Announcer discussion

This Plug-In didn't seem to work for me. It also doesn't seem to recognize the InfoVox IVox voice that I've got running. At first I think it was because I was trying to install and set up from my laptop and not locally. Maybe I'm just missing something in the file address.

This Plug-In didn't seem to work for me. It also doesn't seem to recognize the InfoVox IVox voice that I've got running. At first I think it was because I was trying to install and set up from my laptop and not locally. Maybe I'm just missing something in the file address.

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I can't guarantee functionality with non-Apple voices. The plugin actually uses Mac OS X built in methods to generate the list of available voices. It's possible that the 3rd party voice doesn't register itself with Speech Services in OS X. The voice would also have to work with the built-in "say" command-line tool in OS X, as this is the tool used by the plugin.

Yes, the plugin certainly must be installed on the machine with Indigo server running on it. Could you be more specific about how it doesn't work? What are you seing in the Indigo log when configuring the Announcer action or device? What logs do you see when you enable debug logging? Paste the logs into your response if possible.

Actually the plug-in works fine for the most part. The voice that I've purchased DOES show up in the drop down list. However, it shows up as "Com.acapelagroup.agix.voice.heather22k_kg". On my list, it show up just below "Good News" and above "Hysterical". Unfortunately, when I select that particular voice, it doesn't work...nothing happens...not even the "tone.wav" sound I'm using.

Ahh... Okay. Exactly how does the name appear in the Speech control pane in System Preferences (including spaces and capitalizations)? I might be able to modify the plugin to make an exception for that voice so it'll show up correctly and (hopefully) work with the "say" command that the plugin uses.

I've just created a work-around for this problem.

I've created two tasks for Indigo.

1. Using the Plug-In, play the tone.wav file and speak "." That's it. Since it's only a period, nothing is actually said.
2. The next request is time delayed for 0.10 Minutes and speaks the statement. Since this isn't part of the Plug-in, Indigo uses my "Heather" voice as it normally does.

Easy work-around.

Exactly how does the name appear in the Speech control pane in System Preferences (including spaces and capitalizations)?

It's
"Heather Infovox iVox HQ"

It shows up just above "Kathy" on my list.

It's
"Heather Infovox iVox HQ"

It shows up just above "Kathy" on my list.

Cool. I'll see if I can modify the code to get that voice to show up properly in the list. Maybe then it will work with the plugin correctly.

Okay, try this version. If it works, I'll update the main post in this thread with the link.

Okay, try this version. If it works, I'll update the main post in this thread with the link.

No, Unfortunately it didn't work either. I've installed the new version and restarted Indigo. I saw no difference. Thanks for trying.

Meanwhile, I've discovered that my "work-around" doesn't work quite as well as I thought. It seems that the first time the tone and voice play after being "dormant" for a while they aren't synchronized quite well. Subsequent announcements work better but that first one has a hard time working right.

No, Unfortunately it didn't work either. I've installed the new version and restarted Indigo. I saw no difference. Thanks for trying.

Hmmm... Did anything change? At the very least, the voice name in the voice list for the Announcer action should have changed to "Heather If you go to the Plugins menu in Indigo and go down to the "Announcer" submenu, what version does it show for "About Announcer v..."? It should show 1.1.2. If it shows any other version then it didn't get updated. If it does show 1.1.2, I have another copy with a slight code change that may or may not fix it (it's hard to say without actually having the same voice installed on my system).

As for your work-around, you should actually be able to remove the lone period for the text to speak. I've tested Announcer with just playing an audio file without any text to speak and it seems to work for me. The delay you're experiencing may be the initial load time for the PlaySound application (to play the audio file). If you're using Airfoil, it could also be related to delays in connecting to remote speakers. It also may be the SpeechManager taking more time to load the voice for the first time (or for the first time in a while, if it's been some time since the last use of the voice). I've also read a few posts in the Indigo forums about oddness with the OS's SoundManager on OS X 10.7, though I'm not sure that's what this is. One of the reasons I created Announcer was to increase the consistency of the delay between playing an audio file through Play Sound (with Indigo and AppleScript) and speaking the text, so I can understand the annoyance of inconsistent sound delays.

Hmmm... Did anything change? At the very least, the voice name in the voice list for the Announcer action should have changed to "Heather If you go to the Plugins menu in Indigo and go down to the "Announcer" submenu, what version does it show for "About Announcer v..."? It should show 1.1.2. If it shows any other version then it didn't get updated. If it does show 1.1.2, I have another copy with a slight code change that may or may not fix it (it's hard to say without actually having the same voice installed on my system).

It doesn't appear as though anything has changed. It is clearly version 1.1.2. The drop down listing is still showing "Com.acapelagroup.agix.voice.heather22k_hg" as the voice name. It doesn't show up as simply "Heather" as you seem to be implying. I can't be totally sure that the entire name is shown due to window width so I'm only assuming that "....heather22k_hg" is the full name. Not sure if that is going to make the difference.

As for your work-around, you should actually be able to remove the lone period for the text to speak. I've tested Announcer with just playing an audio file without any text to speak and it seems to work for me. The delay you're experiencing may be the initial load time for the PlaySound application (to play the audio file). If you're using Airfoil, it could also be related to delays in connecting to remote speakers. It also may be the SpeechManager taking more time to load the voice for the first time (or for the first time in a while, if it's been some time since the last use of the voice). I've also read a few posts in the Indigo forums about oddness with the OS's SoundManager on OS X 10.7, though I'm not sure that's what this is. One of the reasons I created Announcer was to increase the consistency of the delay between playing an audio file through Play Sound (with Indigo and AppleScript) and speaking the text, so I can understand the annoyance of inconsistent sound delays.

Nope, mine will not allow a blank field. I get a red message stating "Error validating fields....", "Please specify a message to announce". I am forced to put at least a period in the field.

As for the synchronized sound and voice, I'm sure that it's simply a delay in PlaySound loading for the first time. Until I have other options, it's not that big of a concern for now.

Nope, mine will not allow a blank field. I get a red message stating "Error validating fields....", "Please specify a message to announce". I am forced to put at least a period in the field.

Sorry, I was mistaken. I had tested not specifying any sound file, but did specify text in my testing. Not specifying a sound file works, but not specifying anything to speak will generate an error.

In any case, give this version a try. Because it has the same version number, you'll need to manually replace the currently installed Announcer plugin with this one by opening up the /Library/Application Support/Perceptive Automation/Indigo 5/Plugins folder, removing the Announcer.indigoPlugin and putting this new copy in its place, then restarting the Indigo server (or going to Plugins menu -> Announcer -> Reload). I think this version will work as I made some more changes to the code that use Mac OS X built-in functions to get the voice name rather than my previous "low-tech" coding method. Let me know if it works for you.

In any case, give this version a try. Because it has the same version number, you'll need to manually replace the currently installed Announcer plugin with this one by opening up the /Library/Application Support/Perceptive Automation/Indigo 5/Plugins folder, removing the Announcer.indigoPlugin and putting this new copy in its place, then restarting the Indigo server (or going to Plugins menu -> Announcer -> Reload). I think this version will work as I made some more changes to the code that use Mac OS X built-in functions to get the voice name rather than my previous "low-tech" coding method. Let me know if it works for you.

Sorry, this didn't work either. If it helps, I've attached the log below.

Jul 27, 2012 10:13:16 PM
Trigger Back Door Open
Announcer Announcing message "The Back Door is Open".
Announcer Error Error in plugin execution ExecuteAction:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "plugin.py", line 716, in announce
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/subprocess.py", line 462, in check_call
<class 'subprocess.CalledProcessError'>: Command '['say', '-v', u'Com.acapelagroup.agix.voice.heather22k_hq', '-o', u'/tmp/1343445196.48.aif', u'The Back Door is Open']' returned non-zero exit status 1

I must say, this plug-in works fine otherwise. I appreciate everything your trying. Can't immagine why my purchased voice doesn't work.