Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] Phone Interface behavior Mark Gilmore Wed, 29 Mar 2000 10:36:42 -0500

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Hi Reddy,
It's very important to use PR.TXT to report problems.
Without the PHONE-CALL Item def, I must speculate:
If the MESSAGE Item is a TEXT Item, then TTS may be
taking the 6-7 seconds to generate the .WAV file for
playback (such delays should only occur on slower PCs).

EXAMPLE.CFG includes an example PHONE-CALL Item.

CALL/WAIT makes ECS halt all processing while servicing
the call. CALL will cause ECS to continue processing Events
while the call is serviced in the "background".

For this unusual application, you might bypass the PHONE-CALL
Item altogether and use LOCAL-PHONE-BUTTON to "manually" place
the call, speak messages, etc.
-- 
Mark Gilmore
Omnipotence (ECS home automation software)
http://www.usit.com/omnip
423-745-0026


Reddy Biggs wrote:
> 
> Hi Mark & the group,
> 
> I've got the Phone speaking now, but there are several important differences
> in behavior compared to  the DOS version, and perhaps you can tell me the
> fix, or else live with it.
> 
> In DOS, rather than specifying a message in the phone call section, I would
> specify a "blank" message that contained nothing at all. I would then use
> the X parameter to leave the phone connected , and then use voice recordings
> set to Play->Phone , or text messages set to Speak-> Phone.
> 
> In windows, it now takes 6 - 7 seconds for any speech to start. Is this a
> feature, or can I tell ECS to start talking immediately. I am paging an
> extension on my Panasonic system that is on autoanswer. It ALWAYS answers,
> and does so in less than 1/2 second.  It's annoying to hear the Panasonic
> page "boing boing" and then nothing happen for several seconds. Also, I have
> an event that announces the caller ID info by paging a set of phones and
> saying the name of the caller. If it takes 6 seconds after the second ring
> to even start, the callers will have hung up already by the time ECS starts
> to say anything.
> 
> Can we disable the answer detection algorithm, and go directly to speaking
> ??
> 
> Maybe we can add an I parameter, so that speech begins immediately.
> 
> BTW, it took me a while to determine that I had to use the Call/W feature
> for the Phone Call item, plus the Speak->PC:Ln action for the next text item
> to piggyback any more speech onto the phone calls.  Although the /W feature
> is mentioned in the docs, it wasn't clear there why I would want to use the
> /W, or what advantage it conferred to it's use. I guess I'm finding out. Is
> there any other situation where wait is desirable ?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Reddy
> 
> PS : I sent this to the list as it may be of general interest, or perhaps
> somebody else has a hack for it for speeding up speech delivery ?
> 
> Thanks again

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