1. Managing System Prompts and Audio
System prompts are audio prompts that Wave plays to callers and users. System prompts offer callers menu choices and provide menus and instructions to users. You can use the standard prompts included with Wave Server, or record over them to create customized prompts.
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To set up hold music, which enables callers to hear music whenever they are put on hold by a user or the system, see Configuring Music On Hold.
Presenting a confirmation prompt before voicemail
You can choose whether or not callers hear the prompt, “To leave a message press 1, or press * to return to the menu” after they hear a user’s voicemail greeting. See Setting general Wave settings.
The System Prompts view in the User/Group Management applet allows you to listen to and change the recordings used for standard system prompts and auto attendants. For example, when you are setting up your Wave system, you typically go to this view to change the default Greeting prompt so that it contains your company name.
To display the System Prompts view
| 1 | If necessary, click the Administration tab of the Management Console. |
| 2 | Click User/Group Management, located in the PBX Administration section of the Management Console. |
| 3 | Click the System Prompts button in the view bar to open the System Prompts view. |
Each system prompt is displayed as a row in the view. The information in the following table is displayed for each system prompt.
|
Column |
Description |
|
File name |
File name of the prompt. |
|
Text |
Contents of the file in text form. The text displayed here is accurate only if it is updated each time the file is changed. If you are unsure of the accuracy of the text, play the file to confirm what it says. |
|
Last modified |
Last time that the file was modified. |
|
Comment |
How the prompt is used in Wave. Applies to custom prompts and auto attendant prompts only. The column is blank for all other prompts. |
|
Language |
The set of language prompts to which this system prompt belongs. User-recorded prompts such as auto attendant prompts have this column blank. |
Controlling the prompt display
By default the System Prompts view displays all system prompts on the Wave Server. Use the control on the toolbar if you want to display only the custom prompts you have recorded or only the prompts for a single language.
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You can play system prompts over the phone to confirm that they contain the correct information. When you play a system prompt, your phone rings and the prompt plays when you answer. See Using the audio controls for more information.
To play a system prompt
| 1 | In the System Prompts view, select the name of the prompt that you want to play. |
| 2 | Choose System Prompts > Play. |
Use the following procedure to export system prompt text into a CSV file for processing by a professional recording studio or for maintenance purposes.
To export system prompt text
| 1 | In the System Prompts view, choose File > Import and Export. The Import and Export Wizard opens. |
| 2 | Select Export System Prompt Text and click Next. |
| 3 | Under Save exported file as, accept the suggested location and file name or click Browse and choose a different location and enter a file name. |
| 4 | Click Finish. The file is exported. |
Exporting and importing system prompt audio files
You can export a system prompt from your Wave Server for use on another. You also can import an existing sound file and use it as a system prompt. For more information, see Importing and exporting voice files.
You may want to record over system prompts for any of the following reasons:
| • | You want your custom prompts and system prompts to be recorded with the same voice. |
| • | You want to customize the message text of a prompt, for example, the Welcome message. |
| • | You have access to voice talent that you prefer over the existing Wave voices. |
You can record system prompts in either of the following ways:
| • | Recording system prompts professionally |
| • | Recording over system prompts yourself |
To record a complete set of system prompts, you must do the following:
| • | Record the WAP file (see below). |
| • | Build the indexed WAP file. |
| • | Test the new prompts. |
| • | Deploy the new prompts. |
Wave prompts are contained in the WAP file, an indexed file containing individual WAV recordings of variable information. Variable information, for example, numbers and dates, is used to build more complex prompts.
The WAP files are used together to produce the complete prompts that callers and users hear. For example, in the sentence prompt, “You have three new messages, and twelve saved messages”, the words “three” and “twelve” come from the WAP file.
The American English WAP files are located in the following directory:
C:\Program Files\Artisoft\TeleVantage Server\Vfiles\EN00
The American English WAP file is called TVLEN00.WAP.
The sentence file is a text file that contains all the voice prompts and the sentences they form. The American English sentence file is located in the following location:
C:\Program Files\Artisoft\TeleVantage Server\TVLEN00.INI
Note: “EN00” identifies American English files.
Recording system prompts professionally
If you choose to obtain professional recordings, you should first choose a voice vendor with experience in telephony recording. Then:
| • | Select a voice. |
| • | Provide the appropriate Wave files to the vendor in formats they can use. |
| • | Test the new prompts for voice quality, usability, file-naming accuracy, and indexing accuracy. |
| • | Deploy the new prompts. |
The vendor will often provide you with 44kHz, full-bandwidth voice samples from which to choose. Ask your vendor to provide voice samples that have been re-sampled or recorded as MuLaw PCM Mono 8 kHz, which is the format used in Wave. This will ensure that your selection is based on how the voice will actually sound when used in your Wave system.
Keep in mind that high-pitched voices and high-frequency sounds degrade more as a result of this type of re-sampling, which may result in considerable change in higher frequency sounds at telephony bandwidth.
Using the standard Wave voices
To add or modify prompts using one of the standard Wave voices, contact Marketing Messages as shown in the following table. They provided the original set of prompts. Marketing Messages can record new voice files using the standard voices.
|
Language |
Voice |
|
U.S. English |
“Ellen” |
|
Latin American Spanish |
“Claudia” |
|
U. K. English |
“Helen” |
|
French Parisian |
“Sylvie” |
|
French Canadian |
“Gisele” |
|
German |
“Anneli” |
Contact Marketing Messages as follows:
Marketing Messages
51 Winchester Street
Newton, MA, U.S.A. 02461
800-486-4237 (phone)
617-527-3728 (fax)
http://www.marketingmessages.com
After you have selected a voice, you must provide your vendor with the list of prompt files and the text of each prompt to be recorded. The list of prompt files is available in the System Prompts and Prompts section of the TVLEN00.INI file.
You also need to provide your vendor with the TVLEN00.WAP file, so that your voice vendor can match the indexing of the new WAP file to the existing file.
It is important that you thoroughly test all voice files that you receive from the vendor to ensure:
| • | Accuracy of file names |
| • | Synchronization of written and spoken prompt content |
| • | Quality of voice recording |
| • | Accuracy of index order and format of the WAP file |
See Testing system prompts for information about using the Sentence Tester to assist with some of these tasks.
After all files are tested, you can replace the existing prompt files with the new ones. Place all new WAV files and the WAP file in the following directory:
C:\Program Files\Artisoft\TeleVantage Server\Vfiles\User
The following auto attendant prompts must also be copied to the User directory.
| • | AACLOSED.WAV |
| • | AAHI.WAV |
| • | AA4SBN.WAV |
| • | AAOPORWT.WAV |
The default location is C:\Program Files\Artisoft\TeleVantage Server\Voice Files\EN00.
Recording over system prompts yourself
When you record over system prompts yourself, you can record all of the WAV files as well as the WAP file, as with professional recording, or record just the WAV files and use the WAP file included with Wave.
If you do not record over all the files, be aware that since prompts are combined with other prompts when presented to callers or users, recording some but not all prompts may result in a mismatch of voices between prompts or within the same prompt.
To record over a prompt
| 1 | In the System Prompts view, double-click the prompt. The Edit System Prompt dialog opens. |
| 2 | Under Contents, enter the text of the new prompt. Use this text as a script when you record the prompt. |
| 3 | Record the prompt. See Using the audio controls for instructions. |
| 4 | Click OK to save the new version of the prompt. |
You can record over the WAP file by using a variety of recording tools and WAP tools that can be found on the Internet.
Testing and deploying the new prompts
Use the Sentence Tester to test the new prompts. See Testing system prompts. For information about deploying the new prompts, see Deploying the new prompts.
You can test system prompts by listening to them in context over your phone. By joining individual prompts into sentences and playing them as they are used in Wave, you can evaluate intonation, emphasis, and consistency.
To test system prompts
| 1 | Log on to the Wave Server via Windows Remote Desktop using a valid Wave administrator user name and password. |
| 2 | Click Start > Run. |
| 3 | Launch the Global Administrator Management Console via the following command: |
“C:\Program Files\Artisoft\TeleVantage Administrator\TVAdmin.exe” /sentence
| 4 | Start the User/Group Management applet using the /sentence command line option. |
| 5 | Choose Tools > Test Sentences. The Test Sentences dialog opens. |
| 6 | In Language to test, select the language of the prompts that you want to test. |
| 7 | Under Sentences, select a sentence from the list. |
The Current sentence box displays how that sentence is described in the sentences.ini file. Many sentences consist of a single WAV file. Other sentences are made up of several joined WAV files, and may contain variables as well.
| 8 | You can double click a sentence to test it, or select it and press Test. When your phone rings, pick it up and listen to the sentence in the language you selected. You can continue to play messages, and even change languages, without hanging up your phone. |
| 9 | If the sentence contains variables, they are indicated in the Name column with an asterisk. You can enter a new Value for a variable, and optionally select a different variable Data Type. |
For example, by default the sentence ToPurgeMsg sentence plays as:
“To permanently delete the 1 message in your ViewPoint’s Deleted folder, press 3. Otherwise, press 4.”
By changing the Value of Variable 1 to 6, the sentence plays as:
“To permanently delete the 6 messages in your ViewPoint’s Deleted folder, press 3. Otherwise, press 4.”
Click Clear to return all Values to their original settings.