Using Speech Search

Owned by Kiss, Mate
Jul 31, 2018
2 min read

Integrated Speech Search

Speech Search is integrated into the regular Verba search interface:

  1. Speech Search Filters on the left Search tab allow you to specifiy phrase based searches
  2. Search Results show a Confidence column, to show how reliable the results are
  3. When you click play on a result, the player shows search phrases directly on the waveform diagram

Understanding Extended Search

The concept of Extended Search is vital to understand when worknig with speech search in Verba.

In order to provide a highly responsive search experience, the search is separated into two steps:

SummaryDescription
Step 1
Initial Results

Initial results are fast,
but might not be complete

These are shown every time you press the Search button (with speech phrases included).

To achieve faster response times this will only show results from the database:

Step 2
Extended Search

Extended search can take longer, but are complete

(within the reasonable limitations of
speech search - see below)

When the Initial Results are not sufficient, you can ask the system to do discovers further calls that:

    • have not been searched before or
    • were not in auto search for the phrases in question

Since this step might take longer, a counter at the top of the results will show you progress.

After performing a Search, the Initial Results are shown in the list to the right and an Extended Search button appears above the list.

Extended Search takes longer to complete, since it potentially requires processing thousands of speech index files. Therefore, Extended Search is performed as a background task with a progress indicator above the search results. If you leave the search interface and come back (even logout and login later), you will see the updated progress in the Search interface.


During the Extended Search you can not modify your search criteria. In order to do that, Cancel the Extended Search using the button above the call list and start a new search.

Limitations of speech search

Speech search solutions are never 100% accurate. Sound quality and regional language variations impact the actual accuracy of searches.

For all speech search results the system calculates a Confidence value. High (>90%) confidence values mean, that the hits are most likely correct.

Always consider this value to determine the success of your search. If you notice a false hit there is an option in the Verba player to remove that result from future searches.

Searching for longer phrases will drastically reduce the possibility of false hits.