CEREPROC, the Edinburgh-based synthetic speech specialist, has clinched a major deal to supply Austrian Federal Railways (OBB) with German partner Aristech, writes Scott Wright.
The two companies have synthetically recreated the speech of Chris Lohner – the Austrian actress who has voice station announcements in the country for the last 34 years.
OBB will use CereProc technology to deploy the synthetic voice in OBB’s announcement systems on trains, buses and contact centres, in German and English.
It also plans to use the voice in its ticket machines and their website to improve accessibility.
OBB believes that creating a synthetic version of Lohner’s voice it will be more cost effective solution in the long run, while affording it greater flexibility.
CereProc chief executive Paul Welham said: “CereProc’s TTS voices are deployed in various transportation systems such as London Gatwick airport and German railways, plus even an ET ride in Florida, so I’m thrilled that OBB has chosen to work with Aristech to use CereProc’s VCK to create a synthetic version of Chris’s voice.
“The bid was won against strong competition from other vendors.”
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