PITTSBURGH, PA--(MARKET WIRE)--Aug 19, 2008 -- Cepstral LLC today announced that it has reached a milestone of 40 English Text-to-Speech voices and that the entire catalog is now generally available online as Software as a Service (SaaS) through its VoiceForge property. Developers can now access a simple API to convert any text or web page into platform-independent audio without the need for client software. VoiceForge is differentiated as the only service to offer 30 entertaining novelty voices in addition to 20 traditional "enterprise" voices -- 50 in all.

"Cepstral is uniquely suited to innovate and lead the hosted TTS market because we own and develop the core technology. Our platform is customizable at all levels including TTS engine, lexicon, signal-processing, text-processing, voice building, and voice tuning. This is why we we're able to offer exponentially more English voices than anyone else. Our customers recognize our value as both a voice and technology partner for spoken interfaces," said Cepstral CEO, Craig Campbell.

The 30 novelty voices offered exclusively through VoiceForge have been in development since the SaaS version entered Beta in late 2007. "SaaS allows us to quickly release new voices, and provide frequent updates to our most popular voices," said VP of Business Development Patrick Dexter. "We can develop a new voice in a matter of weeks, and make it available to applications developers and end users. We can provide incremental improvements to voices that have proven especially popular with users. This rapid deployment and refinement model is necessary for the online applications that are leveraging VoiceForge."

Cepstral's VoiceForge SaaS solution provides all the normal SaaS benefits to developers, including:

 
--  No large initial investment required
--  Constant upgrades handled seamlessly at servers
--  Controlled expenses with on-demand pricing
--  No maintenance, operation, or support expenses
--  Easy web (XML) interface
--  One price for access to ALL voices

The company will continue to support its traditional installed software products through Cepstral.com, while the on-demand SaaS platform is hosted at VoiceForge.com. "We provide TTS to a wide range of customers. Telephony and embedded customers will likely always need an installed version of our software, and we'll continue to support and develop it; whereas VoiceForge caters to innovative web applications like online games, online education, IP telephone alerts, talking web pages, blogs, and general "mash-ups" that exist online," said Campbell.

About Cepstral LLC

Cepstral is a Text-to-Speech technology company which provides software and services for the spoken delivery of information. Cepstral builds high quality, natural sounding voices for server, desktop, and embedded applications. VoiceForge is a SaaS platform powered by Cepstral dedicated to online delivery of a wide variety of professional and novelty voices. Cepstral® -- We build voices®. VoiceForge® -- We make the Internet talk(TM).

     Cepstral Contact:
     Patrick Dexter
     +1 412-432-0400
     or Email Contact
     http://www.cepstral.com
     http://www.voiceforge.com/demo