services(aws): don't block the asyncio event loop

[aconchillo]

No description provided.

[markbackman]

I think this needs this update otherwise it's treated as callable.

Suggested change

	self._polly_client.synthesize_speech(**filtered_params)
	lambda: self._polly_client.synthesize_speech(**filtered_params)

[aconchillo]

Oops, sorry. It has to be (updated):

            response = await asyncio.to_thread(
                self._polly_client.synthesize_speech, **filtered_params
            )

[markbackman]

This does work to generate speech sooner, but it produces choppy audio until all of the speech is generated. Once the speech is generated, then things smooth out. I think this has to do with a limitation with Polly where it's intended to generate speech entirely before responding. You can test this out with 07m-interruptible-aws.py and ask it to give you a long response (e.g. "tell me a story").

[aconchillo]

This does work to generate speech sooner, but it produces choppy audio until all of the speech is generated. Once the speech is generated, then things smooth out. I think this has to do with a limitation with Polly where it's intended to generate speech entirely before responding. You can test this out with 07m-interruptible-aws.py and ask it to give you a long response (e.g. "tell me a story").

Yes, but it would be the same without the asyncio.thread right?

[aconchillo]

This does work to generate speech sooner, but it produces choppy audio until all of the speech is generated. Once the speech is generated, then things smooth out. I think this has to do with a limitation with Polly where it's intended to generate speech entirely before responding. You can test this out with 07m-interruptible-aws.py and ask it to give you a long response (e.g. "tell me a story").

Yes, but it would be the same without the asyncio.thread right?

The asyncio.thread only prevents the asyncio event loop not being blocked. It doesn't fix anything else.

[markbackman]

I just pushed the change you suggested above. Using it, I still get choppy speech when a lot of text is generated. We need to better understand the root cause before merging this.

[aconchillo]

So weird, let's close for now.