[EAS] Test-To-Speech must be allowed - NOW!

[Skinner, Jim]

Excellent observations Sean:

It makes sense to have "best practices" defined.  There is always the
debate how much detail should be in the FCC rules.  I like to think that
for the vast majority of stations and Cable, clear guidelines on how to
make it work best is just as good as requiring it in the rules.   

In any case have some standards on how to make TTS most listenable to
the largest number of people.  And text on screen the most useful to be
read by the average viewer.  Finding some clear recommendations should
not be that hard!  

BTW we have found that a 120 second message will NOT fit in the EAS
system.  It is better to define the message as 90 seconds maximum.  

Thanks for the insight

  -- 
Jim Skinner CPBE CBNT
NE EAS SECC Chair
KPTM/KXVO TV

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Donelan

Thanks for the samples.  The reason why I asked for a long, complicated
example instead of of a simple "this is a test" was the same reason
NOAA's evaluation used long, complex samples.  People can
understand/tolerate most short synthesized voices, such as voice
prompts.  But listening and understanding a 90-120 second message, even
read by a human, is more challenging.

There isn't one "best" answer.  There are many different ways to measure
text to speech systems, and different techniques work in different
environments.  For example, the TTS software selected by NOAA a few
years ago scored relatively low in recent rankings by an industry trade
magazine.
http://www.asrnews.com/TTS_acc_website.pdf

Words per minute.  Human announcers vary between about 120 WPM (Walter
Cronkite) and about 200 WPM (sports announcers), and use a variety of
techniques to help a listener understand a message. CAP devices seem to
use around 180 WPM to 200+ WPM for text to speech, although there isn't
any set maximum WPM.  For example, some EAS participants have set the
visual text crawl to be as fast as possible.  Does there need to be any
rules or guidance for EAS participants?  Some EAS participants try to
make it as pleasent and useful experience for their listeners and
viewers, other EAS participants seem to just want to get it over even if
the message is difficult to understand.