Review of 2023 & Plans for 2024
Blog from Michael Berger, Co-founder & CTO, and Gregor Hofer, Co-founder & CEO
As we start the New Year, we’d like to take this time to give an update on Speech Graphics and Rapport in 2023 and to share some of our exciting plans for 2024!
Speech Graphics has continued to grow, winning awards and gaining international attention, while Rapport has been harnessing the rise of Generative AI to roll out powerful new features for our enterprise clients.
Speech Graphics
New Releases
Since last year we are very proud that our audio-driven facial animation has been used in over 80 active AAA productions!
In our latest case study, you can read about how the team at Avalanche Software used SGX to localize Warner Bros. Games’ Hogwarts Legacy across 8 different languages. It was a real privilege to be part of one of the biggest games of the year, and we received fantastic feedback from the team at Avalanche Software:
“We are proud of the groundbreaking results achieved in “Hogwarts Legacy,” and the success of this project has set a new standard for procedural facial animation in the gaming industry. Speech Graphics’ focus on character design intricacies has delivered high-quality character fidelity and language inclusivity without compromising on animation quality.”
You may have also come across Speech Graphics while playing SpongeBob Squarepants, The Callisto Protocol, Street Fighter 6, High on Life, and many other games!
In 2024, we will appear in a host of new games, many of which were announced at The Game Awards in December! To keep up to date with our progress, sign-up to the Speech Graphics newsletter.
Recognizing Excellence
We are thrilled that for another year the excellence of our team, and our software, has not gone unnoticed by the industry!
In November we took home the "Technical Innovation" award for the second year running at the TIGA Awards and in July we clinched the "Best AI Product: Gaming" prize at the CogX Festival! We were also very pleased to support the Scottish Games Awards, where we presented the prize for best “Tools and Technology.”
Tech for Good
In August, we were able to share the news of our groundbreaking collaboration with UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley that allowed a paralyzed woman, Ann, to speak through a digital avatar. Working with the two Universities, we were able to decode Ann’s brain signals into real-time 3D avatar animation using our runtime software, SG Com.
It was a real honor to work on such a life-changing project and we have been overwhelmed by the response from the media. You can read about the project in the BBC, The Guardian, New York Times and many other outlets and you can read the research paper in Nature, co-authored by Co-founder and CTO Michael Berger.
Release of SGX 4 and Launch of New Knowledge Base
In 2023 we released SGX 4 out of beta, providings three components that give customers the best in automation, integration and creative control:
SGX Producer - a command-line tool for batch processing
SGX Director - a desktop tool for interactive processing and editing
SGX Studio - plug-ins for 3D engines and animation tools, currently including Maya and Unreal Engine
We also launched the Speech Graphics Knowledge Base, helping clients get the most out of our products when animating their characters.
Rapport: Excelling with Generative AI
Increased Choice and Flexibility
Building on the success of Speech Graphics and taking advantage of the recent boom in Generative AI, we’ve delivered multiple new integrations for Rapport. These integrations provide our customers with more choice and flexibility than ever before. Including, but not limited to:
ElevenLabs: enabling more lifelike voices from Text to Speech (TTS), making characters more relatable, in any language.
Google Bard and Delphi join OpenAI on our roster of Large Language Modules (LLMs).
Reallusion CC4 characters offer a choice of more realistic virtual humans, as an alternative to more expensive pixel streaming options.
Continued Growth
In 2023 our client base continued to grow, as we constantly find new use cases for Rapport! We have clients in the education and the recruitment sector, and some particularly promising prospects in healthcare and the music business.
We will be releasing some exciting case studies in the coming months, to keep up-to-date with the latest news, sign up to the Rapport newsletter.
Events
2023 Events
In 2023 our team visited over 20 events under the Rapport and Speech Graphics banners! This included speaking slots at Collision and Web Summit, and exhibiting at GDC where we made over 300 new connections!
We also explored new events such as MIPCOM CANNES and View Conference, and had a particular focus on events in Asia such as GTMF, China Joy, TGS, and G-Star.
Upcoming Events
This year we intend to continue our busy event schedule!
Rapport will be starting the year by exhibiting at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona from 26 - 29 February and Speech Graphics’ first event will be the unveiling of a new demo at GDC from March 18 - 22 in San Francisco.
Below you can find a list of events around the world we will be at in Q1, feel free to contact us to meet up if you are at any of them!
CES, Las Vegas, 9 - 12 January. (Attending)
BETT UK, London, 24-26 January. (Attending)
MWC, Barcelona, 26 - 29 February. (Rapport Exhibiting)
GDC, San Francisco, 18-22 March. (Speech Graphics Exhibiting)
Scottish AI Summit, Edinburgh, 28 March. (Attending)
An Exciting Year Ahead!
Thanks for taking the time to catch up on all things Rapport and Speech Graphics!
We have several other exciting projects in the pipeline and will be releasing more info as the year progresses. To be the first to hear about our news, sign up to the Speech Graphics or the Rapport newsletter.
