
Nizar will be ready to vocalize any content, whatever the targeted platform or the service: servers, Macs and PCs, mobile devices including the iPhone or web services. Software Development toolkits and API will be packed to perfectly suit to the vocalization demand.
Acapela's international team of experts is fully dedicated to developing the best voice solutions, adapted to its particular project and market specificities. Over 850 companies around the world have already adopted Acapela high quality voices to voice-empower their products and services, in very different markets.
Major players in Middle East have already chosen Acapela to give the Say to their services and applications: Medialog, Nattiq Technologies, VoiceMpower, FDS are already using the Acapela Arabic voices to speech enable their world.
Listen to Nizar MP3 samples:
http://www.acapela-group.com/Upload/Nizar-salma_dialogue.mp3
http://www.acapela-group.com/Upload/nizar.mp3
Meet the Acapela Team and hear more about Nizar during the Gitex show - oct 18-22- in Dubai, Booth B2-1.

SurfnSpeak, new talkative app on the iPhone!.

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0200

October 6th, 2009

Listen to you RSS feeds with Acapela voices
SurfnSpeak lets you listen to your favorite RSS feeds on the go using Acapela for iPhone.

If you are driving, riding the subway or just out for a walk, SurfnSpeak allows you to keep up-to-date by reading your favorite RSS feeds to you, using Acapela natural voices. Simply enter the website that contains the feed you're interested in and search for the RSS feeds on that page, or enter the exact URL of the feed you want. You can also choose from the list of preselected feeds.
Check out SurfnSpeak on the Apple App Store, and download it for free until October 12th!
More information about Acapela for iPhone