Rok makes newsreaders out of monkeys

IN ORDER to create a free news channel for its free mobile TV service, FreeBe TV, Rok has created electronic newsreaders using a lip-syncing Gorilla avatar.

Rather than paying humans to read the news, Rok has taken a text based news feed from the Reuters agency. Every fifteen minutes this is fed into a text to speech converter.

The software is able to mimic a range of human speech including both female and voices. The converted speech is then 'read' by avatars which employ lip synching technology so they really do look like they are talking.

With good only British sense of humour, instead of picking cartoon characters or lifelike characters, Rok decided to employ a team of monkeys including a female monkey called Jo Brown and a Gorilla called Ted Burner.

Depending on the style of the news item, a different creature is used. The resulting automated news service has been branded the Monkey News Network (MNN).

The whole gimmick has been used to promote the fact that Rok's mobile TV software can work over 2.5G (GPRS) rather than requiring a 3G connexion.

MNN forms part of the 12 free channels which can be viewed for no charge on FreeBe TV or form part of a paid-for package on Rok TV which offers 19 channels including the more traditional ITN news feed.

According to Bruce Renny, FreeBe TV has proved extremely popular thanks to the INQ and has attracted 3,500 users out of around 200,000 hits on its web site in just two weeks.

FreeBe TV even boasts the inevitable 'social network' in the form of 'You Made It' which enables users to upload clips of their rock bands playing and similar content.

Let's hope nobody tells our new owners that the entire INQ team could be replaced by talking monkeys. µ

See Also
Rok's Freebie mobile TV actually works

L'INQ
FreeBe TV

Monkey News