Blizzard Challenge 2013 Workshop

Tuesday 3rd September 2013

The workshop will be at UPC in Barcelona.

Call for participation

The Blizzard Challenge 2013 Workshop is the culmination of the Blizzard Challenge 2013 which is an open speech synthesis evaluation campaign using common data sets and a large listening test. The aims of the workshop are to present the results from the listening tests and for participants in the Challenge to describe their systems.

The workshop is a satellite of Interspeech 2013

Who can attend the workshop ?

The workshop is open to all and we encourage participation from anyone interested in speech synthesis.

Who can submit a paper to the workshop ?

All participants in the Challenge are expected to submit a paper describing their entry (even if they cannot attend the workshop in person). Papers will be refereed by the Programme Committee.

Programme Committee

• Simon King, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Alan Black, Carnegie Mellon Univerisity, USA
• Keiichi Tokuda, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan
• Kishore Prahallad, IIITH, India

Paper submission instructions

• Use the Interspeech 2013 authors' kit, but your paper should be up to SIX pages in length
• Remember that Blizzard is a scientific investigation - we are all trying to understand why some techniques work better than others.
• With this in mind, please write a detailed, technical paper aimed at a specialist audience. Focus on analysis and evaluation. Try to explain WHY your system performed the way it did, and what makes it different from other systems. Explain why your system is designed in a particular way. For example, report internal evaluations you have done to select certain methods.
• Submit your paper by email to blizzard@festvox.org by the 26th July 2013 and we will notify you of acceptance within a week. If you need an earlier notification (e.g., in order to obtain travel permission from your employer), then please contact us.

Location and date

Date: Tuesday 3rd September 2013 (all day)

Venue:

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Campus Diagonal Nord

C. Jordi Girona, 1-3

08034 Barcelona

Spain

UPC campus maps

Room: Aula Master in Building A3

Metro: Line L3 to Zona Universitària

Programme

The workshop format is single-track with oral presentations from the participants in the Challenge, the organisers and invited speakers.

Each system presentation should last for a maximum of 15 minutes, plus a few minutes for questions. Presenters should bear in mind that the audience will mainly comprise speech synthesis experts; therefore presentations do not need to include extensive background material.

We will start at 9am and run until around 5pm. The provisional programme is as follows:

• 08.30 Registration desk opens (coffee should be available)
• 09.00-10.00 Welcome, introduction, summary
  • Welcome from the organisers
  • Message from sponsors (TBC)
  • Summary of the results
• 10.00-11.00 System presentations
• 11.00-11.30 Coffee break
• 11.30-12.30 System presentations
• 12.45-14.00 Lunch (in the cafeteria)
• 14.00-15.00 System presentations
• 15.00-15.30 Coffee break
• 15.30-16.30 System presentations
• 16.30 Blizzard 2014 discussion
• ~17.00 Close
• ~17.30 An informal social gathering after the workshop for drinks, TBC.

A detailed schedule will be posted once all teams have have registered for the workshop.

Practical information

Registration

Registration procedure

Please complete the registration form. The form must be submitted once per person wishing to attend. Confirmation of your place will be emailed to you later, once numbers are known. We guarantee places at the workshop for participants in the challenge, and for sponsors.

Cost

There is no charge to attend the Blizzard Workshop, thanks to the generosity of UPC and the kind assistance of Antonio Bonafonte. There may be a modest charge for catering, TBC.

Accommodation and travel

Same as SSW8

Published proceedings

The papers will be published on festvox.org