TTS Configuration

TTS Types

By default the TTS (Text to Speech) engine used by newfies-Dialer is Flite (http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/flite/) which only supports English. If you want to use another language you will need another TTS engine.

We have integrated Acapela: http://acapela-vaas.com/ and in order to use Acapela, the only thing you have to do is to sign in and enable Acapela on Newfies-dialer.

uniMRCP TTS engines are also supported. Typically, a separate server will be required containing the TTS engine, the text to be converted will be sent to the TTS server, and the audio file sent back ready for playing by the campaign.

Please check with us the suitability of your uniMRCP TTS system before purchase. We will assist with the integration.

How to enable Acapela

First you will have to sign-up and register an account with Acapela : http://acapela-vaas.com/ Once you signed up you will receive a login, an application login and an application password, you will need those to configure Acapela on Newfies-Dialer.

Acapela needs to be configured in 2 places:

  1. On the Web interface

Edit the file /usr/share/newfies-dialer/newfies_dialer/settings_local.py and find:

#TEXT-TO-SPEECH
#==============
TTS_ENGINE = 'FLITE'  # FLITE, CEPSTRAL, ACAPELA

ACCOUNT_LOGIN = 'EVAL_XXXX'
APPLICATION_LOGIN = 'EVAL_XXXXXXX'
APPLICATION_PASSWORD = 'XXXXXXXX'

SERVICE_URL = 'http://vaas.acapela-group.com/Services/Synthesizer'
QUALITY = '22k'  # 22k, 8k, 8ka, 8kmu
ACAPELA_GENDER = 'W'
ACAPELA_INTONATION = 'NORMAL'

You will have to change the value of the settings : TTS_ENGINE, ACCOUNT_LOGIN, APPLICATION_LOGIN and APPLICATION_PASSWORD.
  1. On the IVR application

Create a new file /usr/share/newfies-lua/config/acapela_config.lua and add the following:

TTS_ENGINE = 'acapela'

ACCOUNT_LOGIN = 'EVAL_VAAS'
APPLICATION_LOGIN = 'EVAL_XXXXXX'
APPLICATION_PASSWORD = 'XXXXXX'

SERVICE_URL = 'http://vaas.acapela-group.com/Services/Synthesizer'
QUALITY = '22k'  -- 22k, 8k, 8ka, 8kmu
ACAPELA_GENDER = 'M'
ACAPELA_INTONATION = 'NORMAL'
ACAPELA_LANG = 'EN'


Change the value of the settings : ACCOUNT_LOGIN, APPLICATION_LOGIN, APPLICATION_PASSWORD and optionally, ACAPELA_LANG.

Finally restart the web UI::

/etc/init.d/supervisor stop
and
/etc/init.d/supervisor start