Tag: ASEAN

Sonantic, a leader in hyper-realistic text-to-speech technology, demonstrates groundbreaking advancements in emotional speech synthesis with amorous AI video.

LONDON, England, Feb. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sonantic, a leader in developing fully expressive AI-generated voice software for film and gaming studios, has produced a video in collaboration with a Hollywood client entitled “What’s Her Secret?” The video surprises viewers when it’s revealed that, while the woman on screen is a real person, the main character speaking is an AI. Launched on Valentine’s Day, the video aims to demonstrate how entertainment studios can leverage AI to create hyper-realistic romantic encounters.

More Emotional Than Ever Before: Innovation in AI Voice Tech
“What’s Her Secret?” marks both a significant milestone for Sonantic as the company releases their latest breakthroughs of subtle emotions and non-speech sounds, while opening up creative possibilities for studios. The voice models, known for expressing a wide range of human emotions from happiness to sadness, can now convey subtleties such as flirty, coy and teasing, amongst other new “Style” options. Sonantic has also developed the ability to capture non-speech sounds such as breaths, scoffs, and laughs. Together, these advancements in speech synthesis make Sonantic’s platform more comprehensive than ever before. These latest capabilities stem from Sonantic’s proprietary technology, which helps entertainment studios create life-like performances in record time.

“Human beings are incredibly complex by nature and our voices play a critical role in helping us connect with the world around us. At Sonantic, we are committed to capturing the nuances of the human voice, and we’re incredibly proud of these technological breakthroughs that we have brought to life through ‘What’s Her Secret?,’” said Zeena Qureshi, CEO, and John Flynn, CTO of Sonantic. “From flirting and giggling to breathing and pausing, this is the most realistic romantic demo we’ve created to date, helping us inch closer to our vision of being the CGI of Audio.”

The Psychology of Voice, Attraction & Connection
Dr. Maggie Vaughan, a New York City-based psychotherapist who specializes in romantic relationships, said there are key elements in speech patterns, tone and pacing that make or break a flirtatious conversation, all of which are featured in “What’s Her Secret?”

5 Qualities of an Attractive Voice

• Manage your tempo: slow down to create suspense; speed up to create excitement.
• Gently smile when speaking, which subconsciously helps you sound more likable.
• Take a deep breath and clear your throat so the words flow smoothly.
• Keep a smooth, consistent pace to create a strong sense of control and confidence.
• Speak in a slightly lower tone than usual; humans prefer soft spoken over loud.

Interviews with Sonantic or Dr. Vaughan are available upon request.

About Sonantic
Founded in 2018, Sonantic has built a best-in-class AI-powered platform that creates compelling, nuanced, and stunningly realistic voice models. This innovative technology is poised to revolutionize text-to-speech capabilities like never before. Sonantic is committed to bridging the worlds of creative expression and advanced technology.

To learn more, visit www.sonantic.io.

Press Contacts
UK
Paula Keve
paula@intrapr.com
+44 7804 626547

US
Arianna Imperato
arianna@intrapr.com
+1 347 224 9940

Related Images

Image 1: “What’s Her Secret?”

Sonantic Launches AI That Can Flirt

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• “What’s Her Secret?”

Announces Marketing Partnership with CBC Co in Japan

MILPITAS, Calif., Feb. 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AlphaICs, a leading AI fabless semiconductor company that develops edge inference and edge learning technologies, has announced the availability of engineering samples of ‘Gluon’ – an 8 TOPS Edge AI inference co-processor to customers in surveillance, industrial, retail, auto, and Industrial IoT verticals which carries best-in-class FPS/Watt performance.

Gluon will be shipped with a complete (Software Development Kit) SDK that enables easy deployment of neural networks. The advanced edge inference chip delivers the capability for customers to add AI capability in the current X86 / ARM-based systems, resulting in significant cost savings.

Gluon provides the best fps/watt performance in the market for classification and detection Neural Networks – 32 Frames Per Second (FPS)/watt for Yolo-V2, a leading object detection model & 22 Frames Per Second (FPS)/Watt for VGG-19, a leading classification model.

Gluon is currently being sampled to for early customers to enable the development of their vision applications. It is engineered for OEMs and solution providers targeting vision market segments, such as surveillance, industrial, retail, Industrial IoT, and edge gateway manufacturers.

To accelerate its market foray into highly demanding silicon markets, AlphaICs has established a channel partner relationship with CBC Co. Ltd, a Japanese enterprise offering video surveillance products for their customers.

“CBC has been working with AlphaICs for close to two years and we are excited to be its marketing partner in Japan. Gluon was showcased at Japan AI Expo in October 2021 and generated great interest from Japanese customers for vision applications based on its superior performance. AlphaICs co-processor strategy is well received, and we are very excited to take this technology to our customers,” said Kazuhiko Kondo, Executive Officer, CBC Co., Ltd. 

AlphaICs CEO Pradeep Vajram said “We are pleased with our Gluon silicon results and are now demonstrating the innovative technology to our customers. Our team worked very hard to design this high-performance, industry resonating deep-learning co-processor. Gluon is future-ready and is well-positioned to address the AI vision applications for surveillance, retail, industrial, and smart city markets.”

Early last year the company raised $8 million to advance the development of Gluon based on the proprietary architecture RAP^TM. AlphaICs’ highly scalable and modular architecture uses a specialized Instruction Set Architecture that is specifically optimized for AI.

How different is Gluon from the current generation of edge inference Chip?

Gluon, an 8 TOPS Edge AI co-processor, is produced using the 16nm FinFET process at TSMC. This chip accelerates Deep Learning Neural Network models for classification, detection, and segmentation and is focused on vision applications. Gluon incorporates PCIe and LPDDR4 interfaces to enable high-speed transfers to host processors and DRAM, respectively.

Based on many innovations, Gluon provides best-in-class benchmarks:

• 153 frames per second with Yolo-V2, a leading object detection model (416x416x3 image size) in 4.73 watts.
• 79 frames per second with VGG-19, a leading classification model (224x224x3) in 3.6 watts.

To know more about the Gluon, visit AlphaICs through https://www.alphaics.ai or write to info@alphaics.com.

About AlphaICs:

AlphaICs is a leading AI technology company that develops edge inference and edge learning technologies to enable AI at the edge. AlphaICs has developed a next-generation AI architecture, called Real AI Processor (RAP^TM). Architecture provides high performance, low power, and minimal latency, enabling best-in-class edge AI inference processors. RAP^TM architecture also supports edge learning to reduce training data requirements, enables auto labeling and continuous learning at the edge. The company is led by a team of technology experts and successful serial entrepreneurs committed to putting forth the true potential of AI at the edge. The company has operations in Milpitas, US, and Bangalore, India. AlphaICs is currently a company in the Silicon Catalyst Incubator. Learn more at https://www.alphaics.ai

Related Images

Image 1: AlphaICs unveiling Gluon Chip and Gluon Board

AlphaICs’ Pradeep Vajram and Prashant Trivedi unveiling Gluon Chip and Gluon Board

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• AlphaICs unveiling Gluon Chip and Gluon Board

HONG KONG, Feb. 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Brand New Vision Ltd, the company behind BNV.ME, the leading platform taking fashion into Web3.0 through 3D Product Creation, NFT sales, and Future Wearability, has successfully completed a US$4 million Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands.

Animoca Brands is a global leader in gamification and blockchain with a large portfolio of over 150 investments in NFT-related companies and decentralized projects that are contributing to building the open metaverse.

This raise will enable BNV.ME to further expand its capabilities for creating elevated NFT experiences across the metaverse offerings that already exist and those that are under development, as well as growing its visibility and presence across the worlds of fashion, gaming, and crypto communities. BNV’s aim of true interoperability and the strong pipeline of high-quality AAA metaverse products and games under development indicate there is an exciting future for digital fashion.

In addition to Animoca Brands as lead investor, this funding round also included a number of influential funds and individuals including AngelHub, K3, Arkstream Capital, Sparkle Ventures, Grizzly Capital, Meteorite Labs, Startive Ventures, and MyAsiaVC Web3 Fund. Also participating were Cube Entertainment from Korea, Miss Bitcoin (the leading crypto evangelist in Japan since 2011), Michael Kazam (Paris-based founder of Le Book), and Alex Moukas (the founder and CEO of Wappier), plus other funds and private investors.

Richard Hobbs, the founder of BNV, said: “It’s great to have the support of Animoca Brands, a value-add investor which contributes powerfully to our vision of bringing digital fashion into the open metaverse. In addition to the new investors we have already named, there are also others from the wider crypto and fashion worlds that are joining us on this journey and we welcome them all.”

Hobbs continued: “The funds we raised will allow an expansion of the teams at HQ and around the world. Fashion is a global business and we will be adding to the current representation we already have in London, New York, LA, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Seoul and Hong Kong.”

Speaking about upcoming initiatives, Hobbs said: “We will be introducing a series of new NFT drops with amazing designers and brands on BNV.ME in the coming weeks, particularly leading up to events around the next series of Fashion Weeks in the major capitals. We will also be announcing our first social token which will give holders access to multiple experiences and opportunities, not just in virtual worlds but in the physical one too.”

Yat Siu, the executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, commented: “The opportunity for digital fashion is significant, and BNV has built an industry-trusted team to help fashion brands enter the world of digital property rights and NFTs. We are pleased to lead this investment, which will help to introduce more participants to the concept of the open metaverse.”

Morgan Stanley predicts the metaverse will be a US$8 trillion commercial opportunity; digital fashion will play a significant part and BNV plans to be at the forefront of that sector. BNV is already a trusted partner to fashion brands and designers who recognize the opportunity of the metaverse but need help navigating the fast-moving Web3.0 world.

About Brand New Vision Ltd

Brand New Vision Ltd operates bnv.me, the premium platform for fashion NFT sales. BNV launched in April 2021 and is headquartered in Hong Kong. The founding team is a combination of long-standing fashion industry business operators with experience in luxury, streetwear, action sports and outdoor and active brands, covering all aspects of the fashion business from design to retail. Along with young talent in the digital world and a team of experienced software engineers and blockchain developers, BNV is uniquely positioned to be the leading fashion NFT platform and gateway to the metaverse for fashion brands and designers. For more information visit bnv.me or follow on Instagram, Telegram, Twitter or Discord.

Image Assets – HERE

Contact:
team@bnv.me

REGULATED INFORMATION

Information on the total number of voting rights and shares

Mont-Saint-Guibert (Belgium), February 11, 2022, 10:30 pm CET / 4:30 pm ET – In accordance with article  15 of the Law of 2 May 2007 on the disclosure of large shareholdings, Nyxoah SA (Euronext Brussels and Nasdaq: NYXH) publishes the belowinformation following the exercise of subscription rights and the issue of new shares.

•  Share capital: EUR 4,431,664.69
•  Total number of securities carrying voting rights: 25,797,359 (all ordinary shares)
•  Total number of voting rights (= denominator): 25,797,359 (all relating to ordinary shares)
•  Number of rights to subscribe to securities carrying voting rights not yet issued:

• •  55 “2016 ESOP Warrants” issued on November 3, 2016, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 27,500 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares);
  •  100 “2018 ESOP Warrants” issued on December 12, 2018, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 50,000 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares);
  •  490,500 “2020 ESOP Warrants” issued on February 21, 2020, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 490,500 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares); and
  •  1,400,000 “2021 ESOP Warrants” issued on September 8, 2021, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 1,400,000 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares).

For further information, please contact:

Nyxoah
Jeremy Feffer, VP IR and Corporate Communications
jeremy.feffer@nyxoah.com
+1 917 749 1494

Gilmartin Group
Vivian Cervantes
IR@nyxoah.com

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• 2022 02 11 – Press release – Number of shares (ENG) (final)

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Meltwater, a global leader in media and social intelligence, has been named to G2’s 2022 Best Software Awards. Meltwater is in the top 10 ranking for Best Marketing Products and six other categories including Highest Satisfaction Product and Best Product for Enterprise, Mid-Market and Small Business.

G2’s annual Best Software Awards ranks the world’s best software companies and products based on authentic, timely reviews from real users. Meltwater scored high across the board on features that are critical for Marketing & PR professionals such as: Social Media Analytics, Social Media Monitoring, Media Monitoring, Social Media Management, PR Analytics, Social Media Suites, Media and Influencer Targeting.

Meltwater CEO John Box said, “It’s great to be recognized by our customers for our industry-leading solutions. Customer centricity and product innovation are two of our core focuses at Meltwater, and, taken together, they allow us to deliver on the promise of delivering a world-class product suite that supports the needs of today’s PR, Comms and Marketing teams. We’re committed to continuing to invest in our products and technology and keeping customer feedback at the core of our strategy.”

The lists G2 created are based on data from over 1M authentic, verified customer reviews. Meltwater earned its place on these lists because of customer feedback, including:

• “We use Meltwater for EVERYTHING! Newswire distribution, social media, and more recently all-media tracking.”
• “Meltwater is a comprehensive platform that offers excellent customer support and solid infrastructure, which allows us to extract relevant information anytime, anywhere.“
• “The best platform for unifying a marketing team”
• “We’ve been able to consolidate several efforts within our agency’s social media team into one platform rather than relying on multiple platforms to provide the data we need.”
• “Meltwater’s omnichannel listening is the best out there. To be able to search across ALL channels (including Reddit) for mentions is incredible.”

Read the complete G2 Best of lists at g2.com/best. For more information or to schedule a demo, please visit https://www.meltwater.com/en/request-demo.

About Meltwater

Meltwater provides social and media intelligence. By examining millions of posts each day from social media platforms, blogs and news sites, Meltwater helps companies make better, more informed decisions based on insight from the outside. The company was founded in Oslo, Norway, in 2001 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with 50 offices across six continents. The company has 2,100 employees and 27,000 corporate customers, including industry leaders in several sectors. Learn more at meltwater.com.

Contact:
Jenny Force
VP Marketing
jenny.force@meltwater.com

        Thursday 10 February 2022

2021 TURNOVER TOTALS €922.4 MILLION

AKWEL (FR0000053027, AKW, PEA-eligible), the automotive and HGV equipment and systems manufacturer specialising in fluid management and mechanisms, posted consolidated turnover of €922.4m in 2021, up +2.8% comparing like-for-like figures.

Consolidated turnover

In € millions – unaudited	2021	2020	Variation	Like-for-like variation (1)
1st half-year	487.5	387.1	+25.9%	+33.7%
3rd quarter	211.4	262.0	-19.3%	-17.3%
4th quarter	223.5	288.1	-22.4%	-20.6%
Total for 12 months	922.4	937.2	-1.6%	+2.8%

⁽¹⁾   Comparing like-for-like figures.

Over the 2021 financial year as a whole, which was characterised both by an upturn in activity following the 2020 crisis and by a major lack of visibility regarding supply, which disrupted its manufacturer clients’ production, AKWEL recorded growth of 2.8% when comparing like-for-like figures.

Products & Functions turnover reached €882.0m in 2021, with slight growth experienced in Cooling activities (+2.5%), and Mechanisms (+1.9%). Tooling turnover stood at €30.7m, down by -27.3% after two atypical financial years in 2019 and 2020.

Net cash excluding lease obligations reach €108.3m by financial year end, an increase of €47.7m over the year.

In a context of high volatility in terms of manufacturers’ production levels, AKWEL has succeeded in keeping up with its clients’ demand. Supply limitations will weigh on the current operating income for 2021, expected to have fallen by around 35% for a similar level of margin to the 2018 and 2019 financial years.

Visibility regarding the global vehicle market over 2022 remains poor. AKWEL nonetheless anticipates an increase in its turnover and will focus its efforts on its industrial model to ensure it efficiently adapts to these market conditions and to better serve its manufacturer clients. With a solid financial position, the group will continue to invest in its long-term development by focusing on product developments in its sector, particularly new mobility solutions.

An independent, family-owned group listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange, AKWEL is an automotive and HGV equipment and systems manufacturer specialising in fluid management and mechanisms, offering first-rate industrial and technological expertise in applying and processing materials (plastics, rubber, metal) and mechatronic integration. Operating in 20 countries across every continent, AKWEL employs more than 10,000 people worldwide.

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The cloud data solutions provider accelerates Beyond Limits business intelligence and technical expertise growth in the Asia-Pacific region

SINGAPORE, Feb. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Beyond Limits, the industrial and enterprise-grade AI software company built for the most demanding sectors, today announced its acquisition of Singapore-based cloud solutions and consulting partner Oak Consulting.

“Oak Consulting’s extensive track record and expertise in business intelligence and enterprise data management services made the company a natural strategic fit for Beyond Limits,” said David Liu, Executive Chairman of Beyond Limits Asia-Pacific. “Moreover, the company shares our strategic mission for creating solutions that magnify the talents and capabilities of people with the latest technologies, and we’re very excited to welcome them to the Beyond Limits team.”

Oak Consulting provides enterprise-class, full lifecycle solutions from strategy through to the implementation stage for critical industries including public sector, eCommerce, healthcare, financial and supply chain, among others. The firm brings decades of extensive industry knowledge and experience in guiding clients through operational analytics supported by data mining, artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as the adoption of the latest cloud and data management technology platforms.

The acquisition of Oak Consulting further cements Beyond Limits’ position and profitability in the Asia-Pacific region and accelerates the company’s technical resources to support new customer projects and use cases. Current and future customers in the area will also have more immediate access to experienced teams to lead them through complex AI, machine learning, data analytics and management integrations from the concept phase through implementation.

“As a key partner for Beyond Limits since 2020, we’ve worked closely together for years to better understand and meet the rapidly evolving technology demands of businesses in the region,” said Victor Ng, Managing Director of Oak Consulting. “Beyond Limits and its Cognitive AI technology are extremely well-positioned to help meet these demands as artificial intelligence becomes more ingrained in daily business operations. We look forward to the strength and scope of services we will be able to offer together.”

Oak Consulting’s current employees and management team will remain in place and will continue to generate immediate opportunities under the Beyond Limits brand by offering its existing products and services to customers and partners. This acquisition brings together two leading companies with decades of extensive industry knowledge and experience in technology and business solutions. Beyond Limits is committed to growing Oak Consulting’s services to achieve dramatic growth in the coming years—growth that will result in more opportunities for Beyond Limits customers.

About Beyond Limits Asia-Pacific
Beyond Limits Asia-Pacific is an enterprise-scale AI company that optimizes operations, boosts efficiency, and increases productivity for demanding industries including energy, advanced manufacturing, and fintech.

Beyond traditional artificial intelligence, Beyond Limits’ software products are powered by award-winning Cognitive AI technology, utilizing a hybrid AI approach that combines data-centric techniques with embedded human knowledge to affirm trust in software-driven decisions, manage operational risk, and drive profitability.

Beyond Limits Asia Pacific is regionally headquartered in Singapore with operations in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Taipei and Tokyo. The regional headquarters drives strategic investments for joint ventures and partnerships in Asia to expand Beyond Limits’ AI in verticals including financial services, led by the Hong Kong office, advanced manufacturing, led the Taiwan office, and the energy sector led by the Singapore, Shenzhen and Tokyo offices.

Founded in 2014, Beyond Limits leverages a significant investment portfolio of advanced technology developed at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA space missions. The company was recently honored by Frost & Sullivan as a Company of the Year for their 2021 Best Practices Award and by CB Insights on their 2020 List of Top 100 Most Innovative Artificial Intelligence Startups.

For more information, please visit www.beyond.ai.

About Oak Consulting
Oak Consulting is a Premier Tier Tableau Value-Added Reseller and Cloud Solutions Provider based in Singapore with offices in India and Malaysia providing Data Management and Analytics Consulting Services. We specialize in industries such as Healthcare, Education, Retail and eCommerce, Telcos, Financials, Shipping, Airport Hub, Business Services and the Public Sector.

Our firm thrives in delivering enterprise-class, full life cycle solutions from strategy through to the implementation stage. Oak Consulting specialties lie in dealing with huge and complex data sets, providing operational analytics supported by data mining, artificial intelligence, and machine learning; adopting the latest state-of-the-art Cloud and Data Management technology platforms of the world.

Our leadership team brings decades of extensive industry knowledge and experience in information technology and business solutions. Together with a team of experience technology and business domain specialists, we pride ourselves in being a Progressively Collaborative Partner to work with in Singapore and the Region.​

Contact Information:
Scott Blevins
LEWIS for Beyond Limits
+1-415-283-5492
beyondlimitspr@teamlewis.com