diff --git a/apps/fc-ttsreader/fc-ttsreader.yaml b/apps/fc-ttsreader/fc-ttsreader.yaml
index fcc9c15..509e883 100644
--- a/apps/fc-ttsreader/fc-ttsreader.yaml
+++ b/apps/fc-ttsreader/fc-ttsreader.yaml
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ spec:
         runAsUser: 1654
       containers:
         - name: align
-          image: localhost/fc-speech-align:v1
+          image: localhost/fc-speech-align:v2
           imagePullPolicy: Never
           ports:
             - containerPort: 9200
diff --git a/apps/fc-ttsreader/speech-align/requirements.txt b/apps/fc-ttsreader/speech-align/requirements.txt
index 47b0514..d1c5eb7 100644
--- a/apps/fc-ttsreader/speech-align/requirements.txt
+++ b/apps/fc-ttsreader/speech-align/requirements.txt
@@ -2,3 +2,7 @@ faster-whisper==1.0.3
 fastapi==0.115.0
 uvicorn[standard]==0.30.6
 python-multipart==0.0.10
+# faster-whisper 1.0.3's utils module imports requests but doesn't pin it as a
+# transitive dep — pin explicitly so the image isn't relying on whatever
+# happens to be in the base image.
+requests==2.32.3