PHP VoiceXML Magazine

Interact Incorporated Introduces SPOT Test Portal for their SPOT Media Platform

2010-02-10T09:15:48Z

Interact's VoiceXML/CCXML Test Portal enables voice application development, testing and editing as well as the ability to test drive existing applications on the SPOT Media Platform easily and with no risk.

(Lincoln Nebraska - USA) February 9th, 2010 - Interact Incorporated (www.iivip.com), innovators in the IVR and Rating and Billing marketplace, are pleased to announce the launch of the SPOT Test Portal. SPOT, Interact's VoiceXML/CCXML Media Platform is widely used for the development of IVR and other revenue generating telephony applications on the market today. Today as more and more carriers, operators and enterprises have adopted the open source, standards based VoiceXML/CCXML language for application development, ease in developing, testing and debugging applications is of great priority. Interact's SPOT Test Portal provides the ability to develop, test and debug voice applications while evaluating the SPOT VoiceXML/CCXML Media Platform without having to download, configure or install any platform software or licenses.

With the SPOT Test Portal, users are assigned a private account with a personal SIP URL. Each user's account includes a web accessible file storage area, the ability to create new VXML or CCXML files and a browser based file editor with syntax highlighting for VoiceXML/CCXML application execution. The SPOT Test Portal allows the user to set a document of their choice as their default call-in application. Users can work with only VoiceXML for their applications or begin writing CCXML applications to harness the full power of the SPOT Media Platform. Running a voice application is as simple as making a SIP/VoIP call to the SoftSPOT server. Detailed call logs are available for each call.

Asterisk takes hold in the enterprise, PIKA study shows

2007-10-30T14:56:58Z

Results also provide insight into versions of Linux and Asterisk being used

BOSTON, MA and OTTAWA, Canada � October 30, 2007 � PIKA Technologies Inc., a developer of media-processing hardware and software, today announced the results of an analysis of the usage habits of over 300 Asterisk developers across the globe. The announcement coincides with the start of Digium Asterisk World at this year�s Fall VON conference. From the results, it is clear that the Asterisk platform is becoming much more prevalent in the enterprise.

"Some of the most compelling data that we collected was simply around the wide variety of applications that Asterisk is now being used to address," said Terry Atwood, vice president of sales, marketing and customer care at PIKA. "Of course, the early adopters are still there, but from a purpose and density standpoint there is now a much broader range of applications being built on Asterisk, ranging from individual companies seeking to provide their own telecoms services, to application development firms that are using Asterisk as a platform to develop systems for sale to the business and government markets throughout the world."

Open-Source VoiceXML: Announcing the SpeakRight Framework

2007-05-18T00:37:51Z

In an industry dominated by expensive proprietary tools, open-source software offers some enticing benefits. The SpeakRight Framework is a new open-source Java framework for writing VoiceXML applications. It offers a high-level API and re-usable classes. And since you have the source code, it's totally extensible.

SpeakRight is code-based. You write your application in Java using SpeakRight classes, with all the power and convenience of Java debugging, refactoring, and unit tests. And unlike other web frameworks, SpeakRight is built specifically for VoiceXML and speech recognition applications. It understands prompt escalation, grammars, and confirmation. When asked to write a speech application, many developers are tempted to output the raw VoiceXML tags themselves. This works in simple cases, but once you add all the elements of a voice dialog, even a simple question involves many tags. Speech applications must deal with the inherent inaccuracy of speech recognition: retrying if recognition fails and confirming when recognition's confidence score is low.

Commetrex Announces BladeWareVXML, Open-Source VoiceXML Product Suite

2007-04-02T18:51:23Z

Commetrex Corporation announced the availability of BladeWareVXML Interpreter, the initial product release in the BladeWareVXML product suite, and the latest addition to the BladeWare product family. The product is scheduled for availability on sourceforge.net as a free download in late April 2007. A commercial version, with additional enhancements and support options, will be available from the Commetrex website in early summer. The interpreter is a updated version of OpenVXi from Carnegie Mellon University, originally developed by Speechworks (Scansoft), with a number of enhancements made to the code, including a DTMF recognizer and re-defining the ASR/TTS layers to facilitate MRCP implementations.

"This is the first component of a full open-source VoiceXML browser product offering, scheduled for later this year," stated Tom Ray, EVP, sales and marketing for Commetrex.
"The addition of a VoiceXML capability to BladeWare is part of our overall development plan for BladeWare to add the IMS-specified Media Resource Function Controller (MRFC) capability to our existing BladeWare MRFP to form a comprehensive implementation of the Media Resource Function (MRF). Our VoiceXML offerings will be available both as stand-alone open-source components and as a fully integrated solution. Furthermore, given the current market dynamics in the VoiceXML space, we thought the time was right to introduce a new open-source alternative geared toward exciting new applications, such as mobile search and other high-demand, natural language applications," Ray added.

Customer Win Enables SIP Call Control in Largest VoiceXML Network

2007-03-31T05:27:11Z

SAN JOSE, Calif.- Micromethod Technologies, the leading technology provider of IP communication solutions, today announced the deployment of its SIP Application Server (SIPMethod Application Server) by Tellme Networks, Inc., Micromethod's SIPMethod Application Server has been integrated with Tellme's VoIP platform, adding flexible SIP-based call control for developers building on Tellme's VoiceXML platform.

"The Micromethod SIP Application Server provides powerful standards-based programmable call control functionality that enables new and complex telephony signaling applications to run on our network," said Don Jackson, Vice President of Advanced Telephony at Tellme. "Now Tellme developers can quickly and easily program SIP-specific call flows that interact with our VoiceXML platform. Micromethod's robust and scalable application server technology helps Tellme develop, deploy and manage SIP-based services."

Apex Voice Communications And Materna Expand Product Cooperation

2007-02-12T05:56:21Z

Anny Way Fixed Line SMS Center Integrated with OmmniVox3D(R) Application Server

3GSM WORLD CONGRESS, BARCELONA, SPAIN, February 12, 2007 - APEX Voice Communications, a worldwide supplier of (SIP) Application Servers and Multi-Service Platforms, today announced that it has expanded its product cooperation agreement with MATERNA Information & Communications, a leading provider of mobile solutions and services based in Germany. The expanded product cooperation now includes the integration of MATERNAs Anny Way Fixed Line SMS Center (F-SMSC) with APEX's OmniVox3D Application Server. The agreement is a natural progression in the relationship between APEX and MATERNA, who already have joint installations in Europe and are delivering the first joint Latin American installation in the first Quarter of 2007.

The worldwide agreement increases OmniVox3D's existing wireless functionalities, specifically in the area of Fixed Line SMS Center (F- SMSC). The Anny Way FSMSC integration with OmniVox3D includes the Anny Way FSMSC browser interface in OmniView(R), OmniVox3D's OAM&P interface. With this integration, customers can now manage both OmniVox3D enhanced services and Anny Way SMS services from a single point. Additionally, the APEX Prepaid System can now offer Prepaid SMS and SMS integration for revenue-generating enhanced services and value-added IP multimedia services.

PIKA launches Asterisk Enhancements, Opens Web Store

2007-01-25T17:28:02Z

PIKA Connect for Asterisk adds support for PrimeNet T1/E1 Gateway Board

Ottawa, Canada - January 25, 2007 - PIKA Technologies Inc., a designer and manufacturer of plug-in media processing hardware and software building blocks that provide network connectivity and superior echo cancellation, announced today the release of a new version of its PIKA Connect for Asterisk software package.

Among the improvements and new features it contains, this release allows Asterisk users to take advantage of the DSP-quality software-based echo cancellation offered by PIKA's PrimeNet T1/E1 Gateway board and PIKA Connect for Asterisk software. With 20 years experience in the board market, PIKA has evolved many of its TDM interface cards to fully integrate into the Asterisk open source PBX platform to provide the most reliable choice for Asterisk applications.

The Translation Station Introduces a Voicemail / IVR Service for Businesses Catering to Non-English Speakers

2007-01-24T06:15:41Z

(Redondo Beach, CA, January 24, 2007) - As the global economy expands, and as the population of foreign-born-residents living in the U.S. increases, businesses, healthcare providers, and government agencies, are being asked to accommodate the needs of people who speak languages other than English.

The first contact with clients is often by telephone, and more and more businesses, hospitals, and government agencies, are making accommodations in their telecommunications systems.

The Translation Station, a 16-year old translation and interpretation company, now offers Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system recordings in any of 150 foreign languages.

Asterisk and PHP, A New Telephony Experience

2006-12-20T23:37:33Z

I was excited to read a new article on php|architect magazine edition December 2006 titled PHP Phone Home by Sean Coates, developer and the Editor-in-Chief of the php|arch magazine. Finally someone was interested into telephony and PHP, and Sean in this article explores a new opportunity to use Asterisk Gateway interface with PHP, how to control Asterisk and fetch user input. Excellent article if you want to get more familiar with Asterisk and possibly create more amazing applications.

With email becoming less and less reliable, and telephony more and more pervasive, perhaps it�s time to consider finding a new medium to supplement the functionality of our Web applications? In this piece, php|architect Editor-in-Chief, Sean Coates investigates the potential of Asterisk in terms of PHP scripting.

HTML/XHTML Conversion to VoiceXML (Part One)

2006-11-22T09:10:03Z

I received many emails asking about HTML to VoiceXML conversion, the idea to convert a web page to a voice enabled page and profit from the VoiceXML possibilities to offer new capabilities for people with special needs. The problem that you'll face is that HTML and XHTML are designed with a visual background and switching from visually described page to a voice described require to set some convention as standard so we can provide an adequate tool.

Different persons could read differently a webpage, depending on their needs, someone is looking for a specified information, another is trying to explore all the content of the page ... So in this article I wanted to explore the different aspect of webpage to make the XHTML conversion to VoiceXML more easy.

FTC to Ban Outbound IVR Calls

2006-11-03T01:16:47Z

The FTC Is Trying To Ban Many Outbound IVR Calls, a proposal that could have a major adverse affect on your business. In summary, the rule would prevent ANY automated outbound calling that is part of a plan, program, or campaign to induce the purchase of goods or services. Call centers would still be relatively free to use humans to make such calls to consumers with a "pre-existing business relationship", but automated IVR type equipment would be banned even in "pre-existing business relationship" scenarios.

You should act upon this proposal and send your comments to the FTC before November 6, 2006. Voxeo in its latest newsletter send proposal of what you can write in comments, I'm posting them here for reference and so more people can read the news and act before next Monday :

Voxy, VoiceXML Integration For Asterisk

2006-10-31T19:25:42Z

Voxy - the only way to integrate VoiceXML applications in Asterisk. Configure your dial plan with the URL of your VoiceXML application and it's done. The architecture of Voxy is very simple, basically it will be an EAGI script that connect to the voice application and get VoiceXML in return. It will then translate it in AGI (Asterisk Gateway Interface) commands and send those to Asterisk.

To read the VoiceXML, Voxy will use its own VoiceXML Browser helped with Xerces (XML parsing) and Curl (download of prompts). The Eagi class will take care of issuing the AGI commands and received information from Asterisk. Voxy class is the main class that will be in fact the EAGI script. Voxy project is open source released under GPL license.

Download Voxy 1.0 Source from sourceforge.

VoiceObjects Opens Phone Application Server API, Releases XML Development Kit

2006-10-31T19:13:11Z

VoiceObjects, the phone application server company, announced that it has made the application programming interface (API) for VoiceObjects Server, the world�s leading phone application server, available to the public, enabling third-party companies to create IDEs and other tools for use with VoiceObjects Server. The company also announced the immediate availability of VoiceObjects XDK, an XML development kit that helps tools vendors to create VoiceObjects-ready tools. SAP NetWeaver� Visual Composer, Angel.com�s Site Builder, OpenMethods� openVXML Studio, and SpeechVillage�s SpeechDraw will be the first IDEs to support VoiceObjects Server via the newly available interface. The VoiceObjects XDK is included at no additional charge with VoiceObjects Server. Pricing for VoiceObjects Server begins at US$500.00 per port.

�VoiceObjects provides the only carrier-grade server environment that enables companies to provide automated personalized self-service that is light years ahead of conventional static voice response systems,� said Beatriz Infante, chief executive officer of VoiceObjects. �The open tools initiatives that we announced today will enable us to provide an ecosystem of high-quality tools to support our flagship phone application server.�

VoiceXML podcasting with Drupal

2006-10-31T17:53:14Z

On Thursday, November 2nd 2006 will be held the Drupal Meetup in Washington, DC. The plan include a presentation on Drupal and VoiceXML podcasting solutions in action by Mike from Trellon, and over the Washington, DC Drupalers group you can find a post titled Podcasting with some issues regarding podcasting with VoiceXML, like recording wav files which are not ready to use for podcasting and require a conversion.

VoiceXML services generally give you back WAV files at the conclusion of a call. To get a podcast running, you usually need to provide audio in an mp3 format. To get this to happen, expect to do some audio conversion. Lame is a safe bet for converting wav files to mp3, but also look at the ffmpeg wrapper for conversion as it handles errors a lot better and actually uses less memory than other services.

The second issue will be certainly the cost of such solution, especially if you want to use a paid service to run your VoiceXML software. Otherwise open source solution are available but it won't be easy to install asterix, configure it, create mp3 and run everything on a webserver. Add always the cost of phone call ! I've been working with VoiceXML since many years and such implementation isn't difficult to do, but most important will be certainly to make it easy to adopt.

APEX Announces Next Generation of OmniVoXML Media Gateway

2006-09-15T19:33:28Z

VON FALL 2006, BOSTON, MA, September 12, 2006 - APEX Voice Communications, a worldwide supplier of Application Servers and Multi-Service Platforms for enhanced services, unified messaging, real-time billing solutions, and value-added IP multimedia services, today announced the availability of its OmniVoXML Media Gateway as a standalone product. APEX has been delivering OmniVoXML as a component of the APEX Multi-Service Platform (APEX MSP[tm]) for several years now, but as a standalone product, it is now able to interpret call flows created in third-party application servers, in addition to those created in the award-wining OmniView(r), the browser-based Service Creation/OAM&P Environment of OmniVox3D(r). Key features include support for SNMP, MRCP (Media Resource Control Protocol) and an extensive array of protocols.

APEX Multi-Service Platform Components