Turin, Italy and Santa Cruz, Calif. - Loquendo, the global speech technology company, and SchoolMessenger, a leading provider of notification solutions for education, today announced the selection of Loquendo speech technology for SchoolMessenger’s innovative line of notification products.

With more than 6,000 school districts, public schools, colleges, universities, private schools and other educational facilities using its notification products, SchoolMessenger is recognized as a trusted partner for helping educators communicate with parents, staff and students. Whether sending a routine notification about student absence, or broadcasting a rapid alert in response to an emergency, school leaders need to know that their message is heard.

"Personalizing messages with text-to-speech has always been important to our customers," said Howard Wood, Executive Vice President overseeing research and development at Reliance Communications, the parent company of SchoolMessenger. "We tested several speech packages as part of our most recent upgrade, and chose Loquendo TTS because the quality and realism is unmatched".

Loquendo TTS is used to personalize messages across the line of SchoolMessenger notification products, including applications for K-12 in which a parent can stay informed about important topics related to the academic performance, attendance and safety of their students. Data-driven voice messages using Loquendo TTS are an important component of SchoolMessenger’s blended messaging approach which includes recorded voice, text-to-speech, SMS text messaging and email to reach a wide audience in a short period of time with personalized communications.

"Loquendo is delighted to be collaborating with SchoolMessenger," said Rosanna Duce, Loquendo Vice President International Sales. "Their leadership in school notification, and the impact they are making on academic performance and school safety, provide an excellent venue in which to showcase the expressive language capabilities of Loquendo TTS."

Loquendo TTS is the only speech product on the market with an emotional component, known as Gilded TTS, delivering truly lifelike synthetic speech to make any speech application natural-sounding, expressive and easy to use. Loquendo TTS is available in many languages, currently including: U.S. and U.K. English, Castilian Spanish and Catalan, Mexican, Brazilian, Argentinean, Chilean, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Canadian French, Dutch, Greek, Swedish, Mandarin Chinese, Polish and Turkish - in both male and female voices - and the language portfolio is continually expanding.

About Loquendo - Vocal Technology and Services
With over 30 years experience in speech technology, Loquendo is at the forefront of the global speech market. Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR, Loquendo Speaker Verification and the Loquendo VoiceXML and CCXML Platform are high-quality, high-performance technologies that guarantee systems integrators the best solutions whatever the application.

Loquendo is the only speech technology vendor that provides a complete product line from desktop PCs and telephony servers to navigation and handheld devices, guaranteeing the same portfolio of languages and the same core engine in these environments.

Many enterprises and carriers worldwide have recognized the Loquendo difference, advanced technologies that power millions of calls every day in telecommunications and enterprise markets across the globe.

Loquendo is a Telecom Italia company headquartered in Turin, Italy, with offices in the U.S., Spain, Germany and France, and a worldwide network of partners. For more information about Loquendo, and to hear demonstrations of all Loquendo voices, visit www.loquendo.com.

About SchoolMessenger
SchoolMessenger, a division of Reliance Communications, Inc., is a leading provider of notification solutions for education. Its family of products, which include desktop, server and hosted solutions, are in use in more than 6,000 districts and schools, connecting educators with millions of parents, students and staff everyday. Founded in 1999, the privately-funded company is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California.

For more information, please visit www.schoolmessenger.com.