The Intelligent Voice system is a batch processing system designed to process hours of audio recordings as efficiently as possible.  We also offer systems designed for real-time transcription, low latency key word spotting, IoT hub devices and embedded applications and more - for details on running these solutions on Azure please contact us.

Minimum requirements

A basic installation of Intelligent Voice with GPU acceleration on Azure requires a GPU instance type with 32GB RAM and 4 CPUs.  At time of writing in May 2020, All NC-series, NCv2-series, NCv3-series, ND-series, NDv2-series, NV-series and NVv3-series meet these requirements.  NVv4-series are not suitable.

The recommended minimum instance type for an all-in-one installation is the Standard_ND6s.

The minimum storage requirements are for an managed disk volume of 60GB.  This will need to be increased if more than 100 hours of audio data is processed. 

Low volume batch processing

To provide the lowest cost per audio hour, we recommend that Intelligent Voice is installed as a minimal auto-scaling solution.  This would comprise at least:

• 1 application server, online whenever the API or review platform are required
• 1 or more processing nodes (GPU optional), online only when processing new data

The minimum requirements for an application server are 16GB RAM and 2 CPUs.  Low cost instances types such as the Standard_E2a_v4 are suitable for this.  The minimum storage requirements are for a managed disk volume of 60GB.

The minimum requirements for a processing node without a GPU are 16GB RAM and 4 CPUs. The Standard_E2a_v4 is a suitable instance type for this.  The minimum storage requirements are for an EBS volume of 60GB.

The minimum requirement for a processing node with a GPU is a Standard_NC6_Promo instance type, recommended Standard_ND6s.   The minimum storage requirements are for a managed disk volume of 60GB.

Typically processing batches of audio under 4 hours in total size will be cheaper without a GPU.  Batches over 4 hours will be cheaper with a GPU, and much faster.

IV has validated these base VM images in Azure:

Red Hat 7.7

Ubuntu 16.04 (select 16.04 in the dropdown on this page)

High volume batch processing

More details to follow - please contact us for information