Paahk street, change heeh for the green line

It's really too bad. With the new orange line trains the T finally had a chance to have consistent automated announcements throughout the entire system: and instead they went "full Keolis commuter rail" and decided to use crappy text-to-speech instead. WTF.

What's even dumber is Frank clearly recorded the new platform announcements of "The next train to Union Square is now arriving". So why couldn't they pay him to be in the recording booth just a little longer to do the rest?

Speculation, but the fact Frank's voice is used to announced the next train to Union Square tells me that it was probably not about skimping out at the recording booth. Someone bought him there there and he voiced his lines.

What it does makes me suspect is various decision makers are not in sync. Some took the effort to contact Frank for his voice, got it recorded, and used it for various places. But other decision makers are not aware or don't care so they didn't took the effort to get Frank Ogelsby's voice installed but just stipulated to use text-to-voice to announce stations.

For long term planning settling on one unified computer synth voice would be sensible so it could be rolled out across the fleet and updated when bus stops move and new lines open and put onto the commuter rail. Of course I enjoy Frank's voice much more than any synthesized voice but relying on one person will eventually backfire

Jesus, it's like we have the Tik Tok voice doing T announcements now. I hate it.

How could it backfire? And wouldn't it by now? You're defending cost-cutting measures that just make the world a bit more sterile, and it's not like it's expensive to really record a person's voice.

Eventually Frank won't be around to record for one reason or another and we'll end up either having random words and stops be in different voices or having to replace it all then. He's 60 years old he can't keep recording new phrases forever. Also while not expensive, just think of the hassle every time the MBTA wants to move a bus stop for example, something they're going to be doing an awful lot of over the next 6 years with the Bus Network Redesign. There are literally thousands of stops

Using a computer generated voice also lets you make non-routine announcements on the fly, like voice overs announcing delays or upcoming construction work. Those already use a computerized voice.

Wonder if they could contract Frank and a third party to generate an AI voice model of him.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Adobe had (never released, demo’d in 2016) software that can do it from existing samples of a person’s speech. Like an audio deepfake, in real-time on a desktop. Was called Voco and was part of Audition.

Someone’s probably got something similar out there.

This is a lot of mental legwork to avoid the idea that they could just hire someone else when he's done-done. They could also have several people voicing them. It isn't hard to just have someone voice all the new stops as they're created.

I hate ford!!!!!! All of them die at 97,000 miles!!!!! You idiot!!!

Sounds like some futuristic voice from Wall-E. BRING BACK FRANK!

There are sensible solutions to this problem. By 2060 we could have every bus and train operated by a clone of Frank Ogelsby - with a Charlie card chip brain implant to ensure loyalty - who simply performs all of the announcements manually, thereby leading to a flawless rendition every time.

 

Just uhh… make sure keep an eye on bus 66.

Washington Square~ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It was used during the Anthony Bourdain documentary to voice some of his written words, and it was pretty controversial.

They're not even good! For whatever reason Government Center is read completely incorrect as well, as "Hath Street" or something. It caused some confusion the other day.

I submitted a complaint on the T's website. It probably won't do anything but meh this sounds really bad.

Of all the complaints they're likely fielding currently, that will not rank highly on their list for sure.

>There are sensible solutions to this problem. By 2060 we could have every bus and train operated by a clone of Frank Ogelsby - with a Charlie card chip brain implant to ensure loyalty - who simply performs all of the announcements manually, thereby leading to a flawless rendition every time.

> 

>Just uhh… make sure keep an eye on bus 66.

This is the best thing I've read all day.

Seems like there could be ethical and privacy issues with his voice being that easily replicated.

Imagine calling his bank? "Yes of course I'm the real slim sh...i mean frank oglesby. You think I'm some AI replication?"

It will if a thousand people do it.

This is the T. Not likely. They aren't suddenly going to care about the opinions of the passengers when they never have before.

You don't need to help. You can just be grumpy. It's ok.

Bye.

I did a bunch of transfers between Orange and Green recently (usually only ride Red) and the number of different voices and intonations is kind of wild. I understand that it's the cheapest option but I hate that everything sounds like a TikTok video now

✌👤 нⓔЎ ǤỮץˢ 𝔂Ⓞ𝔲 𝔴ᵒ𝓃'т ＢｅＬｉέｖᗴ ω𝕙𝐚ｔ ℍα𝕡ρⓔ𝕟𝐄𝔡 𝕆𝓝 𝓂ץ 匚Øⓜмᑌ𝕥є ţ𝐎Đａ𝕪 👣☞

That would be kicking the problem down the road. People would flip then instead of now that they changed the voice. Moving to an automated system means it’s future-proof, consistent and more importantly cheap (for the MBTA).

It's not a problem that someone may leave, or that they may die. That's life. It isn't a problem to be solver.

If you think automated things are futureproof, I don't know what to tell you. The idea of being "futureproof" is only introduced by technology itself. It's futureproof until the license runs out, or something else happens behind the scene. Why the same person voicing everything wouldn't be consistent is beyond make; makes me think you're not really looking at this from a real point of view and are tossing out clichés that come with discussions about technology.

First of all, what is this Technology you keep mentioning? Do you mean like people in tech? Do you think it’s just a blanket term to be used when discussing new inventions?

and

> It’s not a problem that someone may leave, or that they may die. That’s life. It isn’t a problem to be solver.

People are literally complaining about it in this post. This is the fundamental issue automated announcements solve. Your voice actor can pass away or leave and you will still be able to use their voice so people like those in this post don’t lose their shit.

Futureproof is the concept of having technology that does not need to be constantly updated and overhauled. Your argument is going into semantics of it being a completely hands-off system but for example licenses can be contracted in perpetuity. My point being that the automated system is future-proof unless they wish to change it. The quality will not degrade or change like actual voice actors and adding more announcements don’t require any new costs.

I agree with you that it should be unified voice. But this again is a point for automating public announcements. A new T line in 2022 can use the same voice as the current ones and also potential new developments in 2040.

I have a feeling you have a healthy distrust of “technology” which is fine but let’s not ignore the tangible benefits of improvements.

The marvelous technology of recording a voice, that's been around for a fairly long time. This issue is being overly complicated when it's simple. Just have someone voice the announcements so it's more human. It isn't difficult. That they're replacing it without word (on my end) that he wants to step down is a different but related topic.

The semantics of futureproof are very important. "Semantics" isn't a cliché to wave away a topic.

>A new T line in 2022 can use the same voice as the current ones and also potential new developments in 2040.

Why are you invested in this so strongly? This is very odd. It's like you're anxious about solving a problem that doesn't need solving.

>benefits of improvements.

This is a benefit to some bottom line, not a benefit to the service. And having someone do the voices isn't that big a deal. I'm certainly skeptical of technology is a healthy way; it has to prove useful. In this case, it proves useful to management, not designers. Or anyone, really. I have a feeling you jump way too quickly into the idea that any technological improvement is some universal good.