Hear-all-about-it app hits road

Arkansas native sells Ford on idea of audio newsstand

Tirrell Payton (right) who grew up in Arkansas and is now chief executive officer of BT Software and developer of the new Kaliki smart-phone app, demonstrates for Janice Ward, business development director at CBC, how the application integrates with Ford’s SYNC AppLink, allowing drivers to control the app with their voices while in a vehicle.
Tirrell Payton (right) who grew up in Arkansas and is now chief executive officer of BT Software and developer of the new Kaliki smart-phone app, demonstrates for Janice Ward, business development director at CBC, how the application integrates with Ford’s SYNC AppLink, allowing drivers to control the app with their voices while in a vehicle.

Tirrell Payton doesn’t think consumers’ stepping over the newspaper delivered to their doorstep is a sign they’re not interested in the latest news - they simply don’t have time to read it.

To remedy that, Payton, raised in Sherwood and a graduate of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, partnered with Bruce Hopkins to create BT Software. The San Diego-based start up developed Kaliki Audio Newsstand, a smart-phone application offering on-demand content from newspapers and magazines read by professional voice talent.

Payton said the app is a perfect way to fill idle drive time. Ford Motor Company apparently agrees.

Last week at the CES gadget roll-out in Las Vegas, Ford said that, through its SYNC AppLink, drivers will now be able to use voice-command and control with the Kaliki app.

C. J. King, a project engineer with AppLink for Ford, said the unique aspects of Kaliki Audio Newsstand - providing current articles and information to the driver while letting him keep both hands safely on the wheel - made it something the automaker wanted to add to its vehicles.

Kaliki Audio Newsstand is free for SYNC users. SYNC AppLink is in more than 1 million vehicles including the 2013 Mustang, Fiesta, Fusion and F-150, according to Ford.

Commuting in the United States: 2009, a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, shows more than three-quarters of U.S. workers drove alone to work and that the average time spent in the car from home to work was 25 minutes.

“You can’t read a newspaper while you drive,” Payton said.

But with the Kaliki app you can listen.

The process goes something like this: A computer program identifies the written content from a newspaper or magazine and separates what’s useful, places that content into a database, and a pool of 15 voice-actors read the content and then place it back into the system as an audio file. Cloud-based storage holds the audio content, along with any associated photos, where the information is available through the app for automobile applications or smart phones.

“When we explained to audio people what we did, their jaws would drop. They didn’t think it was possible,” Payton said.

The company has content agreements with several providers including the Los Angeles Times, the Detroit Free-Press, and magazines such as Men’s Health. Payton said the company is seeking content agreements with newspapers and other publications around the nation and hopes to sell the system to other automakers as well.

Payton is a graduate of Sylvan Hills High School and earned bachelor’s degrees in international business and French from UCA in 2001.

Payton said Vernon Freeman of Freeman Tax Service in Conway was an inspiration to him as a young man. Payton worked for Freeman as a tax preparer and saw first-hand how to run a small business and how to treat customers.

“I remember him,” said Freeman. “He was a good employee and even then he was messing with computers.”

After graduation, Payton held several jobs in the computer field including time with Yahoo! Inc., and as a consultant. He met Hopkins, who hails from Detroit, in Joplin, Mo., where they both were working and the two hit it off and began to plan their own company.

BT Software was formed three years ago and employs five, including Payton and Hopkins.

Business, Pages 19 on 01/14/2013

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