[rescue] Anyone have some DECtalk gear?

[Sheldon T. Hall]

On 4/8/2013 8:05 PM, Cory Smelosky wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Does anyone happen to have any DECtalk gear they're looking 
> to get rid of?  I need it for a little project of mine.

About 20 years ago, I worked on a project for NBC; it was a satellite-based
corporate/affiliate news system.  One of the original peripherals specified
was the DECtalk.  The idea was to have the scheduling news "read aloud" in
TV stations' control rooms.

The affiliate stations rebelled.  The last thing they needed was more noise
in their control rooms, so NBC changed the spec and we used video titlers
instead.  The cost of the DECtalk was a problem, too, for the smaller
stations.

So, you might find a local NBC TV station that bought one back in the day,
and still has it.

There were other text-to-speech devices back in that era, though I don't
recall if any of them sang.

-Shel