WOKING, U.K. /CitizenWire/ — Remote and virtual learning environments are putting educators under pressure to create engaging video materials, yet few teachers have the equipment or skills to record professional audio. Adding 60 new voices, Narakeet this week enabled educators to easily create video lessons and voiceovers in 40 languages and regional dialects.
NCTQ studies found that teachers spend 45 minutes on average planning lessons. Having to record audio and edit videos puts additional pressure on already busy schedules, often requiring hours of extra work per day. Neural AI text-to-speech systems, with natural sounding voices, offer a compelling alternative to recorded audio, cutting preparation time from hours to minutes. Until recently, AI voices only represented major language variants, limiting the effectiveness of this approach. According to Statista research, accent or dialect issues are the second biggest barrier to adoption for voice technology in 2021, affecting 66% of respondents.
“Students like to hear voices that sound like them. They engage better with content in regional dialects. Using our new voices, educators can make video lessons that speak to their audience much more effectively,” said Gojko Adzic, founder of Narakeet.
Narakeet is a text-to-speech video maker that turns PowerPoint slides into narrated videos. This week’s update brings support for English variants including South African, Irish, Nigerian and Filipino voices; French with Swiss, Canadian and Belgian dialects; Spanish with Mexican and Puerto Rican variants and improved Brazilian Portuguese and Indian English.
“Combined with the recent addition of Swiss German and New Zealand English, Narakeet now has a rich collection of local dialects in many popular languages, and one the largest collections of neural text-to-speech generators,” said Adzic. “Some of our competitors may offer a larger list of options, but they include older technology which cannot mimic human speech, and often provide the same voice with regional variants. Narakeet does not reuse voices across local variants, so each voice is unique.”
According to MarketsandMarkets research, the text-to-speech market was valued at USD 2.0 billion in 2020 and is estimated to reach USD 5.0 billion by 2026, driven by the rising demand for handheld devices and increased investment in government spending on education. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant growth in demand for cloud-based solutions, especially important for schools as they shifted from in-person education to remote, virtual learning environments and mixed educational models.
For more information, check out https://www.narakeet.com/
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VIDEO (YouTube): https://youtu.be/NI1ZkammTRE
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Learn More: https://www.narakeet.com/
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