Pro Microsoft Speech Server 2007: Developing Speech Enabled Applications with .NET (Expert's Voice in .NET) [Hardcover]

D. Michael Dunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1590599020 | ISBN-13: 978-1590599020 | Edition: 1

Speech Server can be used to voice-enable many .NET applications. Because of the support for ASP.NET Server controls, virtually existing web based application can be speech enabled with relative ease. Adding in telephony is slightly more complex but those with a basic understanding of telephony will find it fairly straightforward. The truth is that it’s almost impossible to get away from Speech and DTFM based applications. The reason is that companies can save tremendous amounts of resources but monetary and human by automating systems with Speech and Telephony. But the catch is that such applications need to be well constructed and need to work well with the users, allowing them to do things they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do (like get bank account balances at 3:00 Christmas morning). Poorly designed or implemented systems, like all poorly designed/implemented systems simply add inconvenience to what users already have to do. As such, understanding what Speech Server and the tools can and can not do is imperative. Understanding how to properly configure and secure such applications is even more critical because without this knowledge, even getting started on the application may be difficult to impossible. This book gives that knowledge to the user, like no other book that is or will be available.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Dunn has been doing software development for over seven years, four in .Net development and three years of interactive voice response development. Michael currently works for Magenic Technologies, where he can fulfill his passion for developing speech applications each day. He speaks at user groups and code events around the country.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (June 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590599020
• ISBN-13: 978-1590599020
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,318,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't be much better, July 4, 2007

By 

William G. Ryan "Uber Book Nerd" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pro Microsoft Speech Server 2007: Developing Speech Enabled Applications with .NET (Expert's Voice in .NET) (Hardcover)

I've had this book for about two weeks now and it is one of the best books I've read in a while.

one of the biggest problems with previous versions of speech server was that there was very little available on it. Dunn's book fixes that with the new release of Office Communications Server/Speech server.

Having worked through all the examples, everything works as advertised. The examples are relevant and real-world without being too complex to follow. It's an easy read and the writing style is relaxed, professional yet makes you want to keep reading.

Overall the book is small and can be worked through quickly. But even though it's small, it gives you everything you need to feel more than comfortable with the product and so far, I certainlyl haven't come across anything important that wasn't covered in the book.

Considering how easy to read it is, this book is excellent for any developer, whether or not they want to actually start writing speech apps or not. It works great for getting you acquainted and works equally well if you are trying to build complex speech applications.

Very well done.

4.0 out of 5 stars good on development, missing environment configuration how to, January 9, 2009

By 

Michael C. Alford (Bridgeport, WV USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro Microsoft Speech Server 2007: Developing Speech Enabled Applications with .NET (Expert's Voice in .NET) (Hardcover)

Book is very straight forward and concise on the programming side of using speech server. If that's all your looking for then an excellent book.

However it's missing how to setup and integrate speech server into a telephony environment. Which there are books on using Office Communications Server 2007 on that, but there should be some attention on how to configure an environment to get all the examples working. IMO this is a big missing section to an otherwise good introduction to xyz technology book. If you just follow the install guidelines in the book you will only be able to do inbound applications. All the outbound examples will fail to work until you properly configure at least an OCS 2007 SE server with Mediation Server on it and configure your IP PBX to talk to it

3.0 out of 5 stars Good high-level overview., April 12, 2008

By 

Peter Walke (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pro Microsoft Speech Server 2007: Developing Speech Enabled Applications with .NET (Expert's Voice in .NET) (Hardcover)

This book was good to figure out what speech server is and how to develop simple applications. I would have liked to see a bit more of a deep dive in the Worfklow Foundation interaction. There are some gotchas with respect to how you manage state accross different users that should have been covered more in depth.