I wondered the same. It seems very vague. My presumption is that it means that they will remove the Readspeaker Iona voice. Maybe they will bring back Fletcher Mathers or perhaps chose another Text To Speech voice.
-
Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
New ScotRail Train Announcements
- Thread starter dr140
- Start date
- Status
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
generalnerd
Member
Still doesn’t make sense to me. They could replace the AI generated wordings with recorded words and still use the same system, no?
simonmpoulton
Member
- Joined
- 25 Jun 2011
- Messages
- 217
It makes perfect sense to me - if you want to create a new announcement for engineering works or something which isn't prerecorded it makes it very easy for them to just type in what they want it to say and it just does it with Text to Speech.
What is totally wrong is this company using these voice recordings for this purpose without consent!
Buzby
Established Member
But we don’t know this! They’ve sub-contracted the system to their preferred supplier (whom I assume is paid for their technology). Should this supplier have misused this resource, it is up to them fix it, not ScotRail. It just seems to be a concocted media frenzy there they can give the TOC a kicking.
Hot water for what? Doesn't the intellectual property for that voice belong to SYMCA? Who do you think contracted the bus service?
Work these most days, not heard them atall. We do have some HST'S running round going to Aberdeen via Oban according to the PIS though!
Transilien
Member
The old announcements had the exact same wordings. Perhaps an AI voice could be retained for special case announcements. But at that point why not let the driver announce it?
reecestrains
Member
Yes as I mentioned, they are still original from when I was in Scotland the other day. Same with 158's and 170's.
generalnerd
Member
Yeah, but they could get some YouTuber or other member of staff to do an announcement and you’re sorted
Apparently the “Iona” voice is getting removed. However, it doesn’t look like they are scrapping the text to speech idea entirely which is unfortunate.
www.bbc.co.uk
ScotRail to replace controversial AI voice on trains
Voiceover artist Gayanne Potter said a "dreadful" robotic version of her voice was being used on trains
www.bbc.co.uk
scotraildriver
Established Member
- Joined
- 15 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 1,846
Why is it unfortunate? It makes it possible to create short notice/temporary announcements for engineering works etc in a few seconds. Currently a process that takes weeks joining up all the individual stations. New routes or calling patterns can also be created quickly, along with specific announcements for special events. It is much better, quicker and more user friendly system.Apparently the “Iona” voice is getting removed. However, it doesn’t look like they are scrapping the text to speech idea entirely which is unfortunate.
ScotRail to replace controversial AI voice on trains
Voiceover artist Gayanne Potter said a "dreadful" robotic version of her voice was being used on trains
Better to stick with Fletcher Matthers shes still doing recordings etc.
scotraildriver
Established Member
- Joined
- 15 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 1,846
The point is it's a completely new system which can be edited in minutes. The Fletcher Mathers voice has to be constructed by effectively cutting and pasting every station name together to create a stopping pattern. It literally takes weeks just to make smallish changes. It's old fashioned, obsolete technology that needs replaced. On the 158/170/318/320 fleets it then needs manually flashed using a card to every single cab individually, another process that takes weeks to complete.
stevenedin
Established Member
There's no reason why they can't use her voice if she agrees to for the computer voice.
Buzby
Established Member
I cannot help but feel her actions are being promoted by others with an agenda. She admits to being contracted to the Swedish company to record her voice for various purposes and was no doubt paid for her time and effort in so doing. Her objection - although not specifically stated - appears to be that she wants more money for the work already done due to the additional use & benefit these companies obtained by using it to ‘train’ 
their AI model. Then goes on to proclaim that it is inferior - and having listened to both, find it quite acceptable.
None of us are privy to the contract she signed, but I think it more than likely the company has sewn this usage up, but her union is using it for their ends and a ‘bigger picture’ whilst ScotRail wanting to avoid a political hot potato have been told to retire Iona Mk 1. It’ll no doubt be replaced by ‘Morag’ whose artist will have been explicitly told the purpose of the recording to head off a similar stand-off down the line.
How is this any different from the ending (years ago) of residuals and repeat fees for broadcasts that invariably precluded old shows being recycled on existing and new channels? AI training does not involve any additional workload so the agreed fees were inclusive of such usage.
their AI model. Then goes on to proclaim that it is inferior - and having listened to both, find it quite acceptable.None of us are privy to the contract she signed, but I think it more than likely the company has sewn this usage up, but her union is using it for their ends and a ‘bigger picture’ whilst ScotRail wanting to avoid a political hot potato have been told to retire Iona Mk 1. It’ll no doubt be replaced by ‘Morag’ whose artist will have been explicitly told the purpose of the recording to head off a similar stand-off down the line.
How is this any different from the ending (years ago) of residuals and repeat fees for broadcasts that invariably precluded old shows being recycled on existing and new channels? AI training does not involve any additional workload so the agreed fees were inclusive of such usage.
When she did the recordings it was before AI was introduced. Initially the TTS was ment to be used for disability and visually impaired. But AI has taken over and has now used he robot voice of her and it seems to be a similar case with Lothian buses as well. Yes it is quicker to get it done and amended but Unions of Creative Industry have raised concerns about voice exploitation which I think may people would take into consideration.I cannot help but feel her actions are being promoted by others with an agenda. She admits to being contracted to the Swedish company to record her voice for various purposes and was no doubt paid for her time and effort in so doing. Her objection - although not specifically stated - appears to be that she wants more money for the work already done due to the additional use & benefit these companies obtained by using it to ‘train’
None of us are privy to the contract she signed, but I think it more than likely the company has sewn this usage up, but her union is using it for their ends and a ‘bigger picture’ whilst ScotRail wanting to avoid a political hot potato have been told to retire Iona Mk 1. It’ll no doubt be replaced by ‘Morag’ whose artist will have been explicitly told the purpose of the recording to head off a similar stand-off down the line.
How is this any different from the ending (years ago) of residuals and repeat fees for broadcasts that invariably precluded old shows being recycled on existing and new channels? AI training does not involve any additional workload so the agreed fees were inclusive of such usage.
DanielTheEMid
Member
- Joined
- 13 Mar 2019
- Messages
- 103
I think Televic is cloud based, so it would basically be insert the file into Televic GSP, and upload it to the train. Thameslink Matt does some videos on his TikTok on him managing the PIS systems. I think trainfx is the same, with only big updates requiring an SD card swap if they need to change the entire dataset. IDK about the btros and SAviewcoms on the others.
I do not even think there is any AI involvement in this voice. It is a simple TTS voice. They have used her recordings to create a TTS voice. To create any TTS voice you need to use the recordings of a real voiceover artist. This technology has been around for over twenty years long before AI was even a thing. For some reason people just like to call everything AI these days even when it is not.
scottishtrains
Member
Bit late, but they’ve announced they are changing the voice
www.bbc.co.uk
ScotRail to replace controversial AI voice on trains - BBC News
Voiceover artist Gayanne Potter said a "dreadful" robotic version of her voice was being used on trains
www.bbc.co.uk
scottishtrains
Member
They’ve introduced new voices now!!
DanielTheEMid
Member
- Joined
- 13 Mar 2019
- Messages
- 103
It's still a TTS, but Scotrail have selected an employee named Vanessa Sloan to bank her voice for use on the trains.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news...troduces-new-train-announcer-replace-ai-iona/
At least they've used an actual ScotRail employee!
reecestrains
Member
I will give my own opinion on it once I've heard it. I'm hoping it'll be somewhat of an improvement over the previous one.
Good to see they're using someone from within ScotRail though.
I'll be very surprised if it can beat Fletcher Mathers though
hexagon789
Veteran Member
The intonation still makes it sound very stilted and unnatural unfortunately.
Yet I've heard other AI systems, which sound much better.
Not 100%, but quite decent enough, so it can be done.
Yet I've heard other AI systems, which sound much better.
Not 100%, but quite decent enough, so it can be done.
scottishtrains
Member
new announcements here - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRNrXAR4/
Chiltern006
Member
- Joined
- 3 Oct 2018
- Messages
- 809
Be nice to have consistency between stations and train (akin to Wales) however the train one is so robotic compared to the station one
- Status