Blizzard Challenge 2008

For the Blizzard Challenge 2008, we plan to release two databases: UK English and Mandarin. The results will be presented at a satellite event planned for Interspeech 2008.

Read these first

• Download the Announcement of the Blizzard Challenge 2008 in PDF format.

• Read and agree to the Blizzard Challenge 2008 Rules before participating.

Data download and license agreements

• You must complete license agreements for the data, which can be found here:
  • UK English database: http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/roger_blizzard2008/
  • Mandarin database: http://www.speakit.cn/corpus/license.html

• Data download: You will be sent a username and password to download the data. These are the same for all downloads, and will be activated for each download after you have returned the corresponding license agreement.
  • UK English database: http://data.cstr.ed.ac.uk/blizzard2008/
  • Mandarin database: http://www.speakit.cn/corpus/download/

• Questionnaire:
  • Download the questionnaire, complete it, and return it by the deadline given in the Timeline: http://data.cstr.ed.ac.uk/blizzard2008/system_questionnaire.txt

Mailing list

There is a mailing list for discussion and announcements for the challenge:

 blizzard-discuss@festvox.org

Participants must join the list by sending a message to majordomo@festvox.org with the following line in the body of the message

 subscribe blizzard-discuss

Once you a member you will be able to mail messages to blizzard-discuss@festvox.org

Timeline

The timeline shown on this web page is the offical one and supercedes those shown in announcements - it is subject to change, but we will try to follow it as closely as possible. Note that we will not consider any requests from participants to change the synthetic speech submission date or the paper submission date!

  Feb 18 2008 Earliest database release date (7 weeks for voice building) 
  Apr 11 2008 Test sentences released (1 week for synthesis) 
  Apr 18 2008 Deadline for submitting synthesized speech 
  May  5 2008 Evaluation system goes live
  May 30 2008 Deadline for returning the participant questionnaire
  Jun 16 2008 End of Evaluation (2 weeks for statistical analysis)
  Jun 27 2008 Results distributed to teams (4 weeks for writing paper) 
  Jul 25 2008 Satellite workshop papers due (3 week paper review period) 
  Aug 15 2008 Notification of acceptance 
  Sep 21 2008 Presentation of results at the satellite workshop in Brisbane
              (date/location now confirmed, more details will be available later) 
  Sep 22-26 2008 Interspeech 2008 in Brisbane

Workshop

The Blizzard Challenge 2008 workshop is a satellite of Interspeech 2008.

• Date: Sunday 21st September 2008 (a full day event)
• Location: the University of Queensland's St Lucia Campus, which is reasonably close to the Interspeech venue in Brisbane, Australia.

Paper instructions

• Use the Interspeech 2008 paper template, but your paper should be up to SIX pages in length
• Submit your paper by email to blizzard@festvox.org by the due date (see Timeline)

Any questions?

• Please contact blizzard@festvox.org if you have any questions

Previous challenges

• Blizzard Challenge 2007
• Blizzard Challenge 2006 papers and results: http://www.festvox.org/blizzard/blizzard2006.html
• Blizzard Challenge 2005 papers and results: http://www.festvox.org/blizzard/blizzard2005.html