In this article
Set up announcement repository
Generate a Text-to-speech announcement file
Edit a TTS announcement

Manage announcement repository

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Manage your audio files in the centralized announcement repository, including those generated using Text-to-Speech (TTS), allowing you to use them across services like auto attendant, music on hold, and call queue announcements.

Set up a common repository, which allows different locations to use a shared announcement. Services such as Auto attendants, Call Queues, or Music On Hold can point to a common announcement in the repository.

You can update these announcements once, and apply them against all the respective instances. This feature provides a more efficient way to update auto attendants and allows you to update company-wide announcements. For example: a holiday announcement.​

You can set the announcement repository at organization level and location level.

The announcement repository option at the organization and location level provides these capabilities:​

  • Add, update, and delete the audio files​, including the generation of new audio files using Text-to-Speech.

  • Replace existing announcement files

  • Filter and sort capability to view the files​

  • Displays the file information and the feature instance that uses the announcement.​

  • Supports localization of the announcements

Set up announcement repository

Before you begin

  • You can’t delete current files that the features use.

  • You can store announcement files with up to 1-GB storage limit across all the levels.

  • Ensure that you don’t upload announcement files with duplicate names.

  • Adhere to the following requirements when uploading the audio files:

    • Audio file format:

      • .WAV files with 8 or 16 kHz, 8-bit or 16-bit mono, µ-law, A-law, or PCM

      • .WMA files with 8 or 16 kHz, 16-bit mono, µ-law, A-law, or PCM

    • Maximum audio length:

      • 2 minutes for a voice message greeting and custom callback user/group.

      • 10 seconds for user's voice portal personalized name.

      • 10 minutes for the music on hold greeting.

      • 5 minutes for all other services.

    • Minimum audio length: 5 seconds

    • Maximum audio file size: 5 MB

1

Sign in to Control Hub.

2

Go to Services > Calling > Features.

3

Go to the Announcements card and click Add New to add a new announcement file.

You can add the announcement files using one of these methods:

  • Upload—Allows you to upload a file from your system.

  • Record—Allows you to record your own custom audio file using the recording option.

  • Text-to-Speech—Allows you to generate your own custom audio file. See for details.

If you change the greeting type from Default to Custom and then switch back to Default, the custom greeting remains associated with the announcement file. As a result, you cannot delete the custom greeting immediately. To remove the greeting, first set the greeting type to Custom and upload a new announcement. Save your changes, then you can delete the old announcement file.

4

To Upload a file, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Upload tab, choose at which level you want to create the announcement file.

    • Organization—Allows you to access the file across your organization.

    • Location—Allows you to access the file only at the location specified. If you choose this option, then select the location from the drop-down.

  2. Specify a title for the announcement file in the Label field. For example: Service Outage.

    Adhere to the following validation rules for the Label field:

    • You must provide a label for the announcement.

    • Use 30 characters or fewer.

    • Do not use the following special characters: < > % $ ! + = & ) ( @ : ; # / \.

    • Do not start the label with a space or any of the restricted special characters listed above.

  3. Drag and drop the audio file or click Choose a file to upload.

  4. Click Select file to save the file.

upload file page with the options to choose level, label, and choose file from your system.

5

To Record a message, perform the following steps:

  1. Click the Record tab.

  2. Choose at which level you want to create the announcement file.

    • Organization—Allows you to access the file across your organization.

    • Location—Allows you to access the file only at the location specified. If you choose this option, then select the location from the drop-down.

  3. Specify a title for the announcement file in the Label field.

  4. Click the record icon microphone icon to record the message, and then click the play icon Play icon to listen to the recorded message.

  5. Click Select file to save the recording.

Record page with the options to choose level, label, and record the message

The uploaded or recorded audio files now list in the Announcements page. You can search and filter the files applicable for a location or organization.

Announcement files list displays under Announcement page

6

To delete an audio file, click the delete icon . To replace a file, click the audio file and click Replace file.

Replacing an announcement file allows you to use a single file and apply it to the relevant services. For example, to change the monthly specials announcement for 25 locations, you can use a single replacement file.

The announcement repository supports the following:

  • Stores the audio files without a time limit

  • Supports any number of file uploads

  • Supports localization of the announcement messages

What to do next

You can use the audio files for custom configuration in the following features:

  • Music on Hold—Select the Play custom music option to play custom music when a call is in the queue. For details, see Configure music-on-hold settings from Control Hub.

  • Auto Attendant—Select the Custom Greeting option to set a message that the callers hear when they call during business hours. For details, see Manage auto attendants.

  • Call Queue—Select the Custom announcement option to set messages and music that the callers hear when the agents are busy. For details, see Manage call queue announcements.

Generate a Text-to-speech announcement file

Before you begin

This feature efficiently and quickly generates prompts, greetings, and announcements using Text-to- Speech (TTS). It functions like a recorded WAV file, eliminating the need for manual recording.

Consider these pointers while using the Text-to-Speech feature:

  • Audio file format: .WAV files with 16 kHz, 16-bit depth, PCM

  • Language supported: English

  • Maximum text length: Text can have a maximum character length of 3000 characters.

  • Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) tags: You can include Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) tags in your Cloud Text-to-Speech requests to customize your audio output. The supported SSML tags from Voicea are:

    SSML tagAccepted AttributesExample for using the SSML tag

    say-as

    digits

    
    <say-as interpret-as="digits">345</say-as
    fraction
    <say-as interpret-as="fraction">
    3/5</say-as>
    ordinal
    
    <say-as interpret-as="ordinal">12</say-as>
    cardinal
    <say-as interpret-as="cardinal">
    12345</say-as>
    date
    <say-as interpret-as="date"
     format="us">12/03/25</say-as>
    time
    <say-as interpret-as="time">
    14:35</say-as>
    characters
    <say-as interpret-as="characters" 
    format="strict">test</say-as>
    address
    <say-as interpret-as="address">Apt. 17, 
    28 N. Whitney St., Saint Augustine Beach,
     FL 32084-6715</say-as>
    bleep
    Hello <say-as interpret-as="bleep">world</say-as>!

    prosody

    rate

    The acceptable preset values are percentage, x-slow, slow, medium, fast, and x-fast

    <prosody rate="+20%">Pronounced faster
    </prosody> 

    volume

    The acceptable preset values are: silent, x-soft, soft, medium, loud, and x-loud.

    Do not set the volume to more than 5-6dB.

    <prosody volume="5dB">Very loud statement
    </prosody>

    pitch

    This attribute increases or decreases the pitch of the voice. The acceptable presets are: percentage, x-low, low, medium, high, x-high. In this example, the pitch is increased by 15%

    <prosody pitch="+15%">High-pitched speech.
    </prosody>

    emphasis

    level

    The acceptable preset values are: none, strong moderate, and reduced.

    <emphasis level="strong">The statement is 
    pronounced loudly and slowly</emphasis>

    break

    time

    The acceptable preset values are: none (0), x-weak (250ms), weak (500ms), medium (1000ms), strong (2000ms), and x-strong (3000ms).

    Hello <break time="1500ms"></break>
     world!
    Hello <break strength="weak"></break> world!
    

  • Number of voices: Support for 2 voices to generate the prompts

1

Sign in to Control Hub.

2

Go to Services > Calling > Features.

3

Go to the Announcements card and click Add New to add a new announcement file.

4

To add the text announcement file, click Text-to-Speech tab

You can choose the level that you want to create the announcement file.

  • Organization—Allows you to access the file across your organization.

  • Location—Allows you to access the file only at the location specified. If you choose this option, then select the location from the drop-down.

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Specify the Text-to-Speech announcement file, perform the following steps:

  1. Specify a title for the announcement file in the Label field. For example: Sales business hours.

  2. Specify a file name for the announcement.

  3. Type the announcement in the text box. By default, the Language is set to English US and choose the voice option from the drop down.

Fields to specify to create a new TTS announcement file

6

Click Generate to create the preview of the announcement.

An audio player displays. Click play, to hear the newly created announcement.
7

Click Add to save the TTS file. On saving, the generated audio files now list in the Announcements page with the Text-to-speech label.

If you do not save the generated announcement, it does not list in the Announcements page.

You can search and filter the files applicable for a location or organization.

Fields to specify when creating a new TTS announcement file

You cannot generate the announcement, if you have selected the Calling region for your organization as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The data residency server for this region is currently not available, and therefore, Text-to-Speech announcements are not supported.

Edit a TTS announcement

Complete these steps to update or edit a TTS announcement file:

1

Sign in to Control Hub.

2

Go to Services > Calling > Features.

3

Click Announcements , to view the list of generated TTS file.

4

Select the audio file from the list that you wish to modify, click Update file. The update an audio file, click the audio file

The Feature instance displays the number of instances the announcement file applies. Updating an announcement file allows you to use a single file and apply it to the relevant services.

For example: to change the Sales business hours announcement for 15 locations, you can use a single replacement file.

Editing the text-to-speech announcement file

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For Text-to-Speech announcements, you can update the prompt by modifying the input text, language, or voice, and then regenerate the audio. Thus the prompts can be generated dynamically.

An administrator can create or update 150 TTS announcements per day for an organization.

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