ASTi Innovation in Text-to-Speech Comes to SERA

Advanced Simulation Technology inc. (ASTi) has developed a major upgrade to the Simulated Environment for Realistic ATC (SERA) product line with the introduction of a new aviation English-focused, Text-to-Speech (TTS) solution. This new TTS engine was developed by ASTi's own TTS and pilot phraseology experts and will lie at the core of its SERA simulated ATC environment (SATCE) and its aviation English language training tool, Pilot Phraseology Trainer (Pilot PT).

ASTi's SERA and other SATCE systems fill the radio environment with synthetic controllers and pilots, all communicating as they do in the real world. The other traffic aircraft are also visible in out the window and on cockpit displays. While this level of immersion raises the cockpit workload to match the real world, until now, one piece of the simulation puzzle was left lacking: these synthetic pilots and controllers sounded fake.

ASTi's new TTS engine fixes this with high-fidelity pilot and controller radio voices filling the radio waves and closing the gap between simulation and reality. It allows every simulation with SERA to feature that cadence and phrasing from the real world, reinforcing correct ATC phraseology throughout every phase of flight. The system offers more than 20 different voices, with more to be added to future SERA releases, including accented English voices covering the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.