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ATOS Anne Announcements - Publicly Available?

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Future

Future

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21 Apr 2022
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210
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Devon
Nicholas B said:
Hey, guys! Just wanting to know if anyone has made any funny/unusual announcements from the Atos Anne Files…?
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I have created the wonder that is the ‘09:17 First Great Western Cathedral Express taxi to London Paddington’
 
M

MrJeeves

Established Member
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1,944
Location
Burgess Hill
Nicholas B said:
Hey, guys! Just wanting to know if anyone has made any funny/unusual announcements from the Atos Anne Files…?
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I suppose my favourite ones are:
The taxi now approaching the station car park bus stop does not stop here. Please stand well clear of the edge of the station car park bus stop.
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and similar ones :p
 
S

stadler

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5 Jun 2023
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Horsley
Nicholas B said:
Does anyone know why there are files containing Anne saying 'Buckingham Tesco' and 'St Neots Tesco'?
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It is probably for bus services. At some stations Anne announces connecting bus services. So i reckon that this is probably what it is for.
 
G

Gecalstom123

New Member
Joined
12 Jan 2024
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1
Location
London
stadler said:
Here is a new download link to use:

*link removed*

This one should last for a few days at least.
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Stadler, would it be possible to get a link to the announcement file? As the most recent link is down.(Apologies must have been the eighth person to have asked for the same thing)
 
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Steve Harris

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11 Dec 2016
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ECML
Sorry to come to the party so late. But I'm wondering if anyone knows who used to do (and/or what system was used to do) the automated announcements in Network South East land in the early 90's ?

The 2 I can most remember are in the following video

at 0.10 and 0.46

I'm curious to know who the man and the lady are. Many thanks in advance.
 
S

stadler

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579
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Horsley
Steve Harris said:
Sorry to come to the party so late. But I'm wondering if anyone knows who used to do (and/or what system was used to do) the automated announcements in Network South East land in the early 90's ?

The 2 I can most remember are in the following video

at 0.10 and 0.46

I'm curious to know who the man and the lady are. Many thanks in advance.
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The voices heard in that video that you linked are John Elgar and the Unknown Female voice and that it is old Ditra system. Unfortunately nobody has ever found out the identity of the Unknown Female voice in the video.

There was two seperate systems in use during in the NSE era. You had the Ditra system at some stations and the Infomat system at some stations.

Ditra used these voices:

• John Elgar
• Unknown Female

Unknown Female has never been identified. But she remained in use at both Bishops Stortford and Seven Sisters until 2012 despite being replaced elsewhere in the very early 2000s.

There was also an Unknown Male voice used at a few WCML stations and a second Unknown Female voice used at Stansted Airport station.

Infomat used these five voices:

• Angela Peberdy
• Gordon Reid
• Julie Berry
• Liz Crowther
• Robert Lister

Angela and Julie and Robert were the three main voices. Gordon and Liz were only used at a couple stations.

If you have not already seen Robert Payne has a Youtube channel with hundreds of recordings of automated announcements from the NSE era:


This channel is definitely worth a look It has hundreds of videos of these old automated announcements.
 
S

Steve Harris

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Location
ECML
stadler said:
The voices heard in that video that you linked are John Elgar and the Unknown Female voice and that it is old Ditra system. Unfortunately nobody has ever found out the identity of the Unknown Female voice in the video.

There was two seperate systems in use during in the NSE era. You had the Ditra system at some stations and the Infomat system at some stations.

Ditra used these voices:

• John Elgar
• Unknown Female

Unknown Female has never been identified. But she remained in use at both Bishops Stortford and Seven Sisters until 2012 despite being replaced elsewhere in the very early 2000s.

There was also an Unknown Male voice used at a few WCML stations and a second Unknown Female voice used at Stansted Airport station.

Infomat used these five voices:

• Angela Peberdy
• Gordon Reid
• Julie Berry
• Liz Crowther
• Robert Lister

Angela and Julie and Robert were the three main voices. Gordon and Liz were only used at a couple stations.

If you have not already seen Robert Payne has a Youtube channel with hundreds of recordings of automated announcements from the NSE era:


This channel is definitely worth a look It has hundreds of videos of these old automated announcements.
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Thanx very much for the in depth info.

I used to be keen back in my younger days and buy a All Line Rover for my annual 2 week holiday from work.

The unknown lady and John Elgar were always the voices I'd hear when visiting the southern region. That and solari flappy CIS, very happy memories with non plastic trains (although lethal in a crash).
 
bramling

bramling

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Joined
5 Mar 2012
Messages
17,776
Location
Hertfordshire / Teesdale
stadler said:
The voices heard in that video that you linked are John Elgar and the Unknown Female voice and that it is old Ditra system. Unfortunately nobody has ever found out the identity of the Unknown Female voice in the video.

There was two seperate systems in use during in the NSE era. You had the Ditra system at some stations and the Infomat system at some stations.

Ditra used these voices:

• John Elgar
• Unknown Female

Unknown Female has never been identified. But she remained in use at both Bishops Stortford and Seven Sisters until 2012 despite being replaced elsewhere in the very early 2000s.

There was also an Unknown Male voice used at a few WCML stations and a second Unknown Female voice used at Stansted Airport station.

Infomat used these five voices:

• Angela Peberdy
• Gordon Reid
• Julie Berry
• Liz Crowther
• Robert Lister

Angela and Julie and Robert were the three main voices. Gordon and Liz were only used at a couple stations.

If you have not already seen Robert Payne has a Youtube channel with hundreds of recordings of automated announcements from the NSE era:


This channel is definitely worth a look It has hundreds of videos of these old automated announcements.
Click to expand...

I have always thought that John Elgar’s announcements will probably never be bettered. As well as being clear, out of all the automated systems his ones seem to flow best despite being made of individual fragments. His way of speaking also gives a feeling of authority and confidence than even Phil Sayer never IMO quite matched. Atos Anne is just awful by comparison.
 
D

deanstein

Member
Joined
23 Jun 2014
Messages
6
bramling said:
I have always thought that John Elgar’s announcements will probably never be bettered. As well as being clear, out of all the automated systems his ones seem to flow best despite being made of individual fragments. His way of speaking also gives a feeling of authority and confidence than even Phil Sayer never IMO quite matched. Atos Anne is just awful by comparison.
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Totally agree re John Elgar. You'd never know they were fragments joined together and wonder why they've never since matched this quality when the technology has advanced so much.
 
P

Parallel

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9 Dec 2013
Messages
3,937
deanstein said:
Totally agree re John Elgar. You'd never know they were fragments joined together and wonder why they've never since matched this quality when the technology has advanced so much.
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I think Ruth and Eryl who are in use with Transport for Wales sound very natural if you catch a recording with only their original 90s recordings. Unfortunately they sound less good now with new train operating company names and such inserted in.

In the clip below, slash indicates separate recordings: The train now approaching / platform 1 / is the / 18 / 06 / service to / Bristol Temple Meads.

A lot of the newer stuff seems down to sloppy editing, as well as it being common for voices to change over time. For Anne, I think recording "West Midlands Railway service to" and cutting off the "service to" would make the 'West Midlands Railway' insert sound more natural, than just recording the name on its own. Her 'East Midlands Railway' sounds pretty good though.
 

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Nicholas B

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Manchester
Also, does anyone have the 'Arriva TransPennine', 'Transport for Wales' and the other versions of 'TransPennine Express' reordings by Anne?
 
occone

occone

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Joined
8 Apr 2023
Messages
137
Location
Bristol
Parallel said:
I think Ruth and Eryl who are in use with Transport for Wales sound very natural if you catch a recording with only their original 90s recordings. Unfortunately they sound less good now with new train operating company names and such inserted in.

In the clip below, slash indicates separate recordings: The train now approaching / platform 1 / is the / 18 / 06 / service to / Bristol Temple Meads.

A lot of the newer stuff seems down to sloppy editing, as well as it being common for voices to change over time. For Anne, I think recording "West Midlands Railway service to" and cutting off the "service to" would make the 'West Midlands Railway' insert sound more natural, than just recording the name on its own. Her 'East Midlands Railway' sounds pretty good though.
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I agree and will add that I think a large part of it is the announcement system used on Alstom trains (175, 180, even 390) is fairly poorly done - if you go back over the years the announcements have been choppy from FGW times and even Grand Central announcements are really awkward.

The 390s end their announcements early, in my view - they never state their end destination in the list of stations they'll be calling at.

And the 175/180s seem to use the upwards infliction for stations at the end of their announcement which is especially goofy with Grand Central trains traveling to Sunderland:
 
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Sebrh11

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Location
Hartlepool
occone said:
And the 175/180s seem to use the upwards infliction for stations at the end of their announcement which is especially goofy with Grand Central trains traveling to Sunderland.
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That's why I barley use them! Also the fact that they ask every passenger on my local station if they are travelling Grand Central.


EDIT: My location isn't actually Kidderminster
 
Dougal2345

Dougal2345

Member
Joined
29 Oct 2009
Messages
548
stadler said:
Infomat used these five voices:

• Angela Peberdy
• Gordon Reid
• Julie Berry
• Liz Crowther
• Robert Lister

Angela and Julie and Robert were the three main voices. Gordon and Liz were only used at a couple stations.
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Oh, is that the same Liz Crowther who was the Radio West receptionist in "Shoestring"? Always thought she had a nice voice.
bramling said:
Have to say I’ve never been keen. Her voice sounds very patronising, and she seems to get pronunciations wrong more so than some of the other voices we’ve seen over time. I’ve always assumed this is because she’s not a voiceover professional like many of the others, and it shows.
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So it's fair to say you "couldn't give ATOS" about Anne...? :D
 
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