Big Sky provides Centigram's TruVoice as text-to-speech upgrade for Lotus Notes-based Remark! unified messaging system.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 1995--Big Sky Technologies Inc. Tuesday announced that Centigram Communications Corp.'s TruVoice Version 5.0 is now available as a new text-to-speech e-mail reading option for Big Sky's Remark! MessageCenter.

MessageCenter is a unified messaging system that enables Lotus Notes users to manage their Notes e-mail, voice and fax messages from their desktop or any touch-tone telephone. Users can now call into MessageCenter and listen to their Notes e-mail messages using TruVoice, which converts any text to highly intelligible, natural-sounding speech.

The advanced features of TruVoice uniquely address the special requirements of e-mail reading. For example, TruVoice takes e-mail messages containing improper punctuation or abbreviations with more than one possible meaning and reads the e-mail correctly after evaluating the context of these elements within a message.

For Remark! MessageCenter users, TruVoice compensates for the shortcomings of even poorly prepared e-mail messages and delivers their content in a voice that is clear and comprehensible.

"The TruVoice text-to-speech option sounds incredibly human-like," said Dale Whitney, president of Connecticut-based NetImage, a Big Sky Certified Reseller. "The clear, natural-sounding conversion of text-to-speech makes the benefits of Remark! MessageCenter easy to demonstrate. After our customers listen to Notes e-mail spoken by TruVoice, they're convinced that Remark! MessageCenter provides a practical solution for their messaging requirements."

In addition to providing superior quality text-to-speech conversion, TruVoice presents a more scalable solution for large installations. Running on Natural MicroSystems' voice processing platform, MessageCenter with TruVoice can now play back up to 24 ports of simultaneous text-to-speech on a single computer.

Other versions of text-to-speech offered with MessageCenter support no more than four simultaneous channels.

"We are happy that Big Sky is delivering our premium text-to-speech in one of the first full-featured unified messaging applications," said Dr. Bathsheba Malsheen, Centigram's Technology Business Unit general manager. "By including TruVoice with Remark! MessageCenter, Big Sky takes Centigram's text-to-speech technology and enhances user communication with the most intuitive, intelligent text-to-speech capabilities available."

TruVoice is available as a stand-alone software option or can be purchased as part of a bundle with Natural MicroSystems' voice processing products.

TruVoice works with Natural MicroSystems' Alliance Generation and DIVA products. When purchased as part of a complete system, TruVoice can be added to Remark! MessageCenter for less than $700 per port.

Remark! MessageCenter was developed by Big Sky using Lotus Phone Notes, Lotus' development environment that enables the addition of voice and provides telephony access to Notes applications. In addition to MessageCenter, TruVoice is now also available for any other applications developed with Phone Notes.

Centigram Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:CGRM), with headquarters in San Jose, Calif., is a leading provider of communications solutions. Centigram licenses TruVoice, its patented text-to-speech software, and solves communications problems by integrating voice, data and facsimile and providing access to its multimedia information through a telephone or PC.

Centigram is located at 91 East Tasman Drive, San Jose, Calif. 95134. Phone [phone], fax [phone].

San Diego-based Big Sky Technologies Inc. is a leading supplier of software products that enable workgroups to integrate voice and telephony into their networked business applications. The company's voice and telephony products are used successfully in many markets, including financial services, telecommunications, insurance, health care, manufacturing, utilities and government. -0-

NOTE: Remark! is a registered trademark and MessageCenter, LanClient, PhoneClient and MultimediaClient are trademarks of Big Sky Technologies Inc. Lotus and Lotus Notes are registered trademarks and Phone Notes and Notes are trademarks of Lotus Development Corp. Centigram and TruVoice are registered trademarks of Centigram Communications Corp. All other product names and trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Big Sky Technologies, San Diego 

Christie Aguilar, 619/496-2100, Ext. 1289

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