New Solutions


News24.com adds custom synthetic voice to news articles By creating integrations


News24.com, a site owned and op- erated by South African news group Media24, last month launched the world’s first customised synthetic voice for news. Subscribers to the newly introduced digital subscription package will be able to access audio versions of all news articles available on the website. Whilst media compa- nies have experimented with pre-exist- ing text-to-speech, News24 contract- ed SpeechKit, a UK-based technology company, to build a voice specific to the region.


Kelly Anderson, Deputy Site Editor at News24.com says: “We decided to work with SpeechKit and develop a custom synthetic voice to deliver our subscribers the value they deserved. Existing voices struggled to handle pronunciations unique to South Afri- can accents and it was imperative that the voice resonated with our readers. We’re thrilled with the result.


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voice handles local names, towns and places better than anything we’ve heard before. It’s much more engaging to listen to a voice that sounds like our brand.”


Audio articles, automated using text-


to-speech technology, are rising in popularity as the format moves through the technology adoption curve. Pub- lishers are able to instantly deliver audio versions of their stories through media players embedded on their web- sites and apps, or through platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts. This format gives subscribers a new way to engage with articles whilst they get on with other tasks. Patrick O’Flaherty, Co-Founder and CEO at SpeechKit adds: “We’re excit- ed to partner with News24 and bring this new voice to their readers. Bring- ing local accents to audio articles will help take this emerging format to a new level. Our focus at SpeechKit is building seamless and engaging listening experiences. By creating a voice that reflects the local audience we’re already seeing improvements in the listening data.”


SpeechKit develops and integrates high-quality custom synthetic voice technology and audio publishing tools. Research shows that listening com- prehension improves when sentences are spoken in a native accent. Up to this point, the team has been working


Yamaha ADECIA audio solution


Yamaha has announced ADECIA - a family of communication products designed to work together seamlessly to provide a complete and customis- able audio solution for any enterprise or meeting space. From input to out- put, ADECIA is designed to ensure the high-quality audio communication for which Yamaha is well known. The comprehensive conferencing solution introduces the RM-CG ceiling array microphone and RM-CR remote con- ference processor and includes Yama- ha’s long-trusted PoE network switch- es and VXL Series Dante PoE line array speakers.


“Historically achieving profession- al audio quality - be it in a training room, conference room, multi-purpose room, or the board room — has re- quired an incredible amount of work and costs to design, install, and set


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up. Historically achieving professional audio quality - be it a training room, conference room, multi-purpose room, or the board room — has required an incredible amount of work and costs


to design, install and set up,” said Nobuo Ikematsu, senior general man- ager of information & communication division, Yamaha. “The introduction of ADECIA now allows customers to


Yamaha has announced ADECIA - a family of communication products designed to work together seamlessly to provide a complete and customisable audio solution for any enterprise or meeting space.


primarily with existing text-to-speech technology.


for newsrooms that allow readers an option to listen SpeechKit allows pub- lishers to improve engagement and re- tention of news audiences.


The shift in news business models, from advertising-based models towards reader revenue, is forcing publishers to improve their digital retention with new products and strategies. In a re- cent Reuters Institute report, over half of the publisher respondents claimed audio would be a focus for them in 2020. New technologies, hardware, and audience behaviour are paving the way for a more immersive and modern audio news experience.


SpeechKit was founded by Patrick O’Flaherty and James MacLeod in 2017, after an experiment building a curated audio news digest. Realis- ing that intensive podcast production would serve only a handful of publish- ers, they developed a platform to au- tomate audio versions of news stories. The service is live on 75+ publishers worldwide and the company recently raised investment from Newark Ven- ture Partners, backed by Audible.


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