This is a generic question that has multiple answers since ReadSpeaker has a variety of different online text-to-speech solutions. For our most used solutions, which are for reading web pages out loud, ReadSpeaker is a hosted service that enables website owners to tag their website/mobile website with our code. This is similar to tagging a website with tracking code, such as Google Analytics. Once our code has been added, end-users simply click the Listen button to start enjoying the speech-enabled version of your website/mobile website. ReadSpeaker uses the latest text-to-speech technologies to achieve this.
ReadSpeaker is sold as a Software as a Service (SaaS) hosted by us in the cloud. No infrastructure costs are incurred by our customers since we take care of all hardware and software infrastructure costs. We have a one-time setup fee and an annual service fee that include all ongoing costs (account setup, support, licensing, maintenance, upgrades). Our fee structure is based on the usage of the customer’s website(s)/mobile app(s) or in the case of local government customers, it is based on population numbers.
No, all the user needs is a device with a web browser that has the ability to play back MP3 audio. The user simply clicks and listens to hear what you have to say.
Yes, our web-reading solution ReadSpeaker webReader is implemented exactly in the same way on your website as on your mobile website if you have one. There is no difference.
Yes, ReadSpeaker can be set up to speech-enable secure sites and password-protected sites.
Our customers work with dozens of different content management systems and have never encountered any particular problems integrating our code within their templates. For certain content management systems, we have developed plugins to further facilitate implementation.
To date, ReadSpeaker can speech-enable websites/mobile websites and mobile apps in 50+ languages and 200+ voices. We also have several female and male voices for most of the 50+ languages. The underlying text of your website or mobile app must be in the language that you want to have read.
We can create customized dictionaries that take into account words that are specific to your industry jargon that are not pronounced properly. For example, this sometimes happens with acronyms and abbreviations. We can then work on your customized dictionary to have your words pronounced correctly.
ReadSpeaker keeps track of how many times the Listen button has been clicked per day and on which pages of your website/mobile website or mobile app. Daily and monthly statistics are available in your customer portal.
We recommend that you place the Listen button close to the heading of the content that you want read so that there is an immediate mental link between the content and the Listen button.
For usability and awareness, we’ve introduced a unified icon to identify that a website is equipped with ReadSpeaker’s web-reading service. When website visitors see this icon, they learn what happens if the icon is clicked; the page will be read out loud to them. We propose a variety of buttons in the different languages we support and with many color and size options. Of course, you can also design and use your own button if ours doesn’t fit in with the look and feel of your site.
Yes, ReadSpeaker® docReader™ allows a user to listen to PDFs, Word documents, and a variety of other document formats. It converts these documents into a web-readable format, while preserving the original layout, so that they can be viewed in all types of browsers and devices in which they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do so.
Yes, ReadSpeaker webReader can automatically switch between different languages when reading text. This can be useful when the text contains sections or paragraphs in a different language.
ReadSpeaker webReader provides maximum access not only from PCs but also from iPhones and other smartphones, including BlackBerry and Android powered phones, iPads, MP3 playing devices, PDAs, video game consoles, interactive internet TVs, and internet booths and kiosks.