Environment
OS: Windows Server 2008x64
xM: 5.0.9 (installed using the x64 installer)
Neospeech 3.11.1 (downloaded from community site, assume it's 32 bit version)
Issue:
After installing Neospeech and configuring voice engine to use VW Kate, error message in SIP log:
TTS personality "VW Kate" is not found.
Resolution:
Option 1) Use "Microsoft Anna - English (United States)" instead of VW Kate
Option 2) Uninstall xM 5.0.9, reinstall with 32bit installer.
TL;DR
Neospeech VW Kate 32 bit, the only version supported on Windows Server 2008 64 bit, does not play nicely with xMatters 5.0.9 if you installed xMatters using the 64 bit version of the installer.
The Technical Stuff:
Basic installation steps:
Install xM notification node
Configure voice device engine to use VW Kate
Download Neospeech
Unblock the Neospeech archive (right click => properties => general tab => unblock button)
Extract Neospeech
Unblock Neospeech setup file
Run Neospeech Setup
Do license verification via winhostid and verification.neospeech.com
Copy verification.txt to proper location
Restart xMatters notification node.
According to the Install/Admin guide, this is all that is necessary, but we were unable to get xMatters to recognize VW Kate as a valid TTS personality. VW Kate would also not show up when looking at Control Panel => Text to Speech.
She WOULD show up if we looked at the 32 bit version of the Text to Speech applet:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Speech\SpeechUX\sapi.cpl
We also verified that VW Kate lived in the 32 bit registry location:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\VW Kate]
We hacked the registry a bit, and copied the VW Kate key from the 32 bit home to the 64 bit home:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\VW Kate]
Once we did that, she showed up in the Control Panel => Text to Speech section, and the xM logs stopped complaining about not being able to find her.
However, outgoing voice notifications would only play recordings - it would not read anything that should have been processed by TTS.