MSDN Webcast Part1 - Q&A
Q&A from Speech Server MSDN Webcast Part 1:
Steve Asked: Are there any developer SDK's etc. for VS 2005 that we need to get started?
Sandy Murdock Asked: I notice the code is C#, does it work as well with vb?
karen Asked: Could he show slides while waiting?
karen Asked: Could he show slides while waiting?
Answered Privately: Sorry for the delay. I think that will impact the flow of the presentation.
Steve Asked: How does the workflow toolkit for telephony features compare to the functionality of other proprietary 3rd party toolkits?
Steve Asked: Are there any developer SDK's etc. for VS 2005 that we need to get started?
Answered: Yes, It is part of the Speech Server installation. www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4F4D3AA4-8223-406C-B74F-DB2DE928D8B2&displaylang=en
Sandy Murdock Asked: I notice the code is C#, does it work as well with vb?
Answered: Yes, it works in VB as well as C#
Steve Asked: How does the workflow toolkit for telephony features compare to the functionality of other proprietary 3rd party toolkits?
Answered: I havent seen any IVR development third party toolkits which use Visual Studio or .NET
Steve Asked: Check into Pronexus VBVoice - a .NET 2 Visual Studio plugin using the Dialogic card
Elizabeth Asked: Are fax capabilities included in the software, or is it only used for voice-only applications?
Steve Asked: Check into Pronexus VBVoice - a .NET 2 Visual Studio plugin using the Dialogic card
Answered: I will. Most IVR platforms support it's own language, it's nice to see some supporting .NET
Elizabeth Asked: Are fax capabilities included in the software, or is it only used for voice-only applications?
Answered: No fax, only voice and DTMF
Elizabeth Asked: Can an IVR caller leave a recorded message, and if yes, what format is their recording stored in?
Steve Asked: How can I get in touch with you regarding the Pronexus vs Speech Server evaluation
BrianC Asked: from my limited work with Speech Server 2007 it seems to me that in order for speech server to get input from a user, it must know before hand what the user may possibly say..how would you handle a situation where the possible input from a user is not known...
Elizabeth Asked: Can an IVR caller leave a recorded message, and if yes, what format is their recording stored in?
Answered: Yes. In Friday's session, I will show the Record Message Activity with Mithun
Steve Asked: How can I get in touch with you regarding the Pronexus vs Speech Server evaluation
Answered: My email is michaeldu@magenic.com or feel free to give me a call 612-859-1899 (any one can email or call me about Speech Server)
Steve Asked: Is it possible to internationalise an IVR application?
Elizabeth Asked: I notice that the IVR prompts sounded like they were text-to-speech. I assume we are able to record prompts using a real voice? If we have someone recording our prompts in a studio, will there be a way to convert them from the studio-provided format to the format required by Speech Server?
BrianC Asked: from my limited work with Speech Server 2007 it seems to me that in order for speech server to get input from a user, it must know before hand what the user may possibly say..how would you handle a situation where the possible input from a user is not known...
Answered: Correct. Speech Server doesn't support dictation. However there are ways around this, such as creating data driven grammar.
BrianC Asked: how many records can a data driven grammar realistically consist of ?
Steve Asked: Is it possible to internationalise an IVR application?
Answered: Yes Speech Server supports several different languages. You could incorporate the different languages in one application if you wanted or needed to.
Elizabeth Asked: I notice that the IVR prompts sounded like they were text-to-speech. I assume we are able to record prompts using a real voice? If we have someone recording our prompts in a studio, will there be a way to convert them from the studio-provided format to the format required by Speech Server?
Answered: Yes you can. In Friday's session we will be showing you the recording tool built into Visual Studio. Today was really just a taste of what speech server is.
BrianC Asked: how many records can a data driven grammar realistically consist of ?
Answered: Good Question. Most of the grammars I try to limit for performance. I haven't tried to max it out, but the larger the grammar, the more horse power you need in your production machine, and it will probably reduce the amount of calls you can take at once
BrianC Asked: The last podcast from gotspeech.net had a demo of the Directory Assistance IVR app from Google....they were looking for a Starbucks listing....all they said was Starbucks and the system found a bunch of listings...the system had no way of knowing that the user was going to say Starbucks...and a Dynamic Grammar of all businesses in the USA would be enormous...any idea how that system is setup ?
Michael Dunn Asked: Be sure to join in Friday for Part 2 as it goes deeper into the development enviroment. Today was basically just an overview.
BrianC Asked: The last podcast from gotspeech.net had a demo of the Directory Assistance IVR app from Google....they were looking for a Starbucks listing....all they said was Starbucks and the system found a bunch of listings...the system had no way of knowing that the user was going to say Starbucks...and a Dynamic Grammar of all businesses in the USA would be enormous...any idea how that system is setup ?
Answered: I'm not sure which platform they use, but the platform they are using probably supports dictation. I think right now Speech Server is still in it's infancy stage, and Microsoft is trying to support what 80% of typical uses for IVR applications are.
BrianC Asked: can you use the dictation facilities in Vista with Speech Server ?
BrianC Asked: can you use the dictation facilities in Vista with Speech Server ?
Answered: No, while the speech engines are similar they are totally seperate and Speech Server doesn't allow you to replace the speech recognition engine with a different one.
Michael Dunn Asked: Be sure to join in Friday for Part 2 as it goes deeper into the development enviroment. Today was basically just an overview.
Answered: Friday, same time and place.
BrianC Asked: thanks for your time
Michael Dunn Asked: Email Address and Phone Number to contact me is
BrianC Asked: thanks for your time
Answered: No problem. Feel free to contact me anytime via email or phone. michaeldu@magenic or 612-859-1899