[DrD]

A voice recognition market report is on sale at:

http://www.istockana...-global-markets

Here is a snippet from the Press Release:

Jun. 1, 2011 (PR Newswire) --

NEW YORK, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

Voice Recognition: Technologies and Global Markets

http://www.reportlin...mpaign=Software

The voice recognition technologies market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8% between 2010 and 2015. The total market is valued at an estimated $38.4 billion in 2010 and is expected to reach $58.4 in 2015.

Voice recognition software technologies need hardware to transmit the signals as well as abate ambient noise. This sector of the market is worth an estimated $16.5 billion in 2010 and will grow at a 9.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $26.3 billion in 2015.

Automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech software work together to voice-enable many applications. Software sales will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8%, from a value of $13.6 billion in 2010 to a value of $18.9 billion in 2015.

INTRODUCTION

REASONS FOR THE STUDY AND ITS IMPORTANCE

No longer narrowly associated with assistive and customer care applications, voice recognition technologies are becoming integral parts of products and services that span a much broader array of industries. With worldwide software revenues expected to reach $18.9 billion by 2015, this maturing industry owes much of its growth to advances from the critical triad of automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), and speaker verification (SV) technologies.

Companies across all sectors, seeking a competitive edge that will differentiate them in an increasingly crowded business environment, want products that can help them retain as well as grow their customers. Brokerages, airlines, and banks rely on voice recognition functionality to not only enhance their customer contacts, but also to comply with security requirements dictated by law and the security-conscious expectations of customers.

To address the rapidly growing mobile traffic demand of such highly developed regions as North America and Europe, voice recognition providers are partnering with manufacturers who are loading their products with voice-activated multimodal options. These applications do everything from help drivers navigate to their destination and workers voice-pick warehouse inventory to aid doctors automate medical transcription processes and allow Web users to browse by voice commands.

Marketers with a watchful eye are not only training their sights on the pent-up product demand of growing Asia-Pacific populations, they are also factoring in the potential of the emerging middle class in Latin America when they develop their marketing strategies.

[Billikin]

iSpeech Brings Speech Recognition and Human Quality Text To Speech to iOS, Android and BlackBerry Apps


With over 3,000 registered developers and 1 billion conversions made on the cloud, iSpeech launches free, self-service TTS and ASR platform for mobile developers.

NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- iSpeech, creator of the award winning and popular mobile apps, DriveSafe.ly and iSpeech Translator, just announced its new self-service platform for developers to quickly and easily integrate its human quality text to speech and speech recognition into their own apps. The service is free to all mobile developers with support for iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch), Android and BlackBerry devices. Web developers will also be able to take advantage of the powerful technology through the iSpeech API and online payment system.

Mobile developers can download the iSpeech SDKs and get unlimited access to the cloud-based services free of charge. iSpeech is already one of the leading mobile speech development platforms with over 3,000 registered developers, over 1 billion text to speech and speech recognition conversions made, and major customers and popular mobile apps including TeleNav, Car and Driver, DailyHoroscope and Beat the Traffic (who is planning to release a speech-enabled version this Fall).

"Speech is transforming the way people interact with mobile apps and connected devices, however, speech technology has historically been very expensive and time consuming to implement," said Heath Ahrens, Chief Executive Officer at iSpeech. "We are very excited to be able to make this technology easily accessible to the vast majority of developers and businesses who find themselves unable to afford other solutions."

The iSpeech SDKs and APIs currently provide over 40 text to speech voices and counting with support for more than 25 languages. Premium services are also available, including celebrity and custom text to speech voices, as well as the ability for developers to increase speech recognition performance specific to their use case.

About iSpeech®

iSpeech (www.iSpeech.org) is a leading provider of cloud-based speech technology and mobile apps, including the award winning app, DriveSafe.ly® (www.DriveSafe.ly). Founded in 2007, the company began as a vision to help college students learn by enabling them to listen to text-based study materials. Today, developers, organizations and consumers worldwide choose iSpeech for its high quality, scalable and easy to use text-to-speech (TTS), automated speech recognition (ASR) and voice to text solutions. The iSpeech Cloud has been used over a billion times. iSpeech® is a privately held company headquartered in Newark, NJ with offices in San Francisco and New York.

[Billikin]

SAIC Launches First Hybrid Machine Translation Solution, Helping Redefine Language Services



New integrated offering enables tailored translations in context, enhancing efficiency

MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE: SAI] today announced its linguistics technology offering, with the industry's first hybrid machine translation (HMT) solution. The linguistics technology offering enables language service providers and users of translation services to operate more efficiently and effectively to meet the growing need for cross-lingual communication in today's global market.

SAIC's new offering puts advanced technology – with the ability to translate in context – directly in the hands of users. Direct access to the machine translation (MT) technology reduces the need for more expensive human translation (HT), thereby elevating human translators to higher order editors, potentially resulting in lower costs for businesses and increased productivity for translation providers.

"We believe that our new technology offering will redefine the language services industry by offering a robust technology tool that gives businesses more control, while allowing the providers to work more efficiently," said Jonathan Litchman, SAIC vice president. "It's a win for global enterprises, language service providers and professional linguists and translators."

Transforming the Language Service Business

According to research firm Common Sense Advisory, Inc. globalization has fueled the need for language services and contributed to industry-wide double-digit growth during an economic downturn ("Language Service Provider Growth Factors," November 2010). Common Sense Advisory, Inc. predicts that the global market for outsourced language services and technology could reach $31.4 billion in 2011, and the demand for language services continues to grow at a significant rate – 7.4 percent annually ("Language Services Market 2011," May 2011).

SAIC's integrated platform is designed to help meet the burgeoning demand on the language services market by enhancing efficiency and productivity. The highly advanced MT platform delivers content in context, separate from HT services, benefitting both translation providers and businesses.

* Language service providers (LSP) currently using both MT and HT can increase productivity and volume of business by elevating human translators to higher order editing and refining content from a more accurate machine output
* Professional linguists and translators that rely on MT for an initial translation can increase their productivity by using the technology's in-context translations
* Global businesses relying on outsourced translation services can bring the control of their translation needs in house, and limit the amount of human intervention to an as needed basis


Enabling Contextual Translations – Tailored and Adaptive

SAIC's linguistics technology offering includes the first and only true HMT technology – combining the fluency of statistical MT with the informativeness of rule-based MT to enhance fidelity of meaning. The offering is fully integrated on one platform with automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology – both speech-to-speech and speech-to-text. As a leading supplier of human linguists to the government, SAIC leverages its wealth of linguistic knowledge and expertise to enhance the quality of its MT technology solution.

The innovative offering can be tailored to each customer's domain including highly nuanced terminology and domain-specific vocabulary. The technology is adaptive and continues to build a language knowledge base to increase communication accuracy over time.

"The powerful technology platform goes beyond a literal word-for-word translation: it actually becomes more intelligent with usage, enabling effective communications by delivering content within context," said Hassan Sawaf, SAIC chief scientist for linguistics and cultural intelligence.

Allowing Users Data Security and Ownership

With SAIC's technology, users maintain ownership of their data and control of the developed lexicon while offering a high level of security. The offering is flexible in that its ASR and MT can be offered separately or on a single platform as a full service solution, which also reduces the risks associated with technology integration.

SAIC recently acquired technology, intellectual property and related assets from three firms that develop human language technologies: AppTek Partners, LLC; Applications Technology, Inc.; and MediaMind, LLC. SAIC's linguistics technology offering is available through license sales and Software as a Service. For more information, please visit: http://www.saic.com/linguistics.

About SAIC

SAIC is a FORTUNE 500® scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. The company's approximately 41,000 employees serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. Headquartered in McLean, Va., SAIC had annual revenues of $11.1 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2011. For more information, visit http://www.saic.com/. SAIC: From Science to Solutions®.

[Billikin]

LumenVox Releases Speech Engine 10.2 Featuring New Dashboard Application

Speech recognition technology in the news.

San Diego, CA, August 06, 2011 --(PR.com)-- LumenVox, LLC Announces Release of Speech Engine Version 10.2 Featuring New Dashboard Application

LumenVox, LLC, an innovator in speech recognition technology, announced today the release of version 10.2 of the LumenVox Speech Engine. The release features a new Dashboard application and Manager Service as well as improved centralized logging, revised memory management, faster Answering Machine and Fax Machine detection capabilities and improved acoustic models.

The new LumenVox Manager Service talks directly to the new LumenVox Dashboard. Now developers can monitor, start and stop all LumenVox services from one centralized application. The Dashboard displays centralized application logs and statistics and manages LumenVox licensing.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to customers, version 10.2 of the LumenVox Speech Engine delivers across-the-board improvements in usability and performance. Our new LumenVox Dashboard application provides a unique, visual management tool, providing users powerful control over their speech services,” said Ed Miller, CEO of LumenVox.

Additionally, LumenVox Speech Engine version 10.2 features:

Improved centralized logging
New statistics tracking added to ASR and Text-to-Speech servers
Revised memory management - 40% of previous use when under load
Addition of SSML pre-parser
Faster and improved Answering Machine detection
New Fax Tone Detection
Answering Machine Detection support has been added to the LumenVox Tuner
Improved acoustic models for U.S. and British English and Mexican Spanish
Phonetic speller tool now has history and cut/paste options

About LumenVox
Since 2001, LumenVox, LLC has gained respect for its Speech Automation Software, Speech Engine, and Speech Tuning products, regarded as amongst the most accurate and reliable in the industry. The company is a speech automation solutions enterprise providing technology design, development, deployment, tuning and transcription services including native 64-bit ASR, Text-to-Speech, Answering Machine and Fax Machine Detection, and SLM solutions. Through accurate speech recognition and powerful tools, LumenVox software helps hundreds of contact centers, platform providers, IVR developers, system integrators and IP-PBX vendors achieve their speech integration goals. LumenVox technology is used by government agencies, banks, telecom service providers, 511 operations and thousands of other resellers and developers. LumenVox provides the tools to help companies connect and communicate more effectively, increase efficiency, reduce operating costs, increase customer satisfaction and improve employee productivity.

[FL Doc]

SpeechCycle and Novauris Partner to Enhance Leading Customer Service Solution

Novauris large-vocabulary speech recognition technology enables SpeechCycle to offer new speech capabilities through LevelOne Agents solution.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 09, 2011 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time--SpeechCycle, the leading provider of customer interaction management solutions, today announced it has partnered with Novauris® Technologies, a provider of core speech recognition technology for embedded and cloud-based applications, to offer advanced capabilities for speech recognition within SpeechCycle’s LevelOne Agents speech products. The partnership will allow SpeechCycle’s service provider customers to deploy enhanced speech applications and improve the quality of their customer care offering.

Through this partnership, SpeechCycle’s speech recognition products can now support spoken selection from sets of hundreds of millions of entries. This enables service providers to support fast and accurate name-and-address recognition even from lists containing tens – or hundreds – of millions of name-and-address pairs, such as the complete population of a particular country. The process is fast partly because of the fast search techniques employed, but also because the callers can speak their complete name and address as a single utterance. The identification of customers from their spoken name and address results in a significant reduction in the number of unidentified callers—which typically requires the involvement of live-agents and increased hold times. The outcome of this new capability is reduced call handling time and an improved customer experience.

“This partnership with Novauris demonstrates SpeechCycle’s continued focus on the advancement of speech technology to improve the customer service experience,” said Roberto Pieraccini, CTO of SpeechCycle. “By integrating Novauris’ NovaSearch® technology into our product offering all customer service inquiries requiring caller identification can be seamlessly automated, even in absence of other more traditional identification methods. Our goal is to create solutions that reduce call center costs while providing an optimal customer experience.”

“We have long known SpeechCycle to be on the cutting edge of customer interaction solutions, but only since working with then have we fully appreciated their exceptionally high level of competence,” said John Bridle, CTO and Co-founder of Novauris. “This partnership provides an ideal opportunity for Novauris to bring some of its unique strengths to major service providers. We are proud to have helped make LevelOne Agents what we believe to be the most complete customer care solution available.”

For more information on LevelOne Agents – please visit http://www.speechcyc...vel-one-agents.

About Novauris Technologies

Novauris develops core automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology for spoken access to information stored locally in mobile devices as well as those in remote servers. NovaSearch®, our large-vocabulary ASR engine, enables single-shot selection from sets of millions of items (addresses, POIs, content metadata, product codes…). Tasks supported include capture of arbitrary names and one-shot recognition of any US street address for embedded and server-based applications. NovaSearch has been deployed in several countries and used by major corporations including Verizon Wireless and Singapore Telecom. For more information, please visit www.novauris.com.

About SpeechCycle

SpeechCycle, a leader in customer interaction management, delivers innovative solutions to the world’s leading enterprises and communications service providers. SpeechCycle has processed over one-billion transactions on its award-winning cloud platform and is pioneering a new generation of mobile business-to-consumer applications that help companies meet the demands of today’s always-connected consumer. For more information, please visit www.SpeechCycle.com. Follow SpeechCycle on Twitter @SpeechCycle.

SpeechCycle is a trademark of SpeechCycle, Inc. All other company or product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies with which they are identified.

[FL Doc]

Neutral Tandem Launches HD Voice Interconnect

8x8 Selects Neutral Tandem for Its Broad HD Voice Routing Footprint

CHICAGO, Aug 9, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- Neutral Tandem, Inc., a leading provider of global interconnection services, announces the launch of HD Voice Interconnect. Neutral Tandem's HD Voice service is a High Definition wideband voice interconnection solution for the competitive carrier market. Neutral Tandem solves the problem of non-interconnected 'islands of HD' by providing easy access to other HD carriers interconnected with Neutral Tandem, and adds incremental value to carrier investments in IP networks and Voice over IP (VoIP) services. The service has been successfully interconnected with 8x8, Inc., a provider of innovative communications and computing solutions, who announced its own ability to deliver HD Calling to business phone service subscribers in January 2010.

The service is aimed at providing carriers and service providers, poised to launch wideband calling services, the opportunity to efficiently route HD Voice calls between competitive carriers and hosted Voice Application Providers. HD Voice provides increased call clarity, meaning that conference call users can better understand other speakers and enhanced applications like IVR, speech recognition and transcription systems work with greater accuracy. The service requires a SIP interconnect that routes HD Voice across Neutral Tandem's network that is capable of terminating calls to over 550M telephony end points, and offers completion for any call regardless of whether the terminating party can terminate wideband voice.

"As a proven leader in offering HD interconnection solutions for service providers, Neutral Tandem's solution makes it easy for us to provide the enhanced audio fidelity required by our subscribers and completes the calls across its all-IP network," comments Bryan Martin, Chairman and CEO of 8x8. "They simplify the delivery of high-quality voice solutions end-to-end, and with their 'off-net' routing capabilities, there's no need to create multiple HD peering relationships or routing configurations with numerous carriers, they do it all."

Neutral Tandem's HD Voice service is readily accessible to any carrier with HD Voice traffic. It is unique in that it provides a bridge to connect between carriers and across markets. Furthermore, the solution does not require an ENUM registry, where numbers have to be uploaded by each carrier and 'dipped' at call set up. Due to the private nature of the service, customers simply route calls to Neutral Tandem and if the terminating carrier supports HD Voice, it is completed as such; otherwise, the call is completed on Neutral Tandem's extensive global voice network.

"We are excited to provide a comprehensive HD Voice solution to support carriers deploying wideband voice technology," comments Surendra Saboo, COO of Neutral Tandem. "We have designed our solution to be straightforward, without requiring complex routing tables or special number provisioning. We look forward to speaking with other carriers and service providers who are planning wideband voice deployments regarding testing and interconnecting to our HD voice service, to maximize the value for their customers."

Neutral Tandem's HD Voice solution is designed to provide the carrier market a broad High Definition footprint to terminate quality voice traffic to mobile and wireline carriers. The service offers improved quality and low latency voice termination across its entire private SIP-based network. HD Voice is a seamless service to Neutral Tandem's existing voice termination platform that manages over 11 billion minutes a month. To learn more about Neutral Tandem's products and services designed to help competitive carriers interconnect their networks, contact HDVoice@NeutralTandem.com or visit www.neutraltandem.com .

[Merry Maker]

Gartner's 2011 Hype Cycle Special Report Evaluates the Maturity of 1,900 Technologies

Research Provides a Cross-Industry Perspective on Potentially Transformative Technologies.

STAMFORD, Conn., Aug 10, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Activity streams, wireless power, Internet TV, NFC payment and private cloud computing are some of the technologies that have moved into the Peak of Inflated Expectations, according to the 2011 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle by Gartner, Inc. Other newly featured high-impact trends include big data, and natural language question answering.

Gartner's 2011 Hype Cycle Special Report provides strategists and planners with an assessment of the maturity, business benefit and future direction of over 1,900 technologies, grouped into 76 distinct Hype Cycles. The Hype Cycle graphic has been used by Gartner since 1995 to highlight the common pattern of over-enthusiasm, disillusionment and eventual realism that accompanies each new technology and innovation. The Hype Cycle Special Report is updated annually to track technologies along this cycle and provide guidance on when and where organizations should adopt them for maximum impact and value

The "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies" report is the longest-running annual Hype Cycle, providing a cross-industry perspective on the technologies and trends that IT managers should consider in developing emerging-technology portfolios (see Figure 1).

"Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies" targets strategic planning, innovation and emerging technology professionals by highlighting a set of technologies that will have broad-ranging impact across the business," said Jackie Fenn, vice president and Gartner fellow. "It is the broadest aggregate Gartner Hype Cycle, featuring technologies that are the focus of attention because of particularly high levels of hype, or those that may not be broadly acknowledged but that Gartner believes have the potential for significant impact."

"Themes from this year's Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle include ongoing interest and activity in social media, cloud computing and mobile," Ms. Fenn said. "On the social media side, social analytics, activity streams and a new entry for group buying are close to the peak, showing that the era of sky-high valuations for Web 2.0 startups is not yet over. Private cloud computing has taken over from more-general cloud computing at the top of the peak, while cloud/Web platforms have fallen toward the Trough of Disillusionment since 2010. Mobile technologies continue to be part of most of our clients' short- and long-range plans and are present on this Hype Cycle in the form of media tablets, NFC payments, quick response (QR)/color codes, mobile application stores and location-aware applications."

Transformational technologies that will hit the mainstream in less than five years include highly visible areas, such as media tablets and cloud computing, as well as some that are more IT-specific, such as in-memory database management systems, big data, and extreme information processing and management. In the long term, beyond the five-year horizon, 3D printing, context-enriched services, the "Internet of Things" (called the "real-world Web" in earlier Gartner research), Internet TV and natural language question answering will be major technology forces. Looking more than 10 years out, 3D bioprinting, human augmentation, mobile robots and quantum computing will also drive transformational change in the potential of IT.

Many of the technologies featured on this Hype Cycle contribute to the four themes featured in Gartner's recent report on top technology trends "Technology Trends That Matter":

The connected world: Advances in embedded sensors, processing and wireless connectivity are bringing the power of the digital world to objects and places in the physical world. This is a slow-moving area, but one that is now accelerating with the growing pervasiveness of low-cost, embedded sensors and cameras. Relevant entries on this year's Hype Cycle include the broad trend referred to as the Internet of Things; identification technologies, such as NFC payments (which will lead to broader use of NFC for other applications); QR/color code and image recognition; application layers, such as augmented reality, context-enriched services and location-aware applications; and communication technologies, such as machine-to-machine communication services and sensor mesh networks. Although this area will take at least another decade to unfold fully, many interesting and profitable opportunities will arise along the way.

Interface trends: User interfaces are another slow-moving area with significant recent activity. Speech recognition was on the original 1995 Hype Cycle and has still not reached maturity, and computer-brain interfaces will evolve for at least another 10 years before moving out of research and niche status. However, a new entry for natural language question answering recognizes the impressive and highly visible achievement of IBM's Watson computer in winning TV's Jeopardy! general knowledge quiz against champion human opponents. Gesture recognition has also been launched into the mainstream through Microsoft's Kinect gaming systems, which is now being hacked by third parties to create a range of application interfaces. Other areas continue to progress more slowly, including speech-to-speech translation, augmented reality and virtual assistants, while virtual worlds remain entrenched in the trough after peaking in 2007.

Analytical advances: Supporting the storage and manipulation of raw data to derive greater value and insight, these technologies continue to grow in capability and applicability. Predictive analytics is approaching maturity, but researchers and developers continue to apply and improve the core techniques for new data sources. Image recognition is driving new capabilities in search, retail and social media, and also contributes to advances in other areas, such as augmented reality and video analytics, for customer service. Social analytics continues to take advantage of new sources and types of social information. Computational advances, such as in-memory database management systems and big data, take the scope and scale to new levels.

New digital frontiers: Crossing the traditional boundaries of IT, new capabilities are reaching levels of performance and pricing that will fundamentally reshape processes and even industries. Examples on this year's Hype Cycle include 3D printing and bioprinting (of human tissue), and mobile robots.

"Many Gartner clients use Hype Cycles as part of their technology-planning process, often drawing from multiple Hype Cycles, augmented with industry- or company-specific topics to create their own Hype Cycles and Priority Matrices," said Ms. Fenn. "Technology providers use Hype Cycles as a way to understand the likely market reaction to their products and services based on the adopter community's expectations and attitudes. Investors watch for technologies that are on the rise in a Hype Cycle to try to catch them before the Peak of Inflated Expectations or at the beginning of the Slope of Enlightenment before they move into mainstream adoption."

Additional information is available in "Gartner's Hype Cycle Special Report for 2011" at www.gartner.com/hypecycles . The Special Report includes a video in which Ms. Fenn provides more details regarding this year's Hype Cycles, as well links to the 76 Hype Cycle reports.

Ms. Fenn will provide additional analysis during the Gartner webinar "The Gartner Hype Cycle Special Report: What's Hot for 2011" on August 25 at 9 a.m. EDT and 12 p.m. EDT. To register for one of these complimentary webinars, please visit http://my.gartner.co...16&prm=WB_HC11R .

Mastering the Hype Cycle

Ms. Fenn is co-author of the Gartner book "Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Adopt the Right Innovation at the Right Time," published by Harvard Business Press. Ms. Fenn and Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner Fellow, explain a market-tested approach that offers a smarter way for companies to sort through the hype and choose the right innovations at the right time. Information about the book is available on Gartner's website at www.gartner.com/hypecycle . The book can be ordered at http://www.amazon.co...16662511&sr=8-1 .

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. /quotes/zigman/131838/quotes/nls/it IT -3.32% is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,500 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,500 associates, including 1,250 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com .

SOURCE: Gartner, Inc.

[Remedy 4 That]

MedQuist Holdings Reports Second Quarter Results

Financial results available for MedQuist Second Quarter.

FRANKLIN, Tenn., Aug 15, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- MedQuist Holdings Inc.:

Second Quarter Highlights

-- Total clinical documentation volume increases 7% compared with the prior-year period to 855 million lines

-- Adjusted EBITDA up 43% compared with the prior-year period to $27.7 million

-- Net Income Available to Common Shareholders increases to $0.11 per fully diluted share from a net loss of $(0.06) per fully diluted share in the prior-year period

-- Adjusted Net Income per fully diluted share increases 55% to $0.31 compared with the prior-year period

-- Free cash flow generation remains strong at in excess of 50% of Adjusted EBITDA

-- Offshore volume continues to improve and is on track to reach goal of 50% at year end; volumes edited post speech recognition increases to 74% of total volume

-- Signs definitive agreement to acquire M*Modal for $77.2 million in cash and 4.1 million shares of common stock

-- Receives notice of early termination of HSR waiting period on M*Modal acquisition

The highlights above, as well as the discussion below, contain certain non-GAAP financial measures that, together with applicable GAAP financial measures, we utilize to evaluate the results of our performance. Refer to the section of this release entitled "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for further discussion, as well as the tables attached to this release that reconcile these non-GAAP financial measures to applicable GAAP financial measures.

MedQuist Holdings Inc. /quotes/zigman/3905460/quotes/nls/medh MEDH +1.89% , a leading provider of integrated clinical documentation solutions for the U.S. healthcare industry, announced its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2011.

M*Modal Acquisition

The Company also announced that it has received notice of early termination of the mandatory, pre-merger waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 in connection with the previously announced acquisition of M*Modal. The transaction is expected to close by the end of August 2011 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Vern Davenport, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MedQuist Holdings, said, "We are excited about clearing this regulatory hurdle and will be working to integrate the businesses as quickly as possible. Existing and prospective customers have responded well to this transaction and have embraced our vision of helping them accelerate adoption of EHRs to achieve meaningful use and better position them in the move to a value-based healthcare delivery system."

Operating Results

Net revenues were $108.4 million for the second quarter of 2011 compared with $108.5 million for the second quarter of 2010. The Spheris acquisition in April 2010 contributed $6.9 million of additional revenues during the three months ended June 30, 2011, arising from a full period consolidation, offset by a decrease in price due to higher utilization of speech recognition and offshore volumes by customers. In addition, net volumes were affected by longer implementation cycles associated with EHR strategies of large delivery systems, for which the Company has a large concentration of customers, and some softness in the acute care market, offset by the Company's 98% customer retention rate.

As we stated last quarter, demand for our offshore resources remains strong with related inventory growing. We continue to build capacity in India and steadily migrate customer implementations to reach our goal of 50% of volumes by year-end, which had an adverse impact in the second quarter but is expected to result in higher per unit contribution as we reach that offshore volume goal.

Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2011 was $27.7 million, or 25.6% of net revenues, compared with $19.4 million, or 17.9% of net revenues, for the second quarter of 2010. The year-over-year increase in Adjusted EBITDA and margin is the result of higher utilization of offshore resources and higher percentage of volume edited post speech recognition, as well as synergies realized from adding volumes from the Spheris acquisition to our scalable platform.

Adjusted net income for the second quarter of 2011 was $16.6 million, or $0.31 per fully diluted share, compared with $10.4 million, or $0.20 per fully diluted share, in the second quarter of 2010. Net income available to common shareholders for the second quarter of 2011 was $5.5 million, or $0.11 per fully diluted share, compared with a net loss of $2.2 million, or $(0.06) per fully diluted share, reported in the second quarter of 2010.

During the three months ended June 30, 2011, we recorded restructuring charges of $2.0 million including approximately $1.1 million from a reduction in workforce associated with the integration of MedQuist Inc. and MedQuist Holdings. The benefits from these restructuring efforts are expected to be fully realized beginning in 2012.



Second Quarter Operating Metrics Q2 2011 Q1 2011 Q2 2010
----------------------------------------------------- ----------------- ----------------- -----------------
Total clinical documentation volume: 855 million lines 866 million lines 800 million lines
Transcription volumes processed offshore: 42% 41% 39%
Transcription volumes edited post speech recognition: 74% 72% 62%




Mr. Davenport noted, "During the quarter, we increased utilization of speech recognition within our existing book of business and steadily migrated volume to offshore resources. The mid-July announcement of our agreement to acquire M*Modal also highlighted the success in sourcing attractive acquisitions that can leverage our core transcription business, enable new avenues for growth and provide further technology differentiation within the market."

Net revenues were $219.7 million for the six months ended June 30, 2011, compared with $193.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2010. The Spheris acquisition in April 2010 contributed approximately $37.8 million in incremental revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2011, arising from a full period consolidation, offset by a decrease in price due to higher speech recognition and offshore volumes and the longer implementation cycles and broader acute care softness experienced in the second quarter of 2011.

Adjusted EBITDA for the six months ended June 30, 2011, was $55.2 million, or 25.1% of net revenues, compared with $33.4 million, or 17.2% of net revenues, for the six months ended June 30, 2010. The year-over-year increase in Adjusted EBITDA and margin is the result of higher utilization of offshore resources and higher percentage of volume edited post speech recognition, as well as synergies realized from adding volumes from the Spheris acquisition to our scalable platform.

Adjusted net income for the six months ended June 30, 2011, was $34.0 million, or $0.66 per fully diluted share, compared with $18.9 million, or $0.37 per fully diluted share, in the six months ended June 30, 2010. Net income available to common shareholders for the six months ended June 30, 2011, was $7.8 million, or $0.17 per fully diluted share, compared with a net loss available to common shareholders of $0.8 million, or $(0.02) per fully diluted share, for the six months ended June 30, 2010.

During the six months ended June 30, 2011, we recorded restructuring charges of $7.4 million, including approximately $5.4 million from a reduction in workforce (including $0.8 million for acceleration of stock option plans) and a charge of $1.9 million related to office closures.



Six Months Operating Metrics Six Months Ended Six Months Ended
June 30, 2011 June 30, 2010
----------------------------------------------------- ----------------- -----------------
Total clinical documentation volume: 1.7 billion lines 1.4 billion lines
Transcription volumes processed offshore: 42% 40%
Transcription volumes edited post speech recognition: 73% 60%




Liquidity and Capital Structure

As of June 30, 2011, the Company had $60.8 million in cash and $269.8 million in debt. Free cash flow for the second quarter of 2011 increased to $16.7 million compared with $11.2 million in the prior-year period. Capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2011 were $4.2 million compared with $3.7 million in the prior-year period.

The Company's high level of cash generated as compared to its Adjusted EBITDA reflects its continued ability to utilize available tax attributes to absorb current period taxes. At December 31, 2010, the Company had federal net operating loss carry forward amounts of approximately $102 million with approximately 80% available through 2014 to help off-set future period taxable income amounts, subject to annual limitations. Additionally, the Company had approximately $194 million of capitalized tax intangibles, of which approximately 60% are expected to be amortized for tax purposes, on a declining basis, over the next five years. These tax attributes are anticipated to result in low cash tax amounts paid in the near term.

In accordance with the terms of a Stipulation of Settlement entered into in connection with the settlement of certain MedQuist Inc. shareholder litigation during the second quarter of 2011, the remaining issued and outstanding shares of MedQuist Inc. not already owned by the Company are expected to be exchanged on the same terms as the public exchange initiated on February 3, 2011 (the "Initial Exchange Offer"), through a short-form merger that is expected to be completed by the end of the fourth quarter of 2011. Prior to the short-form merger, the Company expects to conduct a second public exchange offer on the same terms as the Initial Exchange Offer.

Performance Goals for 2011 (Excluding M*Modal)

The Company continues to be within its previously issued ranges for Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income, which exclude any effect from acquisitions. Based on current volume trends, the Company now expects fiscal 2011 total clinical documentation volume will increase 6% to 13% compared with the 3.1 billion lines achieved in 2010.



Total clinical documentation volume: 3.3 billion to 3.5 billion lines
Adjusted EBITDA: $113 million to $116 million
Adjusted Net Income: $1.26 to $1.33 per fully diluted share




Commenting on the 2011 outlook, Mr. Davenport added, "From an earnings perspective, we are right where we need to be halfway through the year and will be adding another layer of growth to the company when we complete the M*Modal acquisition and integration. Although some larger customers' requests to extend implementation schedules and allow extra time for their EHR initiatives as well as lower-than-anticipated bookings will affect our volumes for the year, I'm encouraged by my early customer and prospect calls and the response to our enhanced value proposition with the joining of M*Modal. It's clear that our customers want to capitalize on the leverage we can provide through our scale and can see the value of us coming together to drive EHR adoption, improve clinical effectiveness and enable their financial success. Additionally, I see opportunities for us to improve sales and implementation cycles to further improve volume and revenue trends."

Investor Conference Call and Web Simulcast

MedQuist Holdings will host a conference call on August 16, 2011, at 8:00 a.m. CT to discuss its results of operations for the second quarter of 2011. The number to call for the interactive teleconference is (212) 231-2901. A replay of the conference call will be available through Monday, August 23, 2011, by dialing (402) 977-9140 and entering the confirmation number, 21533198.

A live broadcast of MedQuist Holdings quarterly conference call will be available online at the Company's website, www.medquist.com , under Investor Relations on August 16, 2011, beginning at 8:00 a.m. CT. The online replay will follow shortly after the call and continue for one year.

About MedQuist Holdings

MedQuist is a leading provider of medical transcription services, and a leader in technology-enabled clinical documentation workflow. MedQuist's enterprise solutions -- including mobile voice capture devices, speech recognition, Web-based workflow platforms, and global network of medical editors -- help healthcare facilities improve patient care, increase physician satisfaction, and lower operational costs. For more information, please visit www.medquist.com .

[Remedy 4 That]

Nuance to Acquire Loquendo

Acquisition will Accelerate the Availability and Adoption of World Class Voice-Enabled Solutions, Create Speech Technology Center of Excellence in Turin, Italy.

BURLINGTON, Mass., Aug 15, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Nuance Communications, Inc. /quotes/zigman/98548/quotes/nls/nuan NUAN +3.22% today announced an agreement to acquire Loquendo, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telecom Italia. The combination of Nuance and Loquendo's innovations will advance the proliferation of voice-enabled solutions. In particular, it will accelerate the development of new capabilities that will deliver natural, conversational interactions between consumers and the contact center, automobiles, mobile phones, and other consumer devices in Europe and Latin America.

Loquendo provides a range of speech technologies for telephony, mobile, automotive, embedded and desktop solutions in 32 languages with 76 voices. Loquendo's text-to-speech (TTS), automatic speech recognition (ASR) and voice biometrics solutions empower people to interact with technology in the most natural way possible -- using their voice -- to create a compelling customer experience and save businesses millions of dollars each year. Loquendo speech solutions are deployed in more than 20 million devices worldwide, in embedded, automotive and mobile environments. Its technologies power millions of calls every day in telecommunications and enterprise markets worldwide.

The combined organization offers a broad, high quality portfolio of voice and language solutions that includes TTS, ASR and voice biometrics solutions. In addition, the acquisition enhances language coverage for network-based and embedded customers, and strengthens Nuance's global channel partnerships which drive the adoption of speech-enabled solutions worldwide. The transaction is expected to close in late September 2011.

"The penetration of Loquendo's offerings and the company's positive industry recognition will serve as a catalyst in expanding our market reach and our voice and language portfolio," said Steve Chambers, chief marketing officer and head of the enterprise division, Nuance Communications. "Together, we will provide a range of best-in-class solutions, delivering natural, conversational interactions across a number of growing markets that will initially include enterprise, mobile and automotive -- with a significant opportunity to accelerate our efforts in Europe and Latin America."

Through this acquisition, Nuance intends to expand its operations and accelerate growth in four key areas:

-- Advanced Voice Solutions for New and Emerging Markets -- Nuance and Loquendo's combined technologies will advance groundbreaking voice capabilities through robust TTS, ASR and voice biometrics offerings -- broadening Nuance's global footprint especially in Europe and Latin America.

-- Strong Global Customer and Partner Relationships -- The acquisition provides Nuance's and Loquendo's customers and partners access to the industry's largest and most experienced voice and language portfolio. Loquendo's technical expertise and talent, combined with Nuance's global R&D resources and market strength, will accelerate a robust product and services roadmap to deliver state-of-the-art solutions for customers and partners.

-- Robust Language Support -- Loquendo has strong proficiency in Latin languages, which provides Nuance with the broadest language support in the industry with the goal to drive natural, conversational interactions across a number of industry segments in the user's preferred language.

-- Innovation -- Both companies offer sophisticated voice-enabled technologies. Together, Nuance and Loquendo will be able to accelerate innovation through a new center of excellence for speech research, based in Turin, Italy. This expands upon Nuance's existing research and development facilities in Sunnyvale, CA, Burlington, MA, Aachen, Germany, Merelbeke, Belgium, Zurich, Switzerland and Montreal, Quebec.

"The adoption of speech technology is being driven by the increasing comfort in the use of speech by consumers, resulting in the demand for fully voice-enabled experiences across many industry segments," said Davide Franco, chief executive officer and chairman of the board, Loquendo. "By combining our technology and amazing employees with Nuance's robust capabilities and market strength, we look forward to continued success with our partners and customers."

About Nuance Communications

Nuance Communications, Inc. /quotes/zigman/98548/quotes/nls/nuan NUAN +3.22% is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com .

Statements in this press release regarding the proposed transaction between Nuance and Telecom Italia, the expected timetable for completing the transaction, benefits and synergies of the transaction, future opportunities for the combined company, expectations regarding the value and benefits of the transaction and the combined company's technology to stakeholders and customers, future expectations regarding the solutions of the combined company, demand for speech solutions, and any other statements about Nuance or Telecom Italia's managements' future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable securities laws. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing the words "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects," estimates and similar expressions) should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including: the ability to consummate the transaction; the ability of Nuance to successfully integrate Loquendo's operations and employees; the ability to realize anticipated synergies and cost savings, the failure to retain customers; general economic conditions; performance of the market sectors that Nuance and Loquendo serve; and, the other factors described in Nuance's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2010 and its most recent quarterly reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Nuance disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Nuance Communications, Inc.

[Remedy 4 That]

Verbble™ for iOS Extends Enterprise Speech Recognition to Apple’s iPhone and iPad; Now Available at iTunes

Verbble™ for iOS now allows users to add talking to typing and clicking to input data into any form, template or app.

New York, NY (PRWEB) August 15, 2011
Verdatum, the leading innovator of voice productivity and workflow solutions, today announces the release of the Verbble™ iOS application, available now as a free download at the iTunes AppStore. Verbble, the first solution to securely voice-enable any screen, form or template and publish them to an enterprise’s platform of choice, can now be accessed via the iPhone and iPad.

The Verbble iOS application extends the speech recognition-driven voice input capabilities central to the Verbble solution without impacting the traditional typing and clicking within the form. Designed to both leverage and extend the capabilities of the iOS platform, the application boasts a simple and elegant user experience with full connectivity to the powerful Verbble platform, providing highly accurate speech recognition results via a specifically trained profile of the user’s voice and vocabulary.

Templates, forms and applications are easily imported to the Verbble system and then distributed over-the-air to the iPhone or iPad. Once published, users can choose the form they want to work with from a list within the Verbble application. Upon selection the user completes the form by simply talking, typing in, or clicking on the desired fields. All voice input continually fills in as you move through the form within the iOS app, making it up to 5x faster than any other means of input on the iPhone or iPad. Saving the data processed through the application back to the user’s system is handled automatically with a single tap. No additional effort or follow up is needed.

Businesses are rapidly adopting mobile strategies and deploying smartphones and tablet computers, such as the iPhone and iPad, as they recognize the tremendous productivity gains derived from these devices. According to Good Technology’s Device Activations Report for Q2 2011, iOS represented 75% of all enterprise activations in the second quarter of 2011, with iPad representing 95% of all enterprise tablet activations, making Verbble on iOS, with its speech-to-text capabilities, a natural fit to further extend these productivity gains and recognize increased value for these devices.

“More and more businesses and workers are using iPhones and iPads for their work every day, despite the previously unaddressed input limitations and frustrations,” said John Methfessel, president and CEO of Verdatum. “Those who picked the iPhone and iPad can now be more productive, efficient and safer in and out of the office by using Verbble. For instance, Verbble lets that salesperson en route to or from an appointment fill in their sales database forms and notes using their voice, so it’s done faster and contemporaneous with the appointment.” Methfessel continued to explain “Verbble users love the elimination of the paperwork and data input backlog. The always connected nature of the iPhone & iPad provided the promise of truly working on the road, but having Verbble running on their iOS device finally allows that promise to be fully realized.” Methfessel concluded, “We’ve always been on the forefront of innovation in voice workflow, and Verbble running on iOS continues that tradition.”

More information can be found at http://www.verbble.com

Supported voice recognition languages include US English, UK English, Australian English, Indian Accented English, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), German, French, Italian & Dutch

About Verdatum
Verdatum has been in the business of developing and selling innovative voice solutions to businesses of all sizes for over 7 years. Verdatum solutions, including Verbble, enable businesses to improve financial performances, improve operational efficiency, increase regulatory compliance and accelerate data input time.

Verdatum is headquartered in New York, NY and serves businesses in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Privately funded, and profitable, the company has thousands of customers to learn more, please visit the company’s website at http://www.verdatumsys.com.

[KEmrLLY]

Digital DataVoice alliance with Voxeo benefits customers:

Dec. 13, 2011, 10:01 a.m. EST

Digital DataVoice Successfully Completes Voxeo Connect Certified Partner Program
Strategic Relationship Between DDV and Voxeo Provides Hosted Cloud and Premise Communication Solutions That Enhance the Customer Experience

ORLANDO, FL, Dec 13, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Digital DataVoice (DDV), a provider of contact center solutions, and Voxeo, a provider of unlocked communications, announced today that DDV has successfully completed the Voxeo Connect Certified Partner Program. This designation allows DDV to provide Voxeo's full suite of cloud hosting and on-premise solutions for automating customer interactions. Additionally, Voxeo's customers benefit from DDV's cross-industry excellence in the delivery of CTI, IVR integration, design, development and implementation services.

"Voxeo's invitation-only certification program is reserved for partners that have demonstrated the same level of extreme customer loyalty as Voxeo," said Denny Adams, director of channel sales at Voxeo. "Our alliance with DDV allows us to further meet the needs of companies looking to upgrade or replace their existing IVR with a flexible, standards-based offering that enhances the customer experience while lowering support costs."

The rigorous Voxeo Connect certification process involves comprehensive vetting of all potential candidates. Voxeo evaluates each company's position in the market, growth potential, customer loyalty ratings and employee input before allowing them to participate in the training and testing process. To ensure consistent quality, Voxeo Connect partners are reevaluated on an annual basis.

Doug Nelson, director of sales for DDV, said, "Voxeo's unique approach of offering both cloud hosting and on-premise 'private cloud' solutions for multi-channel customer engagement meets the ever evolving needs of enterprise and middle market clients, and fits perfectly with our strategy at DDV. Voxeo signifies the type of business we want to join forces with as they share a commitment to exceed customer expectations and offer best-in-class service. Voxeo's cutting edge technology, united with DDV's ability to deliver fully integrated, turnkey, end-to-end solutions, is a powerful combination."

"Our customers have responded with extremely positive feedback," added Nelson. "This agreement advances an already robust relationship between the two companies."

ABOUT DIGITAL DATAVOICE Digital DataVoice Corporation (DDV) is a recognized leader in the design, development, deployment and support of custom self-service and assisted-service solutions for contact centers. We help enterprises improve customer service and maximize efficiency through the use of automation technology. Our areas of expertise include: Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), Automatic Speech Recognition and Web/Call Center Integration. In addition to sales and maintenance of IVR, CTI, and Speech platforms, DDV offers a broad range of professional services. With more than 25 years experience, DDV assists customers looking to optimize these long-term investments through managed service offerings.

ABOUT VOXEO Since 1999, Voxeo has continuously unlocked communications in all its forms -- voice, SMS, instant messaging, Twitter and more -- and we do so for more than 250,000 developers, 45,000 companies and half of the Fortune 100. Headquartered in Orlando with offices in Beijing, Cologne and London, we've torn down barriers to entry using open standards, disruptive innovation and a passion for problem solving that's fueled by a company-wide obsession with customer success.