KLAS-TV Turns to Pronexus to Create Time and Weather IVR Solution

KLAS-TV, a CBS affiliate serving Las Vegas, has launched a self-service interactive voice response system that allows viewers to hear the time and weather forecast at any time of the day or night.

The application, developed by Pronexus using its flagship VBVoice IVR toolkit, provides callers with the option to hear the current time or the weather forecast--including the temperature and humidity-- for the day or week. Text-to-speech technology is used to relay the information to the caller.

"This allows the viewer to access the self-service solution if, for example, he missed the news. He can find out the weather for the day or week without having to speak to anyone at the station," says Nicole Reid, a marketing and communications specialist at Pronexus and the voice behind the IVR solution. "He can call in 24/7 from any phone anywhere in the world to get the weather in Las Vegas.

Pronexus took about two weeks to develop the application, according to Reid. "We created it in-house for them using VBVoice, a drag-and-drop application," she says. "We then recorded the voice prompts and sent it all off to them as a post-script file."

“Pronexus bent over backwards to get us an IVR system in fast order and at an affordable price,” said Doug Kramer, chief engineer at KLAS-TV.

The KLAS-TV application was unique for Pronexus in that the company was called upon to develop the application in-house. "It's so simple to use that we usually provide them with the toolkit and they develop it on their own," Reid says.

VBVoice enables the creation of speech-enabled solutions, including voice self-service, unified communications, and IVR systems. VBVoice's graphic user interface, with fully programmable controls, allows developers to leverage their current programming skills in industry-standard languages such as VB.NET and C#.