The Announcer applet locates data from a specified data source and reads the data to the caller. You must first specify the type of announcement that the applet makes and then select the source of the data. The Announcer applet can also announce text in a specified voice, as well as play an uploaded audio file.
For more information, see Announcements in the Announcer applet.
Announcement
| Field | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Announcement Type | List of announcement types | The type of information that the applet will announce. Balance The Announcement Type 'Balance' is currently enabled for one account only. When Vonage Contact Center routes an interaction through a Data Announcer applet configured to announce a Balance, the announcement fails for all other accounts. The applet then routes the interaction to the applet specified in Next Applet on Failure. For more information, contact your account manager. Click Characters to announce the data, for example, a postcode, character by character. Click Date to announce the data, which must be in a recognized date format, as a date. Only works for dates after 1st January 2000. Click Time to announce the time portion of the data, which must be in a recognized date format. The time is announced as a time in 12 hour format. Click Number to announce the data as a number. Only works for whole, positive numbers, ignoring anything after a decimal point. For example, 21.9 is announced as twenty-one. Click Day of week to announce the data, which must be in a recognized date format, as a day of the week. You can only use data from a data source for a Date Announcement Type. Click Audio file (uploaded) to play a specific audio file. This will need to be uploaded in the Audio file field. Click Dynamic audio file to play the audio file that you specify in the Announce from field. For information about specifying audio files in data sources, see Using dynamic announcements. Click Text to use the text-to-speech feature and announce the specified text in the specified voice. For information about text-to-speech in announcements, see Using text-to-speech in announcements. |
| Announce from | Data Source | If you click Text in the Announcement type list, the Announce from list disappears. For the applet to successfully announce the data, the data in the Data Source must be in a recognized format for the specified announcement type. If the data is not in the required format, the applet fails. Date or time types If you specify a date or time announcement type, if dates are stored in fields other than date fields, the Announcer applet tries to interpret specified data. As long as the data is in a suitable format, the applet can announce the date or time. The Announce from field contains both IVR slot and data source names. IVR slot names are prefixed with 'IVR Slot|'. If you click Day of week in the Announcement type list, an Announce 'yesterday', 'today' and 'tomorrow' check box appears. Select the Announce 'yesterday', 'today' and 'tomorrow' check box to announce the day of the week as 'yesterday', 'today', or 'tomorrow' if appropriate and to reduce ambiguity. This feature currently uses the timezone of the data center hosting the call plan to determine whether the date to announce is 'yesterday', 'today', or 'tomorrow'. If the caller's timezone does not match that of the data center, the yesterday, today and tomorrow values might not be correct for the caller. |
| Audio file | File | If you click Audio file (uploaded) in the Announcement type list, Audio file appears. The applet will play the file you upload in this field. |
| Voice | Text | If you click Text in the Announcement type list, the Voice field appears. The voice in which the specified text is announced. You can use a combination of text, digits and data sources. The resulting value in the Voice field can contain a maximum of 50 characters. Data sources The data sources are placeholders for the data sources' values at run time. Vonage Contact Center replaces the placeholder with a value before announcing the text. Use the following format to specify a placeholder for a data source:
For example, "Lotte" or "Jacek" or " For information about text-to-speech in announcements, see Using text-to-speech in announcements. |
| Text | Text | If you click Text in the Announcement type list, the Text field appears. The text that is announced in the specified voice. You can use a combination of text, digits and data sources. The resulting value in the Text field can contain a maximum of 1500 characters. Data sources The data sources are placeholders for the data sources' values at run time. Vonage Contact Center replaces the placeholders with values before announcing the text. Use the following format to specify a placeholder for a data source:
For example, "Welcome to For information about text-to-speech in announcements, see Using text-to-speech in announcements. |
| Check announcement | Button | If you click Text in the Announcement type list, Check announcement. To test the audio, click the Play or Download buttons. VCC uses the Voice and Text values to generate audio. Data sources When generating test audio, VCC cannot replace any data sources in the Voice and Text fields with actual values. Therefore, the Voice field must contain the name of the voice to use in the announcement. VCC announces data source names in the Text field—including the '$'—as if they are text. At runtime, VCC will include data source values in the audio as expected. For information about text-to-speech in announcements, see Using text-to-speech in announcements. |
| Download announcement | Button | If you click Text in the Announcement type list, Download announcement. To test the audio, click the Play or Download buttons. VCC uses the Voice and Text values to generate audio. Data sources When generating test audio, VCC cannot replace any data sources in the Voice and Text fields with actual values. Therefore, the Voice field must contain the name of the voice to use in the announcement. VCC announces data source names in the Text field—including the '$'—as if they are text. At runtime, VCC will include data source values in the audio as expected. For information about text-to-speech in announcements, see Using text-to-speech in announcements. |
Enable barge-in | Select or clear | Select the Enable barge-in check box to enable barge-in. Clear the Enable barge-in check box to disable barge-in. Barge-in If you enable barge-in and follow this applet with a Menu Tone applet, callers can press any key on their telephone keypad to skip the rest of this announcement. The key that the caller presses is logged and used by the following Menu Tone applet. If you enable barge-in for a chain of announcements between this and the Menu Tone applet, callers will skip these announcements too. If intermediate announcements do not have barge-in enabled, the caller's keypress is not passed to the Menu Tone applet and is lost. |
Next applets
| Field | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| On success | List of available applets | The applet that the call is routed to if the Announcer successfully locates and announces the specified data. |
| On failure | List of available applets | The applet that the call is routed to if the Announcer cannot locate or announce the specified data. The applet cannot announce the data if the data is not in the required format. |