Infotec

Infotec Ltd

Founded	6 April 1992
Headquarters	Ashby-de-la-Zouch - Leicestershire
Website	https://www.infotec.co.uk/

A rack-mount Micro PA announcement generator

Infotec are a manufacturer of passenger information displays for the public transport stations and on-board services, including mainline, light rail, metro systems and bus services. Originally specialising in the manufacturing of LCD and LED clocks for commercial and public environments, Infotec began specialising in displays for the transport industry in 2004 and have become one of the biggest suppliers for CIS displays for railway stations in the UK.

In 2011, Infotec released their Micro PA announcement system. Intended as a more affordable automated announcement solution in comparison to other announcement systems in use at the time, it utilises text-to-speech technology to form announcement scripts instead of individual human recordings. It was available an as optional extra built into any model of Infotec departure screen, utilising built-in speakers or as a standalone rack-mounted device, contained within a traditional public address rack connected to a traditional LLPA system. In 2016, the rack-mount version of Micro PA was discontinued and the Micro PA brand name was dropped but the system is still available within Infotec's range of departure screens.

Unlike most other automated announcement systems that run directly from the CIS provider's system, Micro PA is considered a 3rd-party ancillary device (in the same way departure screens operate) and can therefore run on any CIS provider's system. Although operating performance is variable depending on the CIS provider used. Micro PA uses Acapela Rachel for announcements in English and Ivona Geriant for announcements in English and Welsh for Transport for Wales.

Train operating companies

East Midlands Railway

East Midlands Railway installed Micro PA announcement systems at the majority of their stations, with their larger stations using the standalone rack-mount LLPA version. Many of these systems have since become faulty, with some station names being mispronounced.

Northern

Northern installed Micro PA announcement systems at several of their smaller stations shortly after it's release. After Northern rolled out the KeTech system to all of their stations, the Micro PA announcements still worked but some started using the same script that was displayed within the 'calling at:' section on the departure screens, resulting in calling point times and station abbreviations to be announced as they were displayed (e.g. saying "Wigan Nth West" instead of Wigan North Western). Northern are currently replacing their Micro PA systems with traditional LLPA systems voiced by Celia Drummond as part of their CIS replacement programme.

Transport for Wales

Transport for Wales installed Micro PA announcement systems at many of their smaller stations in 2012. Originally they used Acapela Rachel, meaning they were only able to produce announcements in English. In 2020, the voice on all of their systems was changed to Ivona Geriant, allowing for both English and Welsh announcements. As with all other TfW stations, the Micro PA systems run off Worldline CIS.