tts-voiceover

name: tts-voiceover description: 'Text-to-speech voice-over generation from YAML speaker notes using Azure Speech SDK with SSML pronunciation control' metadata: authors: "microsoft/hve-core" spec_version: "1.0"

TTS Voice Over Skill

Generates per-slide WAV voice-over files from YAML speaker_notes using Azure Speech SDK with SSML pronunciation control.

Overview

This skill reads content.yaml files from a PowerPoint skill content directory, extracts speaker_notes fields, applies SSML acronym aliases for correct pronunciation of technical terms, and produces one WAV file per slide. Supports dry-run mode for SSML template verification without Azure credentials.

Prerequisites

• Azure Speech resource — Free tier provides 500K characters per month.
• Authentication — Key-based (SPEECH_KEY) or Microsoft Entra ID (SPEECH_RESOURCE_ID).
• Python 3.11+ with uv for virtual environment management.

Key-Based Auth

export SPEECH_KEY="your-speech-key"
export SPEECH_REGION="eastus"

Microsoft Entra ID Auth

Requires a custom domain on the Speech resource and Cognitive Services Speech User role.

export SPEECH_RESOURCE_ID="/subscriptions/.../Microsoft.CognitiveServices/accounts/your-resource"
export SPEECH_REGION="eastus"

Install dependencies:

# run from this skill folder
uv sync

Quick Start

Verify SSML templates without generating audio:

uv run scripts/generate_voiceover.py --dry-run --content-dir path/to/content

Generate voice-over WAV files:

uv run scripts/generate_voiceover.py --content-dir path/to/content --output-dir voice-over

Embed audio into a PPTX deck:

uv run scripts/embed_audio.py --input deck.pptx --audio-dir voice-over --output deck-narrated.pptx

Parameters Reference

generate_voiceover.py

embed_audio.py

Embeds WAV files into corresponding PPTX slides and adds narration timing XML so PowerPoint recognizes the audio for video export via File > Export > Create a Video > Use Recorded Timings and Narrations.

Script Reference

Generate with custom voice and rate:

uv run scripts/generate_voiceover.py \
  --content-dir content \
  --output-dir voice-over \
  --voice "en-US-Jenny:DragonHDLatestNeural" \
  --rate "+5%"

Use a custom lexicon:

uv run scripts/generate_voiceover.py \
  --content-dir content \
  --lexicon custom-acronyms.yaml

Embed generated audio:

uv run scripts/embed_audio.py \
  --input slide-deck/presentation.pptx \
  --audio-dir voice-over \
  --output slide-deck/presentation-narrated.pptx

Acronym Lexicon

The lexicon controls SSML <sub alias> replacements for acronyms and technical terms. Create an acronyms.yaml file:

acronyms:
  HVE-Core: "H V E Core"
  OWASP: "Oh wasp"
  SBOM: "S Bomb"
  SLSA: "Salsa"
  CI/CD: "C I C D"

Lexicon resolution order:

1. Path specified via --lexicon argument.
2. acronyms.yaml in the content directory.
3. Built-in defaults covering common technical acronyms.

SSML Template

Each slide produces an SSML document:

<speak version="1.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/synthesis"
 xmlns:mstts="http://www.w3.org/2001/mstts" xml:lang="en-US">
  <voice name="en-US-Andrew:DragonHDLatestNeural">
    <prosody rate="+10%">
      Text with <sub alias="Oh wasp">OWASP</sub> aliases applied.
    </prosody>
  </voice>
</speak>

Integration with PowerPoint Skill

This skill reads from the PowerPoint skill's content directory structure:

content/
├── slide-001/
│   └── content.yaml    # Must include speaker_notes: field
├── slide-002/
│   └── content.yaml
└── ...

Each content.yaml should contain a speaker_notes: field with the narration text. The generated WAV files are named slide-NNN.wav matching the directory names.

Troubleshooting

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