System specs for a demo system

[SupportTeam]

I need to demonstrate IVR capabilities to a client. What kind of a setup/minimum hardware, etc. do I require to be able to demonstrate using VoiceCard?

 

Your help would be appreciated.

 

-----------------------------

 

 

For a Dialogic card based system:

 

Pentium 233MHz with 128MB RAM (WinNT/2000/XP)

40MB Hard Disk space

Windows 2000/XP

Internet Explorer 5 or later

Dialogic card - D4PCI is a good 4 port card

[Guest fusiont]

I don't want to incur extra costs. Other pieces of hardware are in place. I don't have the Dialogic Card. What is the workaround so that I can demonstrate a good featured solution. I believe Dialogic card is costly.

[SupportTeam]

You can create a system using a voice modem and a Win98/ME based PC.

 

The minimum specs for a Voice Modem solution are:

 

Pentium 100MHz with 64MB RAM (Win95/98/ME)

40MB Hard Disk space

Internet Explorer 5 or later must be installed before installing VoiceGuide

[Guest fusiont]

I have a IBM A20m LapTop with Windows 2000 Professional installed.

I have Lucent Win Modem V.90 installed. When I run the VoiceGuide application, I get the message '...... wave drivers for device may not be installed..........'.

 

I know this query should be posted to somebody else but I have tried without any success. Please help me out.

 

When I check in control panel, the driver version for Lucent Win Modem is 6.0.0.0

 

From where should I get the wave drivers for the modem? I have tried IBM site and Lucent site but unable to get through. Please provide me a link where I can get the relevant driver. I need it for an urgent demo.

 

Thanks in advance.

[SupportTeam]

Is your modem a Voice modem?

 

You will need a Voice capable modem to play and record sound files - Voice modems come with Wave drivers which get automatically installed when you install the modem.

(much like wave drivers get instaled whe you install a new sound card)

 

From your description I don't think your modem is a Voice modem.

 

Some manufacturers make voice capable 'Win' or 'Soft' modems but these usually have very poor sound quality and erratic DTMF detection.

 

I'd recommend going to your local computer store and selecting an external modem which connects to your computer via a Serial cable (not USB) and is preferably Rockwell based.

[Guest ifusiont]

I installed the 5.92 version of Lucent Win Modem and now I am getting the status for Modem when I start Voice Guide as 'Waiting for call....'. Based on other thread in support, the Wave drivers are installed correctly as I see the relevant entries in 'Sound, video and game controllers'.

 

How can I make an actual call to Voice Guide now to see the working of Voice Guide?

[SupportTeam]

Have you tried dialing the number of the telephone line which is plugged into the modem?

 

If the modem is not answering when you call that number could you please post a copy of VoiceGuide's Debug Printout which captures the incoming call, this will allow us to see what is going wrong.

 

When running the script click on VoiceGuide's View menu and select 'Event Trace Log' option - any log information will then appear in this window. You must open the trace window before making the call.

[Guest ifusiont]

See the debug statements from event trace log

 

85627 0 tapie callstate OFFERING 65690 0 4

85637 0 tapie ring 1

91626 0 tapie ring 2

91636 0 Answer the call

91636 0 lineAnswer(65690) => 65673

91636 0 tapie callstate ACCEPTED 65690 0 0

92507 0 tapi Reply 65673 LINEERR_OPERATIONFAILED [80000048]

92507 0 tapie callstate DISCONNECTED 65690,16384,0

92507 0 LsAwaitingCalls EV_REMOTEPARTY_DISCONNECT

92507 0 PlaySoundStop ok

92517 0 Hanging up call...

92517 0 TimeoutSet 2 EV_TIMEOUT_WAITFORIDLEAFTERLINEDROP

92517 0 PlaySoundStop ok

92517 0 Waiting for a call...

92517 0 fnHangupCall end

92517 0 tapie callstate IDLE 65690 0 0

92527 0 WorkingMode@Idle=

92527 0 TimeoutClear

92527 0 TimeoutSet 1 EV_TIMEOUT_TIMETOREINITLINE

92527 0 tapi Reply 65707 0

93428 0 Timer fired EV_TIMEOUT_TIMETOREINITLINE

93428 0 LsAwaitingCalls EV_TIMEOUT_TIMETOREINITLINE

93438 0 Initialise telephony (due to IDLE)

93438 0 tapic lineDeallocateCall(MainCall:65690) 0

93889 0 Waiting for a call...

93889 0 hLine=65724

93899 0 TimeoutSet 5 EV_TIMOUT_ATERIDLE_ALLOWOUT

97624 0 tapie callstate OFFERING 65588 0 4

97624 0 tapie ring 1

98996 0 Timer fired EV_TIMOUT_ATERIDLE_ALLOWOUT

02892 0 tapie ring 2

02892 0 Answer the call

02892 0 lineAnswer(65588) => 65571

02902 0 tapie callstate ACCEPTED 65588 0 0

03783 0 tapi Reply 65571 LINEERR_OPERATIONFAILED [80000048]

03783 0 tapie callstate DISCONNECTED 65588,16384,0

03793 0 LsAwaitingCalls EV_REMOTEPARTY_DISCONNECT

03793 0 PlaySoundStop ok

03803 0 Hanging up call...

03803 0 TimeoutSet 2 EV_TIMEOUT_WAITFORIDLEAFTERLINEDROP

03813 0 PlaySoundStop ok

03813 0 Waiting for a call...

03823 0 fnHangupCall end

03823 0 tapie callstate IDLE 65588 0 0

03823 0 WorkingMode@Idle=

03833 0 TimeoutClear

03833 0 TimeoutSet 1 EV_TIMEOUT_TIMETOREINITLINE

03853 0 tapi Reply 65605 0

04745 0 Timer fired EV_TIMEOUT_TIMETOREINITLINE

04745 0 LsAwaitingCalls EV_TIMEOUT_TIMETOREINITLINE

04745 0 Initialise telephony (due to IDLE)

04755 0 tapic lineDeallocateCall(MainCall:65588) 0

05185 0 Waiting for a call...

05195 0 hLine=65622

05205 0 TimeoutSet 5 EV_TIMOUT_ATERIDLE_ALLOWOUT

10313 0 Timer fired EV_TIMOUT_ATERIDLE_ALLOWOUT

 

I have installed version 5.92 of Lucent Win Modem. Please note that this is an internal modem and the laptop is IBM ThinkPad A20m. Help me out as I am slipping on certain dates for a demo.

[greiner]

From personal experience, generic voice modems. Expecially the winmodems don't work worth a SH*T. I bought a Dialogic D/41esc off of Ebay for around $200.00. That thing rocks the Camels AS*! Now if I could just afford the 4 port version of Voiceguide then I could get 4 full lines of support. But then again I am just using this for my home automation system.

[Guest ifusiont]

I need to know the problem so that I can correct it

[SupportTeam]

In the trace we can see that the modem's drivers fail when trying to answer the call voice mode:

 

91636 0 lineAnswer(65690) => 65673

92507 0 tapi Reply 65673 LINEERR_OPERATIONFAILED [80000048]

 

Most 'Win' and 'Soft' modems don't work in Voice mode. I'd recommend changing to an external modem (Serial, not USB) that is preferably Rockwell based - most of these will work...

 

Dialoigc card has been specifically designed to run voice applications and is the preferred choice if you want professional results...

[Guest ifusiont]

I have bought a 75$ voice modem from Creative and now everything seems to be working fine. I have been able to run the demo application.

 

Now to the bigger questions:

1. I see lot of modules with different functionalities. If I need any additional functionality I need then how can I achieve it? Are there any set of APIs which can be used for custom coding OR do we need to send requests to your technical team? How are such issues resolved - in the next versions or with some patch?

2. Do we have versions available for Solaris/Unix?

3. Production license will be needed for deployment. Do we have development licenses for development team? What is the license policy? Do we have special schemes for govt. clients

4. When we buy the software, what additional benefits do we get besides the software?

5. Does your team help in deployment with respect to scalability, etc. Are there white papers available to assist in deployment decisions?

6. I noticed that we cannot work on multiple scripts at the same time, cannot open a .wav file with _ in the file name. I hope these are issues which you are aware of and will be taking care in the coming versions.

 

I will appreciate if you can provide response to all the above questions. I will be asking more such questions.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

P.S. - What ever little I have used, Voice Guide looks to be a good piece of software.

[SupportTeam]

1. What functionality do you require? Most specific user requirement can be met using the "Run Program" module or the "Run VBScript" module

 

2. No. VoiceGuide is available for the Win platform only.

 

3. Each installation of VoiceGuide requires it's own license. There are no special schemes for govt clients.

 

4. When you buy the software license that's exactly what you get - the software license. Support is provided through this forum or by email. We can develop scripts and provide turn-key systems as well, and such work is quoted separately after we are provided with a requirements spec.

 

5. In terms of scalability if your system requires more the 60 channels we recommend selecting the NetMerge (CT-Media) version of VoiceGuide - this version runs using the Intel NetMerge Media Server software - this allows implementation of high density solutions (300+ ports per Server).

 

6. You can open multiple scripts at the same time, and there should be no issues with opening a any legally named .wav file, "_" in the filename should be no problem, can you give us an example of where you encountered a problem?

[Guest Guest]

When my wav file had an _, I was able to play the file in preview mode but when I was running the application by dialling into the system, I was getting an error saying 'unable to play the file'

 

Another query:

I understand that I can record messages in different languages but if I want the system to speak some of the system variables in different languages, how can I achieve this? A scenario where the actual value stored in database, lets say a number, needs to be spoken in a different language. '1' is 'one' in english but it might be required to be said in a different way in another language.

[SupportTeam]

Pleae read the "Multi Language Systems" section of the Voiceguide help file - it shows how to allow easy selection of the various language files.

 

Regarding the problems with file playback, could you please post a copy of VoiceGuide's Debug Printout which captures the problem, this will allow us to see what is going wrong.

 

(When running the script click on VoiceGuide's View menu and select 'Event Trace Log' option - any log information will then appear in this window. You must open the trace window before making the call.)

[Guest Guest]

I have bought a 75$ voice modem from Creative and now everything seems to be working fine. I have been able to run the demo application.

Which voice modem from Creative you bought?? The Modem Blaster V.92 serial?

If so, i'm happy to hear that that modem will work, only not at my place Hopefully SupportTeam could help me out.

 

Still, i'm curious why people get the :

 

85627 0 tapie callstate OFFERING 65690 0 4

85637 0 tapie ring 1

91626 0 tapie ring 2

91636 0 Answer the call

91636 0 lineAnswer(65690) => 65673

91636 0 tapie callstate ACCEPTED 65690 0 0

 

And i get only the tapie ring 1 and 2... Not "callstate" or "answer the call"

[SupportTeam]

If a modem returns errors when VoiceGuide instructs it through TAPI to answer the call in Voice mode, then either :

 

1. the modem's drivers are not correctly installed, or

2. the modem's drivers were never designed to answer calls in Voice mode...

 

If the modem:

 

1. is a voice modem and

2. it has working TAPI (Unimodem) drivers

3. it's Wave drivers are correctly installed

 

then when a call comes in it will be answered and the script will start...

 

(now we'll get a bit technical...)

 

When a call answered OK in the trace you should see something similar to this:

 

lineAnswer(65621) => 65604

tapie callstate CONNECTED 65621,1,0

tapi Reply 65604 0

("tapie callstate ACCEPTED" may appear somewhere in there as well)

 

note how in the above trace the "Reply" relating to function call id 65604 is 0 - this means call was answered OK...

 

if you are getting lines like these in your trace:

 

lineAnswer(65690) => 65673

tapi Reply 65673 LINEERR_OPERATIONFAILED [80000048]

 

this means lineAnswer failed...

 

lineAnswer is a call to the modem's TAPI driver - and if the TAPI drivers says that it cannot answer the call in Voice mode than that’s that - VoiceGuide cannot do much else...

 

It is possible that the modem's TAPI drivers are not working, but that modem can still be controlled in Voice mode by issuing AT commands directly to the modem. Some voice software still does this - and the older versions of VoiceGuide used to do this as well. v2.9 of VoiceGuide which controlled the modem directly using AT commands is still available for download (see the very bottom of the page: http://www.katalinatech.com/vgDownload.htm ) - but I'd recommend just trying another modem first...

[Guest Patrick Hurrelmann]

Another query:

I understand that I can record messages in different languages but if I want the system to speak some of the system variables in different languages, how can I achieve this? A scenario where the actual value stored in database, lets say a number, needs to be spoken in a different language. '1' is 'one' in english but it might be required to be said in a different way in another language.

You want to use TTS (Text to Speech) with different languages?

in your example text retrieved from database.

 

we bought AT&Ts Natural Voice in German and English. These are really exellent voices compared to standard microsofts. if you want t ouse tts, i really can recommend natural voices. we record our wav with natural voices and ms ttsapp. text which is retrived from database is read by tts.

 

have a look at xml support of ms tts engine (sapi). you can define via xml, which speech it should use.

you can even change language DURING speaking a phrase.