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Speech Synthesis and Recognition
The calm before the storm...

I've been quite lately as I'm pretty much waiting, like the rest of you, for the public beta of OCS. (It's so close I can almost smell it.) So, while I'm waiting, I'm trying to learn everything about OCS/UC/UM as much as I can. Currently, I've been playing with Exchange 2007. Microsoft is currently offering a evaluation version of Exchange 2007 as a VHD. It's great because you just have to download and add into to your Virtual Machine. No messy installation of Exchange or Window Server 2003, it's all done for you.

Download it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6E6501F6-481A-4117-BC22-C745400BCDA0&displaylang=en

Here are some good links:
http://www.microsoft.com/uc/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/um.mspx (UM Whitepaper)

I've had mixed feelings about the auto attendant. Part of me feels that it takes away from the value of Speech Server, but I also see it adding to Speech Server opportunities. For example someone using the Auto Attendant might see how beneficial telephony is, and maybe they will need a more complex speech solution, such as automated ordering or anything of that nature. I'll have some future post about how to setup the Exchange Auto Attendant.

On the Speech Server side, I'm still having trouble with the new name, "Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Server". My personal opinion is Microsoft needs a syllable limit for every product name. It's a mouthful! I'm sure it's going to be a great product, I will have to practice the name before speaking about it in public at all.

I'm at VSLive! - San Francisco next week, I will also be attending the Midnight Madness event, if you are around be sure to come and say hi.

Posted: Thursday, March 22, 2007 2:30 PM by MichaelDunn

Comments

brandontyler said:

Do you have mixed feelings about the auto attendant because it sucks?  I wonder who designed the VUI of the auto attendant and if it was Usability tested and has been tuned?  Is it configurable?  I would love to play with that.  I worked on Intervoice's AutoAttendant and we went through a few iterations before we got our own internal one just right...

# March 22, 2007 11:08 PM

MichaelDunn said:

No, it works great. It's completely configurable, so you actually have a lot of impact on the VUI. My mixed feelings about it is where is the line drawn between products? I would expect an auto attendant feature to be in the Speech Server product not Exchange. I think Speech Server would of been a better fit as an optional install with Exchange, and if you installed Speech Server you could get this configurable Auto Attendant, which could of been based on a Speech Workflow Application.

Also, now you are leaving part of VUI design to Exchange Administrators....No offense to Exchange Administrators or anything, but it seems out side of the scope of normal job functions to me.

I see where Speech Server fits with OCS, but more and more I'm starting to think maybe it should of been included with Exchange instead. Who knows maybe next release we will be learning Microsoft Exchange Speech Server....

# March 23, 2007 4:31 AM

marshallharrison said:

According to Microsoft you can also refer to the product as Speech Server or Speech Server (2007). Use the latter (with the prenthesis) when it can be confused with the 2004 version.

They even went so far as to say these were the official 3 ways to refer to it in blogs.

There won't be a Microsoft Exchange Speech Server any time in the future. I can't say (NDA) where it's going but that scenario won't happen.

# March 23, 2007 8:58 AM

MichaelDunn said:

I was only half kidding about the Exchange Speech Server as a new version. But as of now if you look at some of the Exchange features and compare them to Speech Server features, you have to wonder if Microsoft even consider having Speech Server included with Exchange...my guess is that it had to of been mentioned at some point in time.

I'm sure Microsoft has reasons for choosing Speech Server to be included in OCS and why Exchange has seperate yet similar functions.  Hopefully they become clearer in time.

# March 23, 2007 11:27 AM
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