Chant Adds Life to Synthesized Speech

New component library simplifies text-to-speech markup language generation

Los Angeles, California, October 1, 2007—Chant Inc., the leading independent software vendor of speech technology tools, announced today general availability of VoiceMarkupKit 2, a new component library that enables applications to generate text-to-speech markup language to enhance the quality of synthesized speech.

Now developers have the ability to quickly and easily generate text-to-speech markup language to adjust speed, add pauses, inject emphasis, and switch voices during synthesis. VoiceMarkupKit 2 provides a common application interface for generating Microsoft SAPI 4, Microsoft SAPI 5, and W3C SSML (Cepstral) markup language.

"We are excited to enable applications to generate TTS markup on-the-fly," said John Earle, president and founder of Chant Inc. "Applications can now dynamically adjust to any voice the end user may select and produce better sounding synthesized speech."

New key features and capabilities provided by VoiceMarkupKit 2 include:

US Pricing and Availability

VoiceMarkupKit 2 can be ordered today. VoiceMarkupKit 2 Win32 Developer Edition pricing is $199. VoiceMarkupKit 2 Win32 Deployment Edition pricing is $199. For more information about features and pricing, visit www.voicemarkupkit.com.

About Chant

Chant Inc. is a leading provider of software and services that help organizations gain competitive advantage with speech technology. Chant is the first company to provide engine-independent middleware for developing desktop, mobile, web-enabled, and telephony applications that use speech technology. For more information, please visit www.chant.net. Getting the world talking with technology.

Chant, SpeechKit, and Getting the World Talking with Technology are trademarks or registered trademarks of Chant Inc. All other marks are owned by their respective companies.