feat: benchmark suite with WER, timestamp accuracy, cross-backend comparison

- Extend test_backend_offline.py with WER and timestamp accuracy metrics
  computed via whisperlivekit.metrics against ground truth transcripts.
- Add --benchmark flag to auto-detect all installed backends and run
  each (backend, policy) combination in sequence.
- Add --policy flag to override the streaming policy.
- Add detect_available_backends() probing faster-whisper, mlx-whisper,
  voxtral-mlx, voxtral (HF), and openai-whisper.
- Add print_cross_backend_comparison() with per-combo averages.
- Add run_benchmark.py for comprehensive multi-model benchmarking.
- Add BENCHMARK.md with full results on Apple M4: speed, WER,
  timestamp accuracy, VAC impact, and recommendations.
- Add ground truth transcript JSON files for all audio test files.

audio_tests/generate_transcripts.py

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Generate word-level timestamped transcripts using faster-whisper (offline).
+
+Produces one JSON file per audio with: [{word, start, end}, ...]
+"""
+
+import json
+import os
+from faster_whisper import WhisperModel
+
+AUDIO_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+
+FILES = [
+    ("00_00_07_english_1_speaker.wav", "en"),
+    ("00_00_16_french_1_speaker.wav", "fr"),
+    ("00_00_30_english_3_speakers.wav", "en"),
+]
+
+def main():
+    print("Loading faster-whisper model (base, cpu, float32)...")
+    model = WhisperModel("base", device="cpu", compute_type="float32")
+
+    for filename, lang in FILES:
+        audio_path = os.path.join(AUDIO_DIR, filename)
+        out_path = os.path.join(
+            AUDIO_DIR, filename.rsplit(".", 1)[0] + ".transcript.json"
+        )
+
+        print(f"\n{'='*60}")
+        print(f"Transcribing: {filename} (language={lang})")
+        print(f"{'='*60}")
+
+        segments, info = model.transcribe(
+            audio_path, word_timestamps=True, language=lang
+        )
+
+        words = []
+        for segment in segments:
+            if segment.words:
+                for w in segment.words:
+                    words.append({
+                        "word": w.word.strip(),
+                        "start": round(w.start, 3),
+                        "end": round(w.end, 3),
+                    })
+                    print(f"  {w.start:6.2f} - {w.end:6.2f}  {w.word.strip()}")
+
+        with open(out_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+            json.dump(words, f, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)
+
+        print(f"\n  -> {len(words)} words written to {os.path.basename(out_path)}")
+
+    print("\nDone.")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()