Administrator Guide for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server Release 5.3
Creating, Uploading, and Deleting Custom Voice Prompts

Table Of Contents

Creating, Uploading, and Deleting Custom Voice Prompts

About Voice Prompts

Assumptions

About Recording Custom Voice Prompts by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Preparing to Record a Custom Voice Prompt by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Creating a Custom Voice Prompt by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

About Recording Custom Voice Prompts in a Recording Studio

Preparing to Record a Custom Voice Prompt in a Recording Studio

Creating a Custom Voice Prompt in a Recording Studio

Uploading Custom Voice Prompts to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Verifying that your Custom Prompt Installed

About Testing Your Custom Voice Prompt

Testing that a Custom Voice Prompt is Properly Installed, Option 1

Testing that a Custom Voice Prompt is Properly Installed, Option 2

About Deleting Custom Voice Prompts

Deleting Custom Voice Prompts

Guidelines for Recording Prompts


Creating, Uploading, and Deleting Custom Voice Prompts


This appendix describes how to install custom voice prompts on the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server and contains the following sections:

About Voice Prompts

Assumptions

About Recording Custom Voice Prompts by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

About Recording Custom Voice Prompts in a Recording Studio

About Testing Your Custom Voice Prompt

About Deleting Custom Voice Prompts

Guidelines for Recording Prompts

About Voice Prompts

An individual voice prompt is a single voice file. A voice prompt sentence is a string of individual voice prompts. Examples of individual voice prompts include:

"1"

"Press 1"

"To attend a meeting"

"Enter the meeting ID followed by the pound key."

long music files

You can record custom voice prompts and then upload them to your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series. A custom voice prompt is a voice prompt that uses words or phrases preferred by the customer. For example, if you want to change a prompt from "To attend a meeting" to "To attend a conference", you can record your own voice prompt and use that instead. You cannot customize voice prompt sentences but you can customize individual voice prompts.


NoteIf you change the "Welcome to MeetingPlace" prompt, the new phrase must include the term MeetingPlace. This term cannot be removed from the "Welcome to MeetingPlace" prompt under any circumstances.

Changing an individual voice prompt can affect many voice prompt sentences. Avoid changing too many individual voice prompts, as the new voice prompt sentences may not make sense when they are all concatenated together.

We do not recommend that you use this procedure to localize the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace prompts. For localized voice prompts, contact Cisco Systems.


All voice prompt files must be raw, headerless, 8 kHz, 16-bit linear PCM. You can use files in other formats, such as .wav (CD quality), but they must be converted using Adobe Audition or other editing software to the raw PCM format before you can further process them.

Assumptions

The procedures described in this appendix assume the following:

You have a Windows PC and are proficient with using the Windows command line.

You are familiar with basic Unix commands, including navigating the file system.

You are familiar with logging on to the Command Line Interface (CLI) for the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server and accessing utilities as a superuser.

The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system is up and running.

About Recording Custom Voice Prompts by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

This task contains the following sections:

Preparing to Record a Custom Voice Prompt by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Creating a Custom Voice Prompt by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Keep the following points in mind when creating custom voice prompts by calling into the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system:

There will no longer be uniformity across all Cisco Unified MeetingPlace systems because the custom voice prompt will be different than the other voice prompts.

This is a lengthy process so you should only create a custom voice prompt by calling into the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system if you are customizing a few voice prompts.

Preparing to Record a Custom Voice Prompt by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Before You Begin


Step 1 Ensure that you have obtained the following:

List of voice prompts. See Appendix G, "Custom Voice Prompts"

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series server with Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server Release 5.1 or later installed, with telephony access.

Step 2 Determine which voice prompt you want to customize. Generally, there is a one-to-one correlation between what you hear in the VUI and the voice prompts.


Note Some prompt names are identical so you may have to copy all the matching prompt numbers until you locate the one that activates the changes that you want to make.


Step 3 Find the prompt number for that voice prompt by looking in Appendix G, "Custom Voice Prompts" for a list of all the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace voice prompts.


Note Some voice prompts that you hear on the VUI are comprised of several smaller prompts, so you may need to customize more than one voice prompt.



Creating a Custom Voice Prompt by Calling into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Follow these steps to create a custom voice prompt by calling into the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system.

Procedure


Step 1 Call into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace server.

Step 2 At the main VUI menu, press 2 and log into Cisco Unified MeetingPlace as a profiled user with System Manager privileges.

Step 3 Press 9 for system manager options.

Step 4 Press 1 to listen to or record a voice prompt.

Step 5 Enter the number of the voice prompt and press #.

Step 6 Select a choice from the submenu:

Press 1 to hear the standard, unabbreviated prompt.

Press 2 to hear the standard, abbreviated prompt.

Press 3 to record a custom voice prompt to replace this voice prompt.

Press 4 to record a flex menu prompt to replace this voice prompt (not covered by this procedure).

Press 5 to go back to the menu in Step 5.

Press * to back out to the main menu in Step 2.

Step 7 When you are done, hang up.

Step 8 Test your new custom voice prompt by following the steps in the "Testing that a Custom Voice Prompt is Properly Installed, Option 1" section.

Step 9 Save your custom voice prompt. If a server disk containing the custom voice prompt is damaged or replaced, you will have to record the custom voice prompts again.


About Recording Custom Voice Prompts in a Recording Studio

You can also create custom voice prompts in a recording studio. You upload these files, but they do not overwrite factory-shipped voice prompts. They are stored in and retrieved from a separate location.

This task contains the following sections:

Preparing to Record a Custom Voice Prompt in a Recording Studio

Creating a Custom Voice Prompt in a Recording Studio

Uploading Custom Voice Prompts to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Preparing to Record a Custom Voice Prompt in a Recording Studio

The following steps apply to a Windows PC command prompt window.

Before You Begin


Step 1 Create the following directories to store the custom voice prompt files:

<hard drive>:\temp\1st sample prompts\lin

<hard drive>:\temp\1st sample prompts\lat

Step 2 Ensure that you have obtained the following:

List of voice prompts. See Appendix G, "Custom Voice Prompts".

Sound file editing software such as Adobe Audition, CoolEdit 2000, or equivalent.

dsp utility, its input file (called the X file), and the conv.bat script if you are doing batch conversions. Copy them to your <hard drive>:\temp\1st sample prompts\lin Windows directory.

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series server with Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server Release 5.1 or later installed, with telephony access.

Step 3 Determine which voice prompt you want to customize. Generally, there is a one-to-one correlation between what you hear in the VUI and the voice prompts.


Note Some prompt names are identical so you may have to copy all the matching prompt numbers until you locate the one that activates the changes that you want to make.


Step 4 Find the prompt number for that voice prompt by looking in Appendix G, "Custom Voice Prompts" for a list of all the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace voice prompts.


Note Some voice prompts that you hear on the VUI are comprised of several smaller prompts, so you may need to customize more than one voice prompt.



Creating a Custom Voice Prompt in a Recording Studio

Follow these steps to create a custom voice file in the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace file format.

Procedure


Step 1 Go to a recording studio and record the custom voice prompt. The resulting custom voice prompt file will have a .wav suffix.

Step 2 Use a software tool such as Adobe Audition or CoolEdit to convert the .wav file to the required raw, headerless, 8 kHz, 16-bit linear PCM .lin file format.

Step 3 Rename the custom voice prompt to s####.lin, where s means that this is a voice file, #### is the voice prompt number, and .lin is the file format.


NoteThe leading s must be lowercase.

Do not include spaces in the file names.


Step 4 Move the custom voice prompt to the <hard drive>:\temp\1st sample prompts\lin directory.

Step 5 Convert the .lin prompt file to a .lat file by running the dsp utility. The dsp utility converts files from the .lin format to the .lat format. The X file is an input to the dsp utility and contains the commands to the dsp utility. Follow these steps:

a. Open a Windows command prompt.

b. Change directories by entering cd <hard drive>:\temp\1st sample prompts\lin.

c. Do one of the following:

To convert only one custom voice prompt from a .lin file to a .lat file, enter the following at the Windows command prompt:

dsp s####.lin ..\lat\s####.lat junk -f 0.2 <X

The dsp utility should exit when it is finished. If it does not exit, you see a list of dsp utility choices. To exit, enter 16.

To convert all the .lin files in this directory and store them in the \lat directory, enter the following at the Windows command prompt:

conv ..\lat

The 16-bit, 8-kHz .lin prompt format is converted to the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace .lat format.


Note Although you select an output file of format s####.lat, Windows might create the file as S####.LAT. You can transfer the file, but you must rename it to the s####.lat format because Unix is case sensitive.



Uploading Custom Voice Prompts to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Follow these steps to upload the new custom voice prompts to your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system.

Procedure


Step 1 Change folders to <hard drive>:\temp\1st sample prompts\lat.

Step 2 If the filename for your custom voice prompt is uppercase, change it to lowercase. For example, if the filename is S1234.LAT, change it to s1234.lat.

Step 3 Open a telnet session into the target Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series and log in as a technician.

Step 4 Once you are in the telnet session, change to the superuser level. You need the password of the day (POD) to log in as a superuser. Contact Cisco TAC for the POD.

Step 5 Navigate to the directory called /tmp/bnr on the target server by entering cd /tmp/bnr. (If this directory does not exist, create it first by entering mkdir /tmp/bnr.)

Step 6 Remove any files that are in the /tmp/bnr directory by entering rm *. Enter y when prompted. Leave the telnet session active.

Step 7 Use FTP to move the .lat files from the Windows folder called <hard drive>:\temp\1st sample prompts\lat to the /tmp/bnr directory on the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace hard disk. Make sure the FTP mode is binary (bin). Follow these steps:

a. In Windows, go to the folder called <hard drive>:\temp\1st sample prompts\lat,

b. At the Windows command prompt, enter ftp -i <system name>, where <system name> is the name of the target Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series server.

c. On the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series server, go to the /tmp/bnr directory.

d. Run mput *.lat to transfer all the .lat files from Windows to the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series server.

e. Exit FTP when finished.

Step 8 In the CLI, make a copy of the s####.lat file and rename it cpr####.lat. The .cpr suffix means that this is a custom voice prompt. #### is the number of the voice prompt that you are customizing. For example, enter cp s1234.lat cpr1234.lat.

Step 9 Run bnrprompt -r to install the custom voice prompt. The -r option loads the custom voice prompt from the /tmp/bnr directory.

Step 10 Save your custom voice prompt. If a server disk containing the custom voice prompt is damaged or replaced, you will have to record the custom voice prompts again.

Step 11 Restart your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system.


Verifying that your Custom Prompt Installed

After you have recorded a custom voice prompt, you may need to list all of them. Follow these steps:

Procedure


Step 1 Open a telnet session into the target Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series and log in as a technician.

Step 2 Once you are in the telnet session, change to the superuser level. You need the password of the day (POD) to log in as a superuser. Contact Cisco TAC for the POD.

Step 3 Run bnrprompt -l to list all the custom voice prompts on your system. The screen displays the following:

csc$ bnrprompt -l

Starting English (US)...
	Standard custom prompt exists	304
... Done with English (US)    -> 1 custom prompt exists (1776/1777)

FINISHED: List Custom Recorded (CR) Prompts complete!

About Testing Your Custom Voice Prompt

You must test your custom voice prompt to ensure it was recorded properly. There are two ways to test that a custom voice prompt was recorded and installed correctly.

Testing that a Custom Voice Prompt is Properly Installed, Option 1

You can access all voice prompts in the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system by using the System Manager options menu in the VUI. You must know the prompt number.

Procedure


Step 1 Dial in to the target Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system.

Step 2 At the main VUI menu, press 2 and log in to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace as a profile user with the System Manager privilege.

Step 3 Press 9 to listen to the system manager options.

Step 4 Press 1 to listen or record voice prompts.

Step 5 Enter the prompt number, followed by #.

Step 6 Press 1 for the standard, unabbreviated prompt; or press 2 for the standard, abbreviated prompt.

Step 7 Listen to the prompt.

Step 8 When you are finished, hang up.


Testing that a Custom Voice Prompt is Properly Installed, Option 2

This procedure is more difficult but is the most reliable way to ensure that a custom voice prompt is installed correctly. This procedure ensures that you did not customize the wrong voice prompt.

Procedure


Step 1 Dial in to the target Cisco Unified MeetingPlace system.

Step 2 Create the circumstances in which the custom voice prompt is played.

Step 3 Listen to the custom voice prompt to make sure that you hear the prompt you recorded.

Step 4 When you are finished, hang up.


About Deleting Custom Voice Prompts

After you have recorded a custom voice prompt, you may need to delete it.

Deleting Custom Voice Prompts

Follow these steps to delete a custom voice prompt:

Procedure


Step 1 Open a telnet session into the target Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series and log in as a technician.

Step 2 Once you are in the telnet session, change to the superuser level. You need the password of the day (POD) to log in as a superuser. Contact Cisco TAC for the POD.

Step 3 Run bnrprompt -x <prompt number> to delete the custom voice prompt. The screen displays the following:

csc$ bnrprompt -x 304
Logging in to cp ....
        	... Done ....
Delete standard custom prompt 304
Deleted file standard prompt 304
No abbreviated prompt exists 304
Removed this custom prompt 304

FINISHED: Delete Custom Recorded (CR) Prompts complete!

Step 4 Run bnrprompt -l to verify that the custom voice prompt was removed. The screen displays the following:

csc$ bnrprompt -l

Starting English (US)...
... Done with English (US)    -> no custom prompts exist (1776/1777)

FINISHED: List Custom Recorded (CR) Prompts complete!

Guidelines for Recording Prompts

Use the following guidelines when you record prompts and create prompt sets for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8100 series.

Recording environment. Make sure the environment is extremely quiet. Do some sample recording beforehand and listen to the result. The recorded passages should be free of hissing, pops, frequency distortion, and other types of noise.

Silence before and after each prompt. Each prompt should have between 50 to 100 milliseconds of silence at the beginning and end. Too little silence creates pops when the prompt is concatenated with other prompts (played just after or before other prompts). Too much silence creates awkward gaps in overall speech when several prompts are played together. In some cases, 100 milliseconds might not be enough to eliminate pops at the beginning and end of concatenated prompts. In this case, try increasing the silence to 150 milliseconds. To measure the amount of silence at the beginning or end of a prompt (or to see if there is silence), bring up the prompt in Adobe Audition or a similar voice editing program. Open the file as a 16-bit, 8-kHz .wav or raw PCM file. Adobe Audition allows accurate measurement of silences passages.

Format. Record all prompts in linear PCM format, which is 8-kHz sample rate with 16-bit samples. Prompts should be in headerless format. If not, then each must be processed in Adobe Audition or CoolEdit to strip the headers.

Level. The nominal recording level for non-silence sections should be -24 dBm. Avoid very loud recording levels because they can cause clipping, which creates clicks and pops in the middle of the prompts.


Note If you upgrade your Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server to a newer release, you may need to reinstall all your custom prompts. Back up your custom prompts using the bnrprompt -B command.