Examples of TTSService entries

The examples below show how to configure TTSService entries for use with:

WebSphere Voice Server Version 5.1. Note that there are differences when using WebSphere Voice Server Version 5.1.1 or 5.1.2 compared to WebSphere Voice Server Version 5.1.3. This is because WebSphere Voice Server Version 5.1.3 supports the use of multiple synthesis languages on a single machine. The examples also show that the InitTechnologyString keyword is not required when using any of these versions of WebSphere Voice Server speech technology.
Nuance Vocalizer V5.1

Configuring for use with WebSphere Voice Server Version 5.1.1 or 5.1.2

In this example, two WebSphere Voice Server languages are needed for text-to-speech: US English and Latin American Spanish. US English is installed on the WebSphere Voice Server machine with host name wvsenglish.demo.ibm.com. Latin American Spanish is installed on the WebSphere Voice Server machine with host name wvslaspanish.demo.ibm.com. The TTSService entry in the default.cff file would include the following values:

TTSService=WVS_TTSen_US
 PluginClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
 InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://wvsenglish.demo.ibm.com/media/synthesizer
 TTSType=TTSen_US
;
TTSService=WVS_TTSes_MX
 PluginClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
 InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://wvslaspanish.demo.ibm.com/media/synthesizer
 TTSType=TTSes_MX
;

On a Blueworx Voice Response machine with more than one ethernet adapter you also need to define the local IP address to be used for the media streaming by specifying a MediaIPAddress value for the InitSessionString parameter:

TTSService=WVS_TTSen_US
 PluginClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
 InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://wvsenglish.demo.ibm.com/media/synthesizer, MediaIPAddress=9.20.123.456
 TTSType=TTSen_US
;
TTSService=WVS_TTSes_MX
 PluginClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
 InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://wvslaspanish.demo.ibm.com/media/synthesizer, MediaIPAddress=9.20.123.456
 TTSType=TTSes_MX
;

In each case, this text-to-speech configuration would be reflected in the NodeName configuration entry as follows:

NodeName=VRNode1
 Enabled=yes
 NodeDefLocale=en_US
 VRNode=yes
 TTSService=WVS_TTSen_US
 TTSDefinition=en_US,TTSen_US
 TTSService=WVS_TTSes_MX
 TTSDefinition=es_MX,TTSes_MX
;

Configuring for use with WebSphere Voice Server Version 5.1.3

WebSphere Voice Server Version 5.1.3 allows a single machine to support multiple text-to-speech languages. This means that default.cff needs to contain only a single reference to a WebSphere Voice Server machine for each text-to-speech resource type.

In this example, a machine with host name wvs.demo.ibm.com has installed US English and Latin American Spanish. The TTSService entry in the default.cff file would include the following values:

TTSService=TtsAll
 PlugInClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
 InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://wvs.demo.ibm.com/media/synthesizer
 TTSType=Ttslan_All
;

This text-to-speech configuration would be reflected in the NodeName configuration entry as follows:

NodeName=VRNode1
 Enabled=yes
 NodeDefLocale=en_US
 VRNode=yes
 TTSService=TtsAll
 TTSDefinition=*,Ttslan_All
;

Using load-balancing with WebSphere Voice Server

For larger deployments handling more than one trunk of calls, it may be necessary to use more than one speech server to process text-to-speech and speech recognition requests. To do this a load-balancing application such as WebSphere Edge Server is used to distribute text-to-speech and speech recognition requests to two or more speech servers. All text-to-speech and speech recognition initialization requests are sent to a load-balancing address. The load balancer receives these requests and forwards them to one of a cluster of speech servers. For more information, refer to the WebSphere Voice Server information center topic “Multiple machine topology”.

Note: WebSphere Edge Server V5.1 is bundled with WebSphere Voice Server V5.1.3.

For instructions on installing WebSphere Edge Server, refer to the WebSphere Voice Server information center topic “Installing the WebSphere Edge Component: Load Balancer”.

Configuring for use with Nuance Vocalizer V5.1

Blueworx Voice Response uses MRCP V1.0 to connect to voice servers. Nuance Speech Server V5 provides an MRCP V1.0 interface to text-to-speech and speech recognition components.

To configure Blueworx Voice Response to connect to a Nuance Speech Server, the default RTSP port number used must match that used for the Nuance Server configuration. By default this value is 4900. An example of the VRBE TTSService entry configuration settings required for text-to-speech in configuration file /var/dirTalk/DTBE/native/aix/default.cff are shown below:

TTSService=Tts_GB
  PlugInClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
  InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://1.23.45.678:4900/media/speechsynthesizer
  TTSType=Ttsen_GB
;

To use dynamic engine allocation for text-to-speech, append ,keepsessionforcall=no to the end of the InitSessionString URI value, as shown in the following example:

TTSService=Tts_GB
  PlugInClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
  InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://1.23.45.678:4900/media/speechsynthesizer,keepsessionforcall=no
  TTSType=Ttsen_GB
;

Using load-balancing with Nuance Vocalizer V5.1

For larger deployments handling more than one trunk of calls, it may be necessary to use more than one speech server to process text-to-speech and speech recognition requests. To do this a load-balancing application such as WebSphere Edge Server is used to distribute text-to-speech and speech recognition requests to two or more speech servers. All text-to-speech and speech recognition initialization requests are sent to a load-balancing address. The load balancer receives these requests and forwards them to one of a cluster of speech servers. To use Nuance speech servers in this way, a number of changes to Blueworx Voice Response and Nuance configuration need to be made.

An example of the Java and VoiceXML environment TTSService entry configuration settings required for text-to-speech in configuration file default.cff when using a load-balanced systems are shown below:

TTSService=Tts_GB
  PlugInClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
  InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://1.23.45.678:554/media/speechsynthesizer
  TTSType=Ttsen_GB
;

With load-balanced systems, port 554 is used instead of 4900. The changes required to the Nuance configuration file NSSserver.cfg are:

Variable	Value
`server.transport.bindrtptoip`	The IP address of the speech server
`server.rtp.strictSdpMediaPortUse`	0
`server.mrcp1.transport.port`	554

Text-to-speech requests are forwarded to one of a number of Nuance voice servers using the same port number (554). When a text-to-speech session has been set up on a Nuance voice server and Blueworx Voice Response has received a response, text-to-speech traffic passes to and fro directly (not through the load balancer machine).

Configuring for use with Loquendo TTS V7.20

Blueworx Voice Response uses MRCP V1.0 to connect to voice servers. Loquendo Speech Server V5.1.2 provides an MRCP V1.0 interface to text-to-speech and speech recognition components.

To configure Blueworx Voice Response to connect to a Loquendo Speech Server, the default RTSP port number used must match that used for the Loquendo Server configuration. By default this value is 554. An example of the VRBE TTSService entry configuration settings required for text-to-speech in configuration file /var/dirTalk/DTBE/native/aix/default.cff are shown below:

TTSService=Tts_GB
  PlugInClass=com.ibm.telephony.directtalk.mrcp.MRCPTTS
  InitSessionString=URI=rtsp://1.23.45.678:554/synthesizer
  TTSType=Ttsen_GB
;

In the Loquendo Management Console, the following two configuration settings need to be set:

Configuration > Advanced > MRCPv1Server > nlsmlResult > enableWordInputElements:

disabled

Configuration > Advanced > MRCPv1Server > speechRecognition > lasrDefaultTagFormat:

SISR-semantics (2)

After changing, it may be necessary to restart Loquendo.