Brooktrout Technology Delivers Speech Recognition Platform

NEEDHAM, MA - Brooktrout Technology Inc., a provider of hardware and software platforms that enable applications for the New Network, announced vendor-independent, automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text to speech (TTS) support on its TR1000 media resource platform. The TR1000 is a high density ASR platform with full-duplex capability and echo cancellation on all channels, which provides for more scalable solutions at a lower per-port cost. The TR1000 is optimized for carrier-grade speech solutions, such as speech-enabled unified communications, Internet voice messaging, personal agents (find me/follow me services), and automated operator services. The TR1000 supports up to 96 channels of full-duplex operation on a single card, with echo cancellation and barge-in support on every channel. Systems can be configured to support up to 192 simultaneous ASR sessions. As speech-based interfaces become more pervasive, the ability to talk past or "barge-in" on voice menu prompts becomes increasingly important to successful user experiences. The TR1000 offers barge-in performance by virtue of its on-board echo cancellation capable of handling up to 32 milliseconds of echo delay which improves recognition accuracy during barge-in. The TR1000 also supports Text to Speech (TTS) systems, which are increasingly used in complementary applications to ASR. The TR1000 supports advanced speech recognition technology with its vendor-neutral API, so it supports integration with solutions from all the leading ASR vendors. "We're excited about our partnership with Brooktrout and by the capabilities of their new TR1000 product," said Lynda Kate Smith, CMO for Nuance. "The TR1000's onboard echo cancellation and high channel density will provide tremendous value to carriers around the world that are looking to deploy voice-driven solutions." "Today's speech recognition and VoiceXML applications require more sophisticated telephony technology than in the past. Brooktrout's TR1000 represents a new-generation technology, expressly designed for today's advanced, high-density VoiceXML speech recognition solutions, and we are in the process of integrating this technology into our Cambridge Voice Gateway," said Lou Abbruzzesi, CTO of Cambridge VoiceTech, a leading VoiceXML platform provider. "Given the diversity of our customer base in Japan and Asia, we require a high-performance language-independent ASR platform. The TR1000 meets our demanding market needs. In addition, 32 millisecond long-tail echo cancellation is also a big selling point as many of our customers experience echo problems in remote areas of their networks," said Norihiro Takehara, general manager at Infocom, a reseller of speech and messaging solutions in Japan.