burn874/transcribe-NPU

NPU Speech Transcription Service

Local Whisper transcription / translation accelerated by Intel NPU (Core Ultra / Meteor Lake) with OpenVINO GenAI.

---

Prerequisites

Hardware

• Intel NPU-capable PC (Core Ultra or newer)

System software - Windows 10/11 (PowerShell examples)

1. Node.js LTS - front-end dev server

winget install -e --id OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS

Or grab the MSI: https://nodejs.org/en/download

2. Conda - Python env manager
   Install Miniconda / Anaconda: https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html

& "C:\Windows\System32\curl.exe" -o "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe" "https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe"
Start-Process "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe" -ArgumentList "/quiet", "/InstallAllUsers=1", "/PrependPath=1" -Wait

3. Python
   Install Python 3.8 - 3.12. Both manual or via PowerShell works.

winget install Python.Python.3.12 --scope machine

4. OpenVINO Runtime 2025.1 & OpenVINO GenAI 2025.1 - inference back-end

Download

& "C:\Windows\System32\curl.exe" -L -o "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\openvino_2025.zip" "https://storage.openvinotoolkit.org/repositories/openvino/packages/2025.1/windows/openvino_toolkit_windows_2025.1.0.18503.6fec06580ab_x86_64.zip"
& "C:\Windows\System32\curl.exe" -L -o "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\openvino_genai_2025.zip" "https://storage.openvinotoolkit.org/repositories/openvino_genai/packages/2025.1/windows/openvino_genai_windows_2025.1.0.0_x86_64.zip"

Extract

Expand-Archive $env:USERPROFILE\Documents\openvino_2025.zip -DestinationPath $env:TEMP\ov -Force
Expand-Archive $env:USERPROFILE\Documents\openvino_genai_2025.zip -DestinationPath $env:TEMP\ovg -Force

Install

$ovSubfolder = Get-ChildItem -Path "$env:TEMP\ov" -Directory | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "*openvino*" }
$ovgSubfolder = Get-ChildItem -Path "$env:TEMP\ovg" -Directory | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "*openvino_genai*" }

Move-Item "$env:TEMP\ov\$ovSubfolder" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\openvino_2025" -Force
Move-Item "$env:TEMP\ovg\$ovgSubfolder" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\openvino_genai_2025" -Force

Remove-Item -Path `
  "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\openvino_2025.zip", `
  "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\openvino_genai_2025.zip", `
  "$env:TEMP\ov", `
  "$env:TEMP\ovg" -Force -Recurse

& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\openvino_2025\setupvars.ps1"
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\openvino_genai_2025\setupvars.ps1"

5. Python wheels (inside the conda env)

conda activate
conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate NPU

pip install --upgrade pip
pip install `
  "optimum[openvino,onnxruntime-gpu]" `
  "openvino-genai==2025.1.0" `
  "nncf" `
  "uv" `
  "fastapi" `
  "faster_whisper" `
  "huggingface" `
  "uvicorn" `
  "websockets" `
  "hf_xet" `
  "python-multipart" `
  "sentencepiece" `
  "pydub" `
  "accelerate"

6. FFmpeg - audio decoding / resampling backend

winget install -e --id Gyan.FFmpeg
# or via Chocolatey
choco install ffmpeg --confirm

Verify:

ffmpeg -version

---

Initialise OpenVINO in the current shell

conda init
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\openvino_2025\setupvars.ps1"
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\openvino_genai_2025\setupvars.ps1"

Add the two lines to $PROFILE so every PowerShell session loads them automatically.

Check installation:

python -c "import openvino as ov; print(ov.Core().available_devices)"

['NPU', 'CPU'] (or similar) confirms everything is wired up.

---

Repository setup

git clone https://huggingface.co/burn874/transcribe-NPU NPU
cd NPU
conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate NPU

---

Running

Backend only

python -m uvicorn server.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --reload

Front-end only

cd frontend
npm install

# Dev server
npm start

# Production bundle
npm run build

Front-end + backend together

.\start.ps1

start.ps1 launches React (npm start) and Uvicorn, then cleans up when you exit.

---

API Endpoints

Path	Method	Description
/docs	GET	Swagger UI
/health	GET	Health check

---

Linux / macOS notes

• Use the .tgz archives for Runtime & GenAI and run the accompanying .sh setup scripts.
• Replace Move-Item with sudo mv.
• Install Node via package manager (sudo apt install nodejs or brew install node).
• No extra NPU driver is required on Linux.
• FFmpeg: sudo apt install ffmpeg or brew install ffmpeg.

---

Troubleshooting

• ov.Core().available_devices should list NPU. If missing, reinstall the NPU driver and reboot.
• Run ffmpeg -encoders | findstr pcm_s16le – PCM encoders must be present.
• Always open a new shell or re-run the setupvars scripts after installing OpenVINO.