[October 29, 2003] STR-SpeechTech Selects Telephony Cards From PIKA Technologies STR-SpeechTech Ltd. has selected telephony cards from PIKA Technologies to enable the voice and fax services required for NAV CANADA's new Pilot Automatic Telephone Weather Answering Service (PATWAS). PATWAS, a NAV CANADA intellectual property, is an advanced communications system that provides pilots with easy access to essential weather information. NAV CANADA is currently installing systems developed by STR in its Flight Information Centres (FIC) across Canada. STR selected PIKA PrimeNet PCI T1 cards because of the innovative all-on-board telephony services that are available on a single card. PrimeNet enables both the voice and fax services. The system delivers an interactive voice response (IVR) feature, which is an easy-to-use and responsive voice menu navigator. Text-to-speech (TTS) is offered in French and English. Users can request information using speech recognition or touch tones on the phone pad, with rapid delivery of the requested information via broadcast-quality voice or fax-back. Additionally, the system offers a web browser-based graphic user interface for system support. PATWAS supports up to 15 voice lines and 4 fax lines simultaneously, each providing different information in response to pilots' requests. "PIKA Technologies was able to deliver the fax option and voice services on a single card, which no other vendor was able to do for us," said Craig Dickson, President, STR. "Additionally, PIKA Technologies' stability in the telephony industry for over 16 years was important in our selection criteria. It's been easy working with their technical support team. If we had a question, we simply called them and got a rapid, professional response." "We are pleased to recognize STR-SpeechTech as our customer," said Terry Atwood, Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Care, PIKA Technologies. "Building strong relationships with every customer is paramount to our philosophy. We don't make our customers wade through a plethora of support levels when they need technical support. We are pleased to provide our customers with innovative voice and fax cards and second-to-none technical support day in and day out." [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]