The ATCA Bulletin 2002 - Corporate Corner Submissions
January
Speech Technology Research Ltd. (STR) of Victoria, Canada has been awarded a $1 million contract by NAV CANADA to expand the existing Pilot Automatic Telephone Weather Answering Service (PATWAS). PATWAS is an advanced communications system that provides up-to-date weather information to pilots for use in flight planning. Both the prototype system (introduced in Ontario in 1999), and the new system are based on STR's broadcast-quality text-to-voice product, called StarCasterâ. The new PATWAS systems will be deployed at NAV CANADA's nine new Flight Information Centres (FICs) across Canada, beginning in Fall 2002. Improvements to the PATWAS prototype include: text-to-voice in both French and English, a browser-based graphical user interface for system support at FICs, processing of pilot requests for information over the telephone using speech recognition or the touch-tone keypad, ability to process new types of aviation weather information, and rapid delivery of requested information using broadcast-quality voice or a fax-back option. The PATWAS system will support up to 15 voice lines and 4 fax lines simultaneously, each reporting different information in response to pilots' requests. This will provide pilots with access to essential flight planning information, while allowing NAV CANADA Flight Service Specialists to focus more completely on value-added interpretative and consultative briefings.
February
Speech Technology Research (STR) Ltd. will continue to provide services for the New York VOLMET Automation System in a renewed maintenance agreement with the FAA. The VOLMET system was installed in 1999 at the Automated Flight Service Station in Islip, New York, and it automatically generates a broadcast of Aviation Weather information (Terminal Forecasts, Hourly Reports and SIGMETs), using text-to-speech technology. The system incorporates STR's speech-concatenation technology to provide two 20-minute aviation weather broadcasts every hour, around the clock. The New York VOLMET Automation System shares the same HF radio frequencies with STR's Gander VOLMET System (in Gander, Newfoundland), which was installed for Nav Canada (formerly Transport Canada) in 1994. The VOLMET broadcasts alternate so that the system in New York produces a broadcast during the first 20 minutes of every half-hour, while the system in Gander produces the broadcast for the final 10 minutes of every half-hour period. The two systems combine to produce a continuous VOLMET Broadcast of U.S. and Canadian weather information, which is monitored by aircraft in flight over the North Atlantic Ocean and Eastern North America.
March
Speech Technology Research Ltd. (STR) has recently completed training for its' sixth NAV CANADA TVGS PATWAS installation. The Pilot Automatic Telephone Weather Answering Service, or PATWAS, provides up-to-date aviation weather information to pilots on up to seven telephone lines simultaneously. STR's Project Manager, Stephen Eady, successfully conducted training for TVGS PATWAS in Quebec City, Quebec on Oct 12th. Earlier this year, training was conducted by STR for the same system in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The addition of these two systems completes NAV CANADA's deployment of PATWAS across Canada. Other systems are also operational in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto.
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