Loquendo, the world's leading innovator in speech technology, today announced that on Aug. 22 the company was awarded "Market Leader - Best Speech Engine" at the 2007 Speech Industry Awards for industry leadership and superior performance. The awards were held at the 13th Annual SpeechTEK Conference and Exposition in New York.

The "Market Leader - Best Speech Engine" award "recognizes companies that have led the industry over the past 12 months in specific categories", and acknowledges "the vendor with the best speech recognition product as it relates to text-to-speech, speech-to-text, speech search, IVR, and speaker verification". Special consideration is given to speed, accuracy, and reliability. The winners are selected by the editors of Speech Technology magazine alongside an independent panel of industry analysts and experts."

According to Speech Technology Magazine analysts, the prize was awarded for Loquendo's "experience with international markets and the multitude of languages that make up those markets, which is reflected in its speech engines. It's that international expertise that also makes Loquendo the strongest competitor in a corporate environment that is quickly going global. "It's clearly the best choice for international applications," says one analyst. Loquendo also ranked very high in innovation, as analysts noted that the company's extensive research has given it much more natural-sounding voices than those of other vendors."

The SpeechTEK 2007 award recognizes Loquendo's position at the leading edge of the speech technology market. "We are particularly proud of this result," - said Marcello Caruti Antonelli, Loquendo President and CEO. "It is a clear acknowledgement of our strong and enduring commitment to excellence and innovation in the development of our technologies and products, as well as of our superior customer focus and commitment in each of the many different market segments".

Loquendo speech engines (Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR, Loquendo Automotive Solution, Loquendo Speaker Verification) are available on all major platforms, from telephony server to embedded, with the same core engine and the same range of highly expressive voices. They have been adopted worldwide in every market, including Carriers, Banking and Insurance, Public Administrations, Government Agencies, Universities, enterprise and the media, public transport, in-car and portable navigation devices, educational applications, applications for the differently able, flight simulators and robots, serving millions of customers worldwide everyday.

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 MRCP, VoiceXML and CCXML Platforms are high-quality, high-performance technologies that guarantee systems integrators the best solutions in 21 languages with 51 voices.

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

For more information about Loquendo, and to hear demos of all the Loquendo voices, go to www.loquendo.com