The original motivation for the SPA platform was to answer the increasing number of requests received for transcribing audio/video files in European Portuguese.
it was firstly created to provide a simple interface, easy to use by non-expert users, but requests have multiplied and diversified, namely in terms of languages (Spanish, English) and varieties covered (European, Brazilian), domains (broadcast news, interviews), etc.. although the majority of the SPA users are only interested in the automatic transcripts, other technology partners showed interest in obtaining information about characteristics of the speakers (e.g.