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Solution providers who are developing applications on Microsoft Speech Server 2004 can now take advantage of the reliability and price performance offered by Aculab's media processing resource card, Prosody. This follows the development of a telephony interface manager (TIM).

Microsoft Speech Server 2004 is a platform for developing and running speech enabled applications, such as IVR. It includes Microsoft's ASR and Scansoft's TTS technology, as standard, and presents a SALT interface for application development. A key driver behind the development of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 is to make speech enabled applications mainstream. Microsoft Speech Server 2004 with Aculab technology is helping achieve this objective.

Microsoft Speech Server 2004 needs to connect to the PSTN and have access to low level media processing resources. Aculab's TIM allows developers, using Microsoft Speech Server 2004 , to take advantage of Aculab's extensive portfolio of worldwide protocols and approvals and media processing resources.
Choosing the right Telephony Interface Manager (TIM) is critical to successfully deploying your speech application.

Aculab would like to invite you to listen to two Microsoft Webcasts:

Aculab - Your Key to Worldwide Telephony for Microsoft Speech Server 2004 R2
Listen to Webcast
Optimizing Time and Attendance Management Using Speech-Enabled Solutions - by Aculab partner Pulse
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Aculab TIM
The tight integration of the Aculab TIM with the Microsoft Speech Server 2004 platform means developers don't have to worry about low-level call control and resource provisioning - they simply focus on creating applications using the Microsoft Speech Server 2004 application interface.

Media processing requirements
Prosody provides the essential media processing resources for operation of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 and offers the option of adding a primary rate trunk module (PM) for digital network connectivity.

All the features required by the Microsoft Speech Server 2004 platform have long been part of Prosody's extensive portfolio of media processing resources and include: record and playback in a number of file formats; asynchronous play; volume and speed control; ability to start/stop/pause/resume the playing of files; barge-in capability; DTMF termination and detection; echo cancellation; and live speaker detection.

Compared to traditional speech cards (high per channel cost, multiple APIs, limited functionality) Prosody is an excellent investment, with Aculab's media processing resources provided via a cost free licence. This best places Prosody to help achieve the objective to lower the total cost of ownership for speech enabled solutions, as set out by Microsoft.

Call control
A requirement of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 is to ensure applications can accommodate essential call scenarios. Call transfer would be a good example, where a caller having gone through an IVR system needs to be transferred to a live agent. Aculab's TIM provides access to Aculab's feature rich call control capabilities including: call transfer (blind, supervised and trunk release); call logging and channel reconfiguration.

Network connectivity
The digital network access capability of Aculab's Prosody card is used to connect Microsoft Speech Server 2004 to enterprise voice networks. For solution providers who are planning to deploy their Microsoft Speech Server 2004 solution internationally, selecting Aculab for its protocol coverage presents a wealth of additional benefits and includes both E1 and T1 interface connections.

Aculab has an envied reputation for supporting new signalling systems and the impressive range of protocols currently supported (broadest in the marketplace) is still growing. The policy of enabling developers to download the software drivers and protocol firmware continues with the TIM. The rich heritage of protocols available can be best appreciated by viewing the protocols and approvals pages.

Prosody hardware options
The Aculab TIM may be used with any Prosody PCI card. Microsoft Speech Server 2004 is licensed on a per CPU basis, so the edition of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 that is purchased will determine which Prosody card is required, as indicated below.

Standard edition <24 channels of speech - Prosody PCI card with 1 DSP and a PM1
Enterprise edition >24 channels of speech - Prosody PCI card with 2, 3 or 4 DSPs and a PM2 or PM4