Text To Speech has come along way since the old War Games’ chessplaying robot voice of the 70’s. Today, several optimized voice engines exist that can truly enhance the sound and interaction of data driven voice applications.
When to use…
The only time TTS is really needed is when so many prompts are needed that it would be impractical to record them all. For example, speaking out cities or address information (i.e. "please confirm you live at 2201 Main Street"). If thousands of possibilities exists for the playback then TTS is a good option.
When not to use…
Sometimes people confuse Text To Speech with the need for speaking dates, numbers, digits, etc. This type of voice prompt is included in every ePBX™ shipment. Therefore, it is not necessary to configure TTS for this purpose. For example, and account balance application speaks date and amount information. The caller hears, "your balance is four hundred dollars as of Monday, December 7, 2010." This can be done with standard ePBX™ prompts; TTS is not needed.
