Overview

Nuance Voice Platform for Speech Suite 11 (Voice Platform) is a carrier-grade VoiceXML platform that supports voice applications using open web standards. Voice Platform integrates with NuanceSpeech Suite to provide a complete, off-the-shelf solution to develop, deploy, and monitor voice applications implemented in VoiceXML. The combination of Voice Platform with Speech Suite provides the total functionality previously provided by Nuance Voice Platform (NVP).

Voice Platform is comprised of three services that integrate with Nuance speech software (Nuance Speech Server, Nuance Recognizer, and Nuance Vocalizer) in Speech Suite. If using Dragon Voice services in Speech Suite, you can have recognition requests sent to the Krypton recognition engine and Natural Language Engine, instead of Recognizer, for a more natural, conversational voice experience. See the Speech Suite documentation for information on the Dragon Voice engines.

Use Nuance Management Station to manage the Voice Platform services. The platform includes these components:

  • Application Container service: A service that operates a servlet container, using Apache Tomcat, which hosts the included sample VoiceXML applications. These sample applications can serve as a starting point for custom application development. The Application Container service and sample applications are not intended for use in production environments.
  • Telephony Session service: Answers calls and manages audio input/output. An important component of Voice Platform is the audio provider, which acts as a plug-in component of the Telephony Session service, enabling the connection to audio input and output devices.

    Voice Platform supports both public-switched telephone network (PSTN)-based and VoIP-based audio providers. Each audio provider corresponds to a specific type of audio device and platform:

    • SIP audio provider—A software-based audio provider supporting VoIP connectivity through the SIP protocol.
    • Natural MicroSystems (NMS) audio provider—A PSTN-based audio provider supporting NMS telephony boards.

    Only one audio provider can be used at a time. Voice Platform is configured to use the SIP audio provider by default.

    To ensure that Voice Platform telephony functionality works correctly with the NMS audio provider, you may need to install certain patches and configuration files.

  • Voice Browser service: An important component of Voice Platform is the Voice Browser service, which reads and interprets the instructions in a VoiceXML document and defines how Voice Platform interacts with the caller.

For more information about the speech products and services in this section, or for information about other Nuance speech products, see the Speech Suite documentation.