Incorporation and launch of ReadBeyond at #ISPF2013
Padua, 2013-10-16
We are proud to announce that ReadBeyond (RB) has been incorporated, as a limited-liability start-up company ("S.r.l. start-up innovativa") based in Padua, Italy, by founders Paolo Bertasi, Alberto Pettarin and Simplicissimus Book Farm.
ReadBeyond is an applied research lab, developing innovative software for creating, distributing and enjoying digital contents, with a special focus on electronic books.
Alberto Pettarin, ReadBeyond's CEO, will present the project at #ISPF2013 (International Self Publishing Festival) during his talk "Bringing Innovation into Digital Publishing: Hire the Hackers!" (Saturday, October 19 3:45 pm).
"Our International Self Publishing Festival is the perfect place to show the huge potential of this revolutionary and sophisticated software to a wide audience. And we are proud of being part of this project" asserts Antonio Tombolini, Simplicissimus Book Farm's CEO.
The first problem tackled by ReadBeyond is the efficient synchronization of audio and text. Solving this task is a key step, for example, when designing enhanced eBooks featuring professionally-recorded narration of the text and "read aloud" functions like synchronous text highlighting or tap-on-text-to-play-it gestures.
ReadBeyond will offer the first commercial service, available through a Web application and via APIs, solving this task automatically without manual intervention. The algorithms designed and implemented at ReadBeyond analyze the input audio and text files, compute the corresponding synchronization map, and output it in the requested format (e.g., JSON, SMIL, SRT, TTML or raw CSV/XML).
Seventeen languages are currently supported, including English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish, and the plan is to further extend the languages coverage.
ReadBeyond's Founders
Alberto Pettarin
Alberto is co-founder and CEO of ReadBeyond, where he also supervises the R&D activities. He loves eBooks, algorithms, and anything in between. In his spare time, he likes reading, cycling, and writing free software. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
Paolo Bertasi
Paolo is co-founder of ReadBeyond, where he passionately oversees the IT infrastructure, constantly swinging between hate and love for AWS and computer networks. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Padua, Padua, Italy where he taught the Course on Computer Networks for 3 years.
Simplicissimus Book Farm
Simplicissimus Book Farm is the first company in Italy (and not only) to identify the importance and impact of the transition to the digital world which the whole publishing industry has been moving towards. Since 2006, Simplicissimus Book Farm’s mission has been to facilitate this transition to the digital world through its services of productions, distribution and sales aimed at the main players in the publishing sector: from authors and agents to editors, distributors and retailers, as well the readers themselves.
About ReadBeyond
ReadBeyond Srl (http://www.readbeyond.it/) develops innovative software to create, distribute, and enjoy digital contents. Italian Startup with headquarters in Padua (Padova), ReadBeyond is the applied research lab currently global leader in Audio-eBooks with synchronized audio/text in EPUB 3 format.
Contact Information
ReadBeyond
words never heard before
Padua (Padova), Italy
http://www.readbeyond.it/
info@readbeyond.it