Using Text-to-Speech

A good text-to-speech (TTS) engine is an important part of many speech applications. While the LumenVox Speech Platform and Speech Engine do not directly perform any TTS functionality, the Speech Platform supports TTS engines in two ways. First, we have a direct API-level integration with the NeoSpeech TTS engine. Secondly, we support the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) and can work with any local TTS engine that supports SAPI.

Using NeoSpeech

To use NeoSpeech, simply install it on the same machine as the Speech Platform and then configure the [NeoSpeech] section of LV_Platform.ini.

If you have purchased NeoSpeech licenses with your Speech Platform (they are included with our Speech Assistant product for Televantage), you will be able to download it from your software downloads area at https://www.lumenvox.com/customers/ as a zip file. To install it, simply extract the contents of the zip file to the Platform installation directory, which by default is the C:\Program Files\LumenVox\Platform\ folder.

Using Other TTS Engines

To use TTS engines that support SAPI, you must have the Microsoft SAPI environment installed. This may be distributed with your TTS engine or it may be downloaded from Microsoft. Please contact your TTS vendor for more information about configuring their TTS engine with SAPI.

Once your TTS engine and SAPI are installed, set USE_NEOSPEECH=0 in LV_Platform.ini. The Platform will then automatically send TTS requests to the default Windows TTS engine. The default TTS engine can be configured in the Speech section of the Windows Control Panel.