Way With Words, a leading speech to text provider, is expanding its current range of services as demand for building language and dialect libraries rises for technology companies worldwide.  

Specialising in English-language dialects, the company has been approached by several large tech companies in industries including call centres, finance and telephony to help create and improve their English language speech to text models and, more recently, other local languages such as Afrikaans. The new libraries will help global organisations provide improved speech to text service support for their customers using their own technology.  

This brand-new custom service offers language modelling transcription solutions for technologies that use speech to text and require assistance to deliver accurate voice to text language processing. The service is also of value to companies looking to build specific repositories of languages, dialects or subjects for the purposes of speech to text products or services. 

Way With Words typically provides bespoke human transcription solutions worldwide, including audio and video transcribing and, more recently, a captioning service. 

With many big players entering the market with AI transcription and speech to text services, Way With Words has been praised by clients for its attention to detail and absolute accuracy, something that AI technologies in the field have so far failed to replicate.  

The company is making a significant investment in a new workflow platform that will provide an even faster and more precise transcription platform using human transcribers. With such an increased demand for language libraries and speech to text services from clients around the world, Way With Words is exploring other applications for its solution and researching new ways to combine technology and AI without losing accuracy or attention to detail. 

Adam Kossowski, Chief Executive Officer at Way With Words says, “Right now many specialist technologies are looking to address the accuracy of their speech to text functionality for specific industries or use cases. At Way With Words, we are realigning our business to adopt a solution that we feel provides a new space for people to continue to work with these technologies to ensure the best of both worlds for years to come.” 

To find out more about Way With Words, visit https://waywithwords.net

About
Way With Words provides 99%+ accurate transcription for audio or video. Rated as one of the best transcription companies globally, Way With Words ensures that all clients receive quality transcription produced by transcribers who are selected, vetted and thoroughly trained in line with the Company’s strict criteria. Way With Words also offers custom transcription solutions to meet any bespoke needs, from a brief interview session to ongoing B2B transcribing of thousands of hours.

Bhagwan Gave Me This Life The return of a HIT play, in Hindi.

Bhagwan Gave Me This Life was written and directed by well-known theatre veteran Vivian Moodley and is brilliantly performed by Pranesh Maharaj.

Billed as a Hindi play, it is performed in the unique Durban patois that developed from Hindi, with smatterings of English and isiZulu. Set in Inanda in 1981, the drama focusses on the life reflections of a widower Balram. “Vivian had a script in his hand that he wanted me to read. I lunged at it, to get back to him a day later and say that I'll do it. That's when he gave me the ultimate twist in this production: He wanted me to perform it in Bhojpuri (Nataalie Hindi). The Producers at the time were not convinced that a theatre piece in Hindi, in this day and time, would ever work. To be honest, I was not convinced either. Then Vivian and I got to carving this piece of art and four weeks later it was ready to open. That full house and standing ovation on the opening night is what gave us hope. Hope that this kind of serious theatre has a place in this country and in this world. We made some promises back then about taking the play around... well, we are back.” - Pranesh Maharaj. 

The sight of those wood and iron, or tin houses as they were known, evoke strong feelings for many people. The corrugated walls, wooden doors with patterned glass panels, sash windows and the verandas with lush coastal vegetation around them speak of a bygone era, although many of those same houses are still standing today. We find a disconsolate Balram, snoozing on an upholstered car seat, propped up against the wall. He is not sleeping peacefully – his dreams recall the tragic dramas of his life and when he awakens, it is to find himself still alive – and alone. Loneliness is the biggest enemy that elderly people have to overcome – and when they have had a life surrounded by family members and the community, it can be a hard pill to swallow. We watch Balram struggle as an ageing man, portrayed with great sensitivity and authenticity by the much younger Pranesh, go through some of the daily rituals that help his day pass. He prays by the shrine, fills the upturned wheel rim with water for the birds and takes a nip of cane spirits from a small bottle hidden in a safe box. There are other treasures in that box and the sight of them bring to mind memories of his youth. The anklets with bells and the silver headdress that were worn by his wife, recall his first meeting when he was a shy young man in the marriage market. With amazing skill and expertise, Pranesh paints the portraits of the eccentric aunts that acted as marriage brokers, as well as playing the entire family of characters who attend the wedding.

Pranesh play out the male and female roles with an adroit combination of hilarious lip syncing and the use of his own tuneful and powerful voice. Most impressive are the tabla-like rhythms that he extracts from an old paint tin in his pursuit of happiness.We are carried along on the wave of the story, a story that, says Vivian, is a composite picture of the community he grew up in and and inspiration that stem from various 'Indian' communities within the Greater Durban area. The tale of the two brothers, the woman abused by her alcoholic husband, the grandparents longing for a child – all are grist to the mill of the story teller. Pranesh shoulders all the roles, giving each their weight and value, teasing out the comedic lines and giving full range to the dramatic tragedy that serves as the denouement. The human condition can be described as the unalterable part of humanity that is inherent and innate to human beings and is not dependent on factors such as gender, race or class. It includes concerns such as the meaning of life, the search for gratification, the sense of curiosity, the inevitability of isolation, or awareness regarding the inescapability of death. 

While Bhagwan (God) gave me this Life is almost 90 % Hindi, it was possible to follow the characters and their ranging emotions due to Pranesh’ expert acting and musicianship – ask anyone who has watched the piece already. One of the objects of this very worthwhile project is to take pride in mother tongue and to preserve its use, so ‘culture specific’ is to the point, yet it contains much laughter and 'edge of the seat' drama. Following back to back successes with lengthy runs at various venues in 2014/15, the play has been revived. So Come watch it at the Durban North Conference Centre on 02, 03, 04 & 05 May 2019. Tickets are R150 per person at COMPUTICKET online or at Shoprite / Checkers. 

Alphology is proud to announce its new website of the same title. This is a new Learner Teacher Support Material website that uses crossword puzzles as a means of teaching. It embraces the concept of Mindful Teaching=Mindful Learning which emphasizes that in order for effective learning to manifest, learners must be given the opportunity to learn while playing.

Alphology has recognized the fact that children/learners are not given the opportunity to play while at schools and when they do play at home, they do this excessively leading them to engage in truant behaviour. Gone are the days when children used to play as they are supposed to do. Children/learners learn better when they play and this website has Learner/Teacher Support Material for Maths, Setswana, Zulu, Ndebele and Xitsonga with more to come. Alphology has effectively been launched and is now live at http://alphology.co.za.

Parents and teachers are advised to get the learning material for themselves and children as this will help them improve dramatically.

The material is also suitable for the ordinary man in the street, more especially taxi drivers and those who want to preserve their language.

Many experts have hailed the materials as being new and innovative and that it will be warmly welcomed by the community as the first of its kind

Summary: On the heels of SAA being named “Best Airline in Africa” by Skytrax for its 12th consecutive year, SAA has also been awarded “Best Airline in Africa” and “Best Business Class to Africa” by Business Traveler.  

Johannesburg. 15 January 2015 – South African Airways (SAA) is proud to receive, once again, both “Best Airline in Africa” and “Best Business Class to Africa” awards from top US travel magazine, Business Traveler.  

Readers of the US-based magazine are world-class experts in the business of travel who know quality when they experience it.  South African Airways were selected among a variety of top travel products and services.  The awards were presented to SAA at a ceremony held at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, CA on 8 January 2015. This recognition comes on top of Skytrax naming SAA “Best Airline in Africa” for the 12th consecutive year.  

"It is a distinguished honour to receive these awards and we thank all Business Traveler’s readers who chose us as their favourite airline in Africa,” says Nico Bezuidenhout, SAA Acting Chief Executive.  

“This further demonstrates SAA’s commitment to excellence and reinforces our belief, in keeping with our Long-Term Turnaround Strategy, that an outstanding customer experience is what makes a great airline.”  

South African Airways offers the most flights from the U.S. to South Africa with daily non-stop service from New York-JFK Airport and daily direct service from Washington, DC-Dulles Airport to Johannesburg, South Africa.  

About South African Airways (SAA) South African Airways[Link to http://www.flysaa.com] (SAA) is the leading carrier in Africa, serving 57 destinations, in partnership with SA Express, SA Airlink and its low cost carrier, Mango, within South Africa and across the continent, and ten intercontinental routes from its Johannesburg hub. It is a member of the largest international airline network, Star Alliance. SAA’s core business is the provision of passenger airline and cargo transport services together with related services, which are provided through SAA and its wholly owned subsidiaries: SAA Technical; Mango its low cost carrier; and Air Chefs, the catering entity of SAA. SAA is the winner of the 'Best Airline in Africa’ Award in the regional category for twelve consecutive years and the winner of ‘Service Excellence Africa’ for three years. Mango and SAA hold the number one and number two successive spots as South Africa’s most on - time airlines.  

For more information contact:

SAA Group Tlali Tlali, Spokesperson (Manager: Media Relations)

Tel: +27 11 978 2298 082 333 3880

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

The end of the year is marked by the termination of lease agreements and the increasing traffic of accommodation seekers on classified ads websites. As the traffic increases internet fraudsters see an opportunity and start creating false advertisement to take advantage of desperate seekers and rob them their money. These criminals put the life of internet users in danger.

Red Diamond World in partnership with various police stations has come up with a solution to combat these crimes, especially in student areas and is dedicated to bringing this negative exposure to an end. The company's main protected areas at the moment will be Hatfield, Sunnyside and Arcadia in Pretoria and internet users looking for accommodation or anything advertised online are advised to use the Red Diamond World Ads directory to find what they need since this web application only displays verified ads, supplied only by agencies which will make it easier to assist the users should the user be cheated online.

The company urges internet users to be very careful when searching for flats and apartments on the web. Users should be conscious of the fact that anybody post ads on other online advertising websites, allowing criminals to post anything and exposing you to crimes. The number of internet fraud victims is worrying and has been mainly a result of the numerous flexible and popular ads websites everyone runs to when they have a need.

On Red Diamond World Ads advertisements are sent to the website admin by companies and agencies the company has contracted with, which include real estate agencies around Hatfield, Sunnyside and Arcadia. No user has the ability to post any advertisement and no individual or person is allowed to contract with the company to publish ads on the web app, the company only works with other companies and agencies.

We are confident that this will reduce the number of internet fraud victims. Red Diamond World Ads will protect internet users and we encourage students in Pretoria to use it when searching for accommodation.

Website: rediamondworld.com

Your brand has value. You might not be sure how much or where it comes from, but it still has value. This value usually relates to the products, people, and reputation surrounding it. Brands can, however, be diluted and lose value when customers feel annoyed, cheated or disappointed – when the brand fall of its pedestal and is reduced to “just another ordinary” one.

With the help of media intelligence providers, like ROi Africa, your brand’s value can be monitored and corrective actions can be planned pro-actively, all by knowing what the public and media think and feel about you.

Besides Lance Armstrong, who is the one sporting brand that came crashing down during the last two years – from a R21 million per year icon to a shamed brand liability? Oscar Pistorius!

This famous Paralympic athlete, who even competed successfully against able-bodied athletes and was seen as a role model for people facing severe challenges in life, was recently sentenced to five years in prison on a charge of culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend, model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp.

His murder trial caused a media frenzy, in one hour alone (sentencing hour) ROi Africa saw over 110,000 unique items published in over 200 million platforms.

It was a landmark case in more than one way. A court application by media houses allowed for live coverage in the form of Tweets directly from the court room. On the top-yielding day of the trail, the verdict, over 400,000 unique items were reported mentioning the words “Oscar Pistorius” or “Oscar Trial”.

Tonya Khoury, the Managing Director of ROi Africa was the first media intelligence provider to start delivering reliable statistical analysis of media coverage worldwide, becoming a regular face on Channel 199 and SABC Newsroom.  

Mathapelo Matjokana, the producer of the Afternoon Talk with Ashraf Garda Show on SAFM, was one of the first media to use ROi Africa’s statistics on a regular basis, says that, “With the arrival of these statistics and analysis people were able to understand, for example, the Oscar Trial better as complex legal matters were broken down into simpler terms. It also allowed us to follow major events like these through a bird’s eye view with these analyses.”

“The Oscar Pistorius brand – like any other business brand – had to cope with the effect of an incorrect decision and the aftermath thereof. In the media coverage of the trial, it was evident how the media’s reporting affected Pistorius’ brand value. One can, as an example look at his sponsorships that have declined to zero. Well-known brands like Nike, Oakley, Thierry Mugler and BT have suspended sponsoring Pistorius, Nike came under fire after a 2011 billboard campaign with the wording'the bullet in the chamber” which proved to be almost prophetical.

The brands were mentioned regularly during the trial and jokes featured on social media which also negatively impacted Nike, resulting in the suspension of large sponsorships for Pistorius” says Khoury.

When looking at all media (news and social) over the past 100 days and in all languages, these four brands received the following publicity, in relation to Oscar Pistorius.

As the former sponsor with the biggest percentage of media mention, Nike’s coverage during the past 100 days can be broken down, the highest percentages of publicity was achieved on 14, 15 and 16 September, with all reporting on Nike dropping their sponsorship contract with Pistorius formally after he was found guilty by Judge Masipa and thus became a brand liability. These are insights that can be extremely valuable for any brand.  

“With these mentions, sponsors like Nike have gained publicity, but for the wrong reasons, which made Pistorius a brand liability. His brand value thus impacted negatively on a few other brands,” Khoury adds. According to media reports Oscar Pistorius was once the second most popular athlete, after Usain Bolt, but that is history now. During and after the case, he actually received more publicity compared to athletes that have experienced some kind of crisis in their careers,” she adds.  

OJ Simpson: 64.75%
Usain Bolt: 18.42%
Lance Armstrong: 9.04%
Tiger Woods: 7.78%

As with any other brand, ROi Africa also looked at aspects like who and what were mentioned most with Pistorius, which is also an indication of his brand value. Smart Technology, managed by knowledgeable analysts enabled them to generate new angles and comparisons,like these,to keep the media and readers engaged.

“This technology, combined with personal input, identified key trends across all media platforms worldwide - over 2000 print titles that are taken from hard copy to digital format - and converted using the finest global reading technology. Broadcast media is converted from the verbal word to text within 2 seconds of it being aired. Immediate coverage is drawn from an excess of 200 million platforms in online and social media,” explains Khoury.

She adds, “Keeping track of what is being said about a company or brand, their industry of operations or specific topics of interest, and even their competitors can provide a much-needed competitive advantage,” adds Khoury.

Media intelligence on key competitors, main issues in the industry, top journalists reporting on your brand, top-yielding regions, comparative timelines and trends results in valuable instant insight. The successful use of media intelligence during crises depends on the severity of the crisis – in some cases most of the damage cannot be undone, but can be managed – as in the Oscar Pistorius Trial. But on the other hand one wonders what the influence of media coverage was on the eventual outcome of the case,” she says. "In the corporate world one would have a much better chance of using media intelligence information to minimise the onslaught of a crisis.

In conclusion, what Google (as probably the most prominent search engine for online media) says about you has become an important part of brand value management in a digital age – and it is better to monitor and analyse media coverage in your brand than being surprised by an onslaught by a crisis.

FOR MORE INFORMATION  

Tonya Khoury: 073 874 5377
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Twitter: @tonyaroi / @roiafrica
Facebook: Facebook.com/roiafrica
Website: www.roiafrica.com

{pp}Marion Scher has been one of South Africa's top freelance journalists for the last 21 years, with years of experience in the field of media and the written word.

{pp}I spend a lot of time rewriting other people’s work or worse trying to decipher press releases and editing reams of paper which make up reports. And then I meet up with other freelancers who complain of how quiet it is right now and I wonder?

{pp}As early as 1945 people started to realise that in order to write effectively and get their message across they needed to write in language that everyone could understand.