INTEL: Intel gives the web a voice - New voice portal platform expands web access to millions worldwide
SEP 28, 2000, M2 Communications - In direct response to market demand for voice portal technology, Intel's Dialogic subsidiary today introduced its voice portal platform, designed to drive rapid development and deployment of voice-based Internet applications and voice portal solutions.
This new voice portal platform combines the power, reliability and high volume capabilities of an Intel Architecture with the latest Continuous Speech Processing (CSP) technology on Dialogic's voice processing hardware products. The voice portal platform uses speech recognition and synthesis technology software from leading players such as Nuance (Nasdaq: NUAN chart, msgs) and SpeechWorks (Nasdaq: SPWX chart, msgs).
According to the Kelsey Group, by 2005, 45 million users of wireless phones in North America will regularly use voice portals to perform their everyday cyberchores. Voice portal services address the needs of both casual Internet users that do not have convenient Web access and "power users" that demand ubiquitous access to information while away from their desktops. Voice portal consumers benefit from instant access to the Internet via the telephone - retrieving information such as news, weather, traffic, stock quotes, driving directions, restaurant guides and email.
"The Dialogic brand is synonymous with widespread developer activity", stated Mark Plakias, vice president, Voice & Wireless Commerce, Kelsey Group. "This initiative, and the price performance levels that go along with it, lower the barriers to innovation and deployment for speech services in general and voice portals specifically.
Dialogic's offer of low-cost, high-performance technology confirms our belief that a combination of advertising and transactions will drive a $12 billion "voice e-cosystem" by 2005, with more than $5 billion in advertising and transactions by 2005."
"The explosion of the Internet and its use for e-business transactions has increased the need for 24x7 access to information anytime, from any location. We see Internet users looking for voice-based solutions to access critical information," said Howard Bubb, vice president of Intel Corporation's Communications Products Group, and General Manager of the Converged Communications Division. "Intel is paving the way with cost-effective, standards-based solutions like the Voice portal platform, which are stimulating innovative application development to provide powerful speech capabilities to the Internet."
Enabling Access to the Web Over the Phone
The voice-based Web content provided by voice portals allow customers to have access to the Internet anytime and anywhere, just by using the phone.
The industry's leading speech recognition vendors including Nuance and SpeechWorks are providing support for Dialogic technology, making voice-enabled Web access over the phone possible.
"Dialogic's continuous speech processing technology has been a tremendous asset to the development of our speech-enabled solutions," said Steve Chambers, vice president of worldwide marketing, SpeechWorks. "Dialogic's technology has already enabled us to provide expanded speech-access services to our customers such as HeyAnita and Quack.com (recently purchased by AOL), so callers can instantly reach the information they need from wherever they are - retrieving Internet-based content with a device as convenient and portable as the nearest phone."
ASPs such as Telera and XO Communications (formerly known as NEXTLINK Communications) are also selecting SpeechWorks to deliver speech access.
"With the Voice portal platform, Dialogic provides an effective tool for the development and delivery of applications for the Voice Web," said Steve Ehrlich, vice president of marketing for Nuance. "The combination of our speech recognition software and Dialogic's platform allows portals, content sites and application service providers to quickly and easily deliver access to a wide range of voice-driven information."
Nuance and Dialogic are working with a growing number of leading companies on the Voice Web including Tellme Networks, Telera and many others.
Simplifying Speech Enabled Application Development and Deployment.
Since voice portal developers tend to come from the Web community and are not typically telephony hardware integrators, Dialogic has simplified and streamlined the development and deployment process by integrating hardware components with the voice portal platform. Developers need only to order the phone lines and connect them to the Voice portal platform in order to begin developing speech-enabled applications. And, to further accelerate applications development, Dialogic offers complete jumpstart services to support the design, development, and testing of new applications.
The voice portal platform advances the state-of-the-art in Internet voice applications by allowing voice and Internet data to reside on the same network in a more scaleable, manageable and reliable manner. It provides the first standardised platform for speech-enabled application development in the voice portal market. Key benefits for developers and Service Providers include:
* Improved Time to Market - An integrated platform makes the development and deployment of applications easier, enabling developers to bring applications to market faster.
* Cost-Effective Performance - Service Providers who were previously discouraged by the large and costly infrastructure needed to support the implementation of voice and speech capabilities now have access to a compact 2U-high, packaged, affordable, rackable and pre-configured solution that delivers up to 96 ports of speech recognition.
* Service Provider Level Scalability - Dialogic's CSP technology embedded in the platform optimises the performance of host-based speech technologies with additional algorithms such as pre-speech buffering that enable the creation of large-scale systems. Service Providers can now deploy nearly 2,000 lines of speech recognition in a single rack system. Using the on-board network management features built into the processor's input/output system, system administrators can more easily manage the individual platforms within a rack system.
Availability
Developer kits and deployment configurations of the voice portal platform are expected to be generally available in September 2000. Additional models extending the low and high end will be rolled out through the remainder of 2000 and the first half of 2001.
Tying It All Together
Customer training for the Voice portal platform is being offered jointly with Dialogic's speech technology developer partners, Nuance and SpeechWorks, beginning in October. The joint training sessions will offer participants comprehensive information about the Voice portal platform, including configuration and capabilities of server, board and CSP components, as well as instruction for building and tuning speech applications. For more information contact the Dialogic Educational Services group. Dialogic can also further reduce applications development time and improve time to market, through its Services and Solutions Group.
Dialogic provides tailored consultative support services, which can include the planning, design, implementation, and/or testing of voice portal solutions.
About Dialogic
Dialogic, an Intel Company, provides the crucial building blocks and technical services that enable its customers to develop solutions serving the converging Internet and telecommunications market segments. Dialogic products are used in voice, fax, data, speech recognition and synthesis, call centre management, and Internet protocol (IP) telephony applications in both public network and customer premise equipment (CPE) environments.
For more information visit www.dialogic.com |
