AI speech recognition company, VoiceInteraction, has been developing pioneering speech processing technologies since 2008.
Underpinned by their automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine, VoiceInteraction provides broadcasters, contact centers, companies and institutions from all sectors with real-time live closed captioning, transcription, dictation, media generation and speech analytics services. All in over 40 languages.
With such a data intensive product comes challenges at the infrastructure level. When VoiceInteraction started to expand their business into the APAC market, it became clear that they would need to transition away from their existing on-premises infrastructure deployment. But as João Neto, CEO of VoiceInteraction explains, public cloud solutions were not a viable alternative.
“Our solutions demand significant computational resources and traditional public cloud solutions were unsustainable in terms of pricing and lack of control over the infrastructure”, shared Neto.
VoiceInteraction were faced with a dilemma: how to maintain the same level of quality and control they were getting on premises but from an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider.
“The account manager at servers.com understood our specific needs and requirements. This approach ensured that we would find a solution that aligned with our objectives.”
“One of the biggest challenges faced by the media and broadcast industry is the shift towards cloud-based media production,” explains Neto.
“While the move has its benefits, using public cloud solutions can quickly become prohibitively expensive, especially for computationally intensive tasks like live closed captioning and real-time monitoring with media generation.
“Broadcasters are having trouble acquiring hardware in terms of value and waiting times, further driving the need for viable cloud solutions. Finding the right balance between cost-effectiveness and performance is key to ensuring we can deliver a sustainable solution to our clients”.
Whilst VoiceInteraction’s on-premises ASR technology clearly set them apart from competitors, they needed to meet the growing demand for cloud-based media production head on. Especially given plans to expand operations into the APAC market, where VoiceInteraction is currently carrying out proof-of-concepts (PoC) with multiple over-the-air (OTA) and over-the-top (OTT) companies.
But these companies were not ready to purchase the hardware required to run VoiceInteraction’s on-premises ASR technology. So, to reach these new markets, VoiceInteraction needed to adjust the deployment strategy of their product offering and launch their suite of products under a SaaS model (with the option for customers to purchase the hardware later).
To support this transition at the infrastructure level, VoiceInteraction needed to migrate their on-premises servers to an IaaS solution.
“We transitioned away from on-premises infrastructure primarily to meet the preferences of our clients in Asia, who were looking for our ASR technology as a SaaS model,” explains Neto.
“While we were accustomed to providing on-premises licensing in markets like the United States and Brazil, it became clear that a SaaS approach was more desirable in certain regions. This also meant that ensuring our service maintained the same level of quality and control was non-negotiable”.
But through this process, public cloud infrastructure failed to provide VoiceInteraction with a sustainable business solution. Given the computational demands of ASR, VoiceInteraction needed a cloud edge computing solution that would provide more control over their hardware.
“servers.com’s support has exceeded our expectations, as their commitment to customer satisfaction shines through.”
After carefully evaluating various hosting solutions, VoiceInteraction chose bare metal hosting. The decision was made for several reasons.
The first reason was control.
servers.com provided VoiceInteraction with a bare metal solution that overcame the limitations of traditional cloud offerings by granting direct access and control over physical hardware components. This level of control ensured that VoiceInteraction was able to fine-tune its infrastructure to meet the specific needs of its clients.
The second reason was performance.
By opting for a bare metal solution, VoiceInteraction was able to implement cloud-edge computing strategies, reducing latency for their clients by processing data closer to the source. “This client-centric approach to infrastructure management not only enhanced the performance of our services but has also fostered a greater sense of trust and reliability among our customer base,” said Neto.
The third reason was access to data centers in key locations around the world.
“servers.com offered excellent data center location flexibility, allowing us to deliver edge computing solutions to our clients effectively,” Neto continues.
But the biggest driver of all was support – from humans.
“We first connected with the servers.com team at the NAB show in New York. Their genuine interest in understanding our business model stood out from the start. They actively collaborated with us, identifying our priorities and tailoring solutions to ensure we could deliver quality services to our customers at competitive prices”.
“The account manager at servers.com understood our specific needs and requirements. This approach ensured that we would find a solution that aligned with our objectives.
“Our experience with servers.com support has been great from the start. We had the opportunity to meet the account executive in person and they took the time to discuss our requirements and understand our needs.
“Once we decided to proceed with their services, servers.com set up our environment quickly, and we were able to move forward and meet our clients’ requests.
“Since then, our services have been running smoothly, thanks to the reliable support provided by servers.com. They have proven to be readily available whenever we’ve needed assistance, and they adapt to our preferred communication channels, in this case, Microsoft Teams.
“servers.com’s support has exceeded our expectations, as their commitment to customer satisfaction shines through”.
“[servers.com] actively collaborated with us, identifying our priorities and tailoring solutions to ensure we could deliver quality services to our customers at competitive prices.”
As media consumption continues to shift from traditional to non-linear content, media production will also need to shift to the cloud. It’s a challenge but one that VoiceInteraction has seen great success in overcoming.
VoiceInteraction has successfully implemented their product under a SaaS model to offer real-time speech recognition to clients in Singapore, Australia, and beyond. And now with servers.com’s support, they can confidently ensure that their services will maintain the same quality standards as with an on-premises infrastructure deployment.
“servers.com was the clear choice for us, providing the reliability, control, and flexibility we needed to successfully transition to a SaaS model”, concludes Neto.
