CAMARILLO, Calif. & PITTSBURGH--()--Wizzard Software (NYSE Amex: WZE) and Communications and Power Engineering Inc. (CommPower) announced today they have signed a long-term agreement for Wizzard to provide AT&T Natural Voices text-to-speech to be the new voice of the NOAA/NWS Weather and Warning Services, in support of the Weather Radio Improvement Program (WRIP) that was awarded to CommPower in 2009.
“Wizzard is licensing and deploying AT&T Natural Voices around the world for an unprecedented variety of applications where naturalness and intelligibility are vital”
The WRIP consists of a 3-year base period and 2 years of follow-on maintenance ($22.3 million total), whereby CommPower, with teammate Harris Corporation, will develop and deploy a nationwide (and beyond) dissemination system that rapidly and reliably delivers around-the-clock weather, all-hazards and other emergency information, as well as live audio emergency announcements to the public, media, law enforcement and local/state emergency managers. The Program will enhance the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service (NWS) that provides weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and other emergency messages to the public and emergency managers via the NOAA Weather Radio/All-Hazards (NWR) system and NOAA Weather Wire Service (NWWS).
“In a nationwide public alert system, the voice used to deliver the critical warning data is a vital element that could make or break the program,” says Kathy Nuckles, CEO/President of CommPower. “For us, the Wizzard/AT&T Natural Voices text-to-speech capability is a standout on multiple fronts and thus our clear choice for the WRIP program. We are very excited to work with Wizzard to introduce this technology as the new voice of NOAA Weather Radio.”
“Wizzard is licensing and deploying AT&T Natural Voices around the world for an unprecedented variety of applications where naturalness and intelligibility are vital,” said Bruce Phifer, General Manager of Technology and Services for Wizzard Software. “But the extent of this deployment to provide clear, natural-sounding voices that are critical to reliable public alert services is by far the most powerful endorsement of the quality of this exceptional technology.”
“AT&T Natural Voices is an award-winning text-to-speech engine that converts text into voice for a wide variety of applications,” said Juergen Schroeter, Executive Director of Speech Algorithms and Engines Research, AT&T Labs. “It enables the next generation of consumer products, business devices, games, and automated voice response systems by providing a natural component of human interaction, a speaking voice with crystal clarity.”
About Communications and Power Engineering: From inception in 1984, CommPower has achieved excellence in the system development and integration market, with emphasis on real-time message processing/switching and data communications applications for military and meteorological markets. Please visit www.commpower.com for details about the company and its offerings as well as contact information.
About Wizzard Software
Founded in 1996, Wizzard Software has become a leader in providing high quality speech technologies to the development community. Wizzard architects solutions to business problems using its expertise in consulting, speech development tools and building speech based applications for the Desktop and Internet. For more information, please visit www.wizzardsoftware.com.
Legal Notice:
Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: "Forward-looking Statements" as defined in the Private Securities litigation Reform Act of 1995 may be included in this news release. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. These statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future results or events. We disclaim any intention or obligation to revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. There are important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to risks associated with changes in general economic and business conditions, actions of our competitors, the extent to which we are able to develop new services and markets for our services, the time and expense involved in such development activities, the level of demand and market acceptance of our services, changes in our business strategies and acts of terror against the United States.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Delicious
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Digg
MySpace
Newsvine
Google Bookmark
Yahoo! Bookmark
Email
Email 
