Sentioscope

Speech and voice controls, as each vendor documents them

Speaker label: naming who talks inside a prompt

A speaker label is a name written beside a line so the model knows which character says it. One entry documents the convention. Inside a call it does real work; across calls it does nothing at all. As of 2026-09-12.

Real work inside one call, and nothing after itLabelling speakers and alternating turns is the only published guidance here on the commonest shot in drama. It operates inside a single request, and nothing connects a label to a voice that survives the next one.Inside one generationAcross generationsRouting a lineEach line reaches the right faceNothing publishedOrdering an exchangeTurns alternate as writtenNothing publishedEstablishing a voiceConsistent within this callNo mechanism at allWorth doingYes, the model behaves predictablyYes, the documents stay usableA label is an instruction, not an identity
Fig. 1 A two-hander can play correctly in one shot and come back with different voices in the reverse angle.
Controls documented, model by modelFilled where the model documents that control, hollow where nothing is published about it.Controls documented, model by modelInside one generationInside onegenerationAcross generationsRoutes a lineRoutes a line — Inside one generation: Sends each line to the right faceRoutes a line — Across generations: Nothing publishedOrders an exchangeOrders an exchange — Inside one generation: Turns can be alternated deliberatelyOrders an exchange — Across generations: Nothing publishedEstablishes a voiceEstablishes a voice — Inside one generation: Consistent within the callEstablishes a voice — Across generations: No mechanism connects a label to a voice
Fig. 2 Filled where the model documents that control, hollow where nothing is published about it.
Speaker label, as published. Recorded 2026-09-12.
What it doesInside one generationAcross generations
Routes a lineSends each line to the right faceNothing published
Orders an exchangeTurns can be alternated deliberatelyNothing published
Establishes a voiceConsistent within the callNo mechanism connects a label to a voice

Inclusion rule. The functions a documented speaker label performs, separated by whether the documentation extends them beyond a single generation. Order. Fixed order: routing, ordering, then identity.

1A label is an instruction, not an identity

Labelling speakers consistently and alternating their turns is the only published guidance in this register on the commonest shot in drama. It is genuinely useful and it operates inside one request.

A two-hander can therefore play correctly in one shot and come back with different voices in the reverse angle. For a serial that is the gap that matters, and no sentence on either page closes it.

2Consistent labelling is still worth doing

Even without persistence, naming the same character the same way keeps a shot list readable and keeps model behaviour predictable inside a call. It costs nothing and it is the shape a voice mechanism would want if one ever arrived.

What it cannot do is substitute for a cast. A serial needs voices that outlast a request, and a label is not one, however carefully it is written.

3A label and an identifier are different tools

An identifier points at a stored voice and returns the same one every time. A label points at a character inside a piece of prose and returns whatever the model decides that character sounds like on this occasion.

Both are passed on a request and only one of them is a casting decision. Treating them as equivalent is the commonest way a production over-estimates what a prompting guide has promised.

4Sources read for this entry

This page defines the term and logs what each vendor documents about it, each figure read on 2026-09-12. Related: Voice catalogue, Language code.