Blizzard Challenge 2012 Workshop
The Blizzard Challenge 2011 workshop is generously supported by Google
Friday 14th September 2012
The workshop will be at the same venue as Interspeech 2012 - the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower.
Call for participation
The Blizzard Challenge 2012 Workshop is the culmination of the Blizzard Challenge 2012 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 2012
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
Paper submission instructions
- Use the Interspeech 2012 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 3rd August 2012 and we will notify you of acceptance by 10th August 2012. 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: Friday 14th September 2012 (all day)
Venue:
Salon Ballroom
Hilton Portland & Executive Tower
Portland, OR, USA
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, including time 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 6pm. The DRAFT programme is as follows:
- 08.30 Registration desk opens
- 09.00-10.00 Welcome, introduction, summary
- Welcome from the organisers
- Message from Toshiba
- Message from Google
- 10.00-11.00 System presentations
- 11.00-11.30 Coffee break
- 11.30-12.30 System presentations
- 12.30-14.00 Lunch
- 14.00-15.00 System presentations
- 15.00-15.45 Coffee break
- 15.45-16.15 ???
- 16.15-onwards Blizzard 2012
- ~18.00 Close
- There will probably be an informal social gathering after the workshop for drink/food - details to follow.
Practical information
Registration
Registration procedure
Please mail blizzard@festvox.org by 3rd August 2012 to register. In your email, please use the subject line "Registration for the Blizzard Challenge Workshop 2012". Please send one email per person registering.
All registrations will be acknowledged. If the workshop is oversubscribed, priority will be given to participants in the 2012 Challenge and people from the two sponsors (Toshiba and Google).
Note that this year you must register for the workshop before receiving notification that your paper has been accepted. If this causes you any problems (e.g. in gaining permission to attend from your employer), please contact blizzard@festvox.org for assistance.
- If you are the presenter of a paper, please mention that in your registration email
Cost
There is no cost to attend the Blizzard Workshop this year, thanks to support from Google.
Accommodation and travel
Same as Interspeech 2012.
