Alert Cascade Partners with CereProc

Through a new partnership with U.K text-to-speech company CereProc, mass notification technology provider Alert Cascade has added regional U.K. accents to its latest platform release.

Traditionally, U.K. TTS has been centered around Received Pronunciation (RP), but recent estimates show that only around 2 percent of the U.K. population actually use RP, with the figure being even lower in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

"Our platforms are used for everything from letting parents know that schools are closed to warning and informing members of the public in the event of an incident at a petrochemical or nuclear site," said Russell Pearson, director of Alert Cascade, in a statement. "While there are some good Queen's English voices on the market, we felt that it was important to use voices that more accurately represent the people we're communicating with and which make it easier for vital information to be clearly understood. The last thing we want during an emergency situation is people misunderstanding the message; our new partnership with CereProc has been exceptionally well received by customers and really does add another dimension to our voice messages."

"At CereProc, we've always wanted to push the boundaries of TTS and develop voices that not only communicated the message clearly but also delighted the user," said Paul Welham, CEO of CereProc, in a statement. "That's why we've focused on creating a wide range of voices with regional accents that sound real and have character. We're delighted to see that companies, like Alert Cascade, really listen to what their customers want and understand that audio is a crucial part of their identity."

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