NMS Communications to Offer RealSpeak with NMS HearSay
FRAMINGHAM & PEABODY, MA - NMS Communications (Nasdaq: NMSS) and ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) have integrated ScanSoft's RealSpeak text-to-speech (TTS) engine with NMS HearSay, furthering a commitment to offer a variety of applications and technologies on one complete multimodal voice and data services system. RealSpeak converts text information into the most human-sounding voices, and is available in an unparalleled 19 languages. Cegetel's SFR and other operators are in trials using NMS HearSay with ScanSoft RealSpeak. NMS HearSay is a completely open, ready-to-deploy mobile services delivery platform that enables operators to offer their subscribers custom multimodal voice and data communications services such as short message service, location-based services, and unified communications. The high quality and intelligibility of RealSpeak is ideal for the wide range of speech-enabled applications available with the NMS HearSay system, including unified messaging, interactive voice response, information portals, and SFR's cell broadcast trial. By integrating applications and technology from leaders such as ScanSoft, NMS HearSay spares operators the significant burden of identifying and then ensuring that these hardware and software products are ready for deployment in "live" network environments. No other text-to-speech product matches the quality and language support delivered by RealSpeak. By providing a single application programming interface for the entire language set, RealSpeak is an ideal complement to the openness of the NMS HearSay system, providing a fast and affordable way to add TTS to multimodal applications. As a result, operators can innovate, providing the latest revenue-generating voice and data services faster and at a lower cost. NMS HearSay is based on an open architecture that merges telecom mobility with the content-rich Internet and allows for an easy evolution from circuit-switched to packet-based Internet Protocol networks as well as the transition from 2G to next-generation 2.5G and 3G architectures. Every NMS HearSay system incorporates:
- Fully integrated voice and data applications from numerous partners
- IP and PSTN network technologies
- Automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech products from multiple vendors
- Multimodal software that routes text messages between wireless networks and devices such as mobile phones and PDAs
- Rack-mounted NEBS Level 3 compliant Sun Microsystems' Netra 20 and Netra CT servers, SPARC® technology, and the Solaris™ operating environment
- Operations and billing integration
- Full 24/7 global support including customization, installation, and deployment services
"Operators are telling us NMS HearSay is living up to its promises in their trial deployments," said Brian Demers, vice president and general manager of NMS' Network Solutions business. "ScanSoft RealSpeak, the most widely used text-to-speech solution, will be a key contributor to its ongoing success and customer adoption. By integrating the technologies and applications operators want, we've done the heavy lifting so the operators get new service revenues quickly." "As information access gets pushed out to a variety of devices and touchpoints, voice capabilities becomes a critical interface for businesses and users alike," said Wayne Crandall, senior vice president of sales and business development at ScanSoft. "By integrating ScanSoft RealSpeak with its NMS Hearsay system, NMS can help organizations recognize the promise of multimodal voice and data deployments, making information available on any device from any location and, now, in more languages than ever before."