Intelligent Artificial Voice Systems

High-quality automatic announcement systems are no longer restricted to large airports and large budgets

With the introduction of a new concept, known as Vox-out-of-a-Box, AviaVox, a Dutch manufacturer of automatic intelligent announcement systems for airports, is bridging an important gap between technology, tight budgets and effective support of daily operations.

Since 2003 AviaVox has specialized in airport announcements and has made systems that meet the demanding requirements of professional environments such as airports. These multilingual systems are built on the philosophy of a modular concept where only the items that the airport really needs are installed. The system can therefore grow in line with changing demands. The basis is an intelligent generic system for daily announcement needs that can be enhanced by all kind of options, such as the Airline-Gate-Client, to support the daily boarding procedures of airlines.

Everything is done using a revolutionary technology called digital phonemes. However over the years the market has changed and become more or less divided into two principal groups:

• Large and medium-sized airports with high technical demands;
• Small and medium-sized airports that support low-cost carriers.

Despite their difference in size, both user groups share one thing in common – daily operations must be efficient and working properly to increase safety, security and passenger throughput. All systems and services, whether manual or automated, must support that common goal. The current economic climate has put great pressure on the investment budgets of airports and more than ever it has become vital to fulfill demanding requirements.

Small and medium-sized airports, however, are probably suffering most, because the current economic climate is pushing on every side. On one hand investment budgets are necessarily minimized , whereas they also need to support the low-cost carriers that put pressure on every penny they have to pay the airport. The airport in turn has no choice other than further optimizing the cost of operations to support the financial requirements of the low-cost carriers.

This is really an almost impossible task as there are limits to what one can do safely before it becomes unacceptable. AviaVox has recognized this dilemma for small and medium-sized airports and has launched the Vox-out-of-a-Box solution, which enables airports to install automatic announcement systems in line with tight budgets. Vox-out-of-a-Box is a packaged deal of essential functionalities for effective multilingual announcements including interfaces to the PA system and AODB, one control unit including installation on-site, and annual maintenance of the voice-base and system software.

Effectively the airport gets an intelligent digital automatic announcement system for a fixed price. The essential functionalities hold everything that is needed for daily operations. All kinds of announcements can be made, such as boarding calls, last-minute calls, gate changes, delays, security and safety announcements and lots more. They can be generated in the following languages: British English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Dutch is included as a bonus for free, so a total of seven languages can be used, which is sufficient for most European destinations.

AviaVox has extensive experience in integrating its systems with different airport operational databases and PA systems and within the package this is entirely taken care of by the company. Any concern about getting all the interfaces working together properly is completely taken out of the hands of the customer – another potential cost saving. The most critical part of any automatic announcement system is the maintenance of the voice-base. This is done on a real-time basis without the users even being aware. Again, this maintenance is conducted as part of Vox-out-of-a-Box and spread over the years, so the airport is not faced with any unexpected cost of maintaining the languages.

Although the standard AviaVox system has far more features and options, such as the ability to support the boarding procedures of airlines with multilingual automatic announcements, with Vox-out-of-a-Box the airport gets a highly professional intelligent automatic announcement system. For an additional fee, the Vox-outof-a-Box package can always be upgraded to the highest levels of functionality and with additional languages.

As previously stated, this package is purely made to support small and mid-sized airports in building a professional automatic announcement system at a budget price. AviaVox has also made arrangements with suppliers of FIDS systems that are working in this market segment to even extend the fi xed-price agreement to their equipment and services. One such a supplier is Airport Information Systems (AIS), based in Nottingham, UK. The Vox-out-of-a-Box package fills an important need for the airport market in the current economic environment.