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Text-to-Speech Technology in PowerPoint-Based Corporate Communications: Ensuring Effective Knowledge Transfer

Text Box: Abstract PowerPoint is utilized extensively in global corporations to communicate information, plans and ideas. It is a critical, yet imperfect tool, often requiring the recipient to decipher complex diagrams and tables and hazard many guesses on the author’s intent. Tuval Software Industries’ innovative Speech-Over Studio software uses text-to-speech technology to add a professional-sounding synchronized narration that helps transfer important corporate information more effectively and accurately. Text Box: Recording a Narration in a Corporate Communication In today's corporate environment, timely and effective communication with staff, customers and channel partners is more important than ever before. PowerPoint presentations are used in a wide range of corporate communications, business-to-business and internal, to communicate information, plans and ideas. In the typical scenario, the reader receiving such a communication is required to understand the information from the visuals alone, without the benefit of the author’s verbal explanation. In the best case, the reader will just waste valuable time understanding the communication; in the worst case he will misunderstand the message. This situation could be significantly improved if the communication included a narration synchronized with the visuals that explained, expanded and added detail. Not only because of the additional information transmitted in the audio channel, but because the information is transmitted more effectively by video and audio together than by video alone. For a small-scale corporate communication that is constrained by budget and time considerations, professional voice recording is not practical and for a variety of reasons, the author may not want to record his own voice, so the narration is often omitted. However, recent advances in text-to-speech technology have made it possible for the author of a corporate communications to produce a professional-sounding synchronized narration based on text input alone – without recording. For more information about text-to-speech technology, see Text-to-Speech. Knowledge Transfer Applications Presentations whose purpose is to transfer knowledge are well-suited to TTS presentation technology. This type of presentation is usually given to people who have a need to receive and understand the information being presented, for example PowerPoint-based corporate communications. In this situation, as long as the information is clearly presented, the quality of the voice is not critical and TTS voices are quite acceptable. Corporate Communications Corporate communications stand to benefit significantly from TTS presentation technology, for the following reasons: Text Box: As mentioned, PowerPoint-based corporate communications are well-suited to TTS presentation technology. TTS voices can pronounce even the most technical words clearly, resulting in a very effective explanation of the subject. The author of the communication, no matter who he is, can marshal the professional quality TTS voices installed on his computer to produce a high-quality narration in the language of his choice. The time and cost of producing the narration are also reduced. With an efficient tool, the text can be entered and the narration produced in just a few minutes. The narration can be created in parallel with the visuals or subsequently. Speech-Over Studio Platform To make TTS presentation technology work in a cost-effective way, you need an efficient platform for integrating the TTS system with the presentation software. Tuval Software Industries’ Speech-Over Studio™ is such a platform for PowerPoint. Among the features and benefits offered by Speech-Over Studio: Speech editor for quick and easy entry and editing of speech text, including SAPI voice modulation tags, and association of speech with screen shape. Text can be typed in or dictated. Integration of multiple voices in a presentation to make it more interesting and varied Alternative narrations of a presentation for different audiences, including in different languages. Automatic synchronization of narration with screen animation replaces time-consuming manual synchronization of recorded voices. Conclusion Tuval Software Industries’ Speech-Over Studio makes it easy for the author of a PowerPoint-based corporate communication to produce a professional-sounding synchronized narration with a minimum of time and cost and without recording. As a result, corporate communications can transfer knowledge more effectively and accurately, saving time and money for the organization. Text Box: Speech-Over Professional

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