AmberFin Offers Solution To Simplify the Complexity Of Captioning Workflows to Meet New FCC Regulation

AmberFin Offers Solution To Simplify The Complexity Of Captioning Workflows to Meet New FCC Regulation 14 Mar 2013

At NAB 2013, on booth SU8505, AmberFin, a leading developer of file-based media ingest, transcoding and quality control solutions for content owners, broadcasters, sports organizations and post-production houses will demonstrate how new enhancements to its iCR software help meet the new FCC regulation mandating that all video content broadcast on television in the US now requires captions when it is distributed over Internet Protocol (IP).

AmberFin has teamed up with caption solution specialist, Softel to show how placing captions in the heart of a file-based ingest and transcode workflow can dramatically improve the efficiency and reliability of otherwise difficult captioning and subtitling workflows. The integration of Softels Swift vTX with AmberFins iCR supports transcoding to a wide array of media formats whilst delivering the correctly formatted subtitle, caption and ancillary data, with a rich feature set that fits easily into any broadcast workflow.

Since failure to comply with regulations could result in fines, broadcasters and content owners need to find more efficient ways to deal with captions as their programming expands. Bruce Devlin, AmberFins CTO and co-author of the MXF format explains:

Recent FCC regulations indicate a worldwide trend towards regarding captions as a critical element of the OTT discussion. However, captions rarely increase the revenues of broadcasters or content owners. They are an add-on service that is in many cases required by law. We are entering a world where multi-platform delivery to broadcast, VoD and web streaming channels now also require captions and subtitles by law. Unfortunately, the traditional captioning workflows that go around the outside of the main workflow are now too expensive and time consuming to justify when the number of platforms is growing and the number of viewers per platform is inevitably diminishing.

To reduce operational costs, improve productivity and deliver quicker ROI, broadcasters and content owners need to ensure they have a full captioning/subtitling solution ready as they make the transition to file-based workflows. This way, significant savings can be achieved by processing video, audio and subtitles/captions together on the same platform, and the integrity of subtitle or closed caption data can be securely preserved as video files are converted from one format to another.

By applying the lessons we learned manipulating high-quality video mezzanine files to captions, we have developed a new breed of easy to manage captioning and subtitling workflows. Whether you need an A/53 transport stream, SMPTE-TT, OP-47 or a simple .scc file,we have an AmberFin's iCR captioning mezzanine workflow for you, says Devlin.

We had a vision when we wrote the MXF ST 436 specification that we could build caption and subtitle workflows that were independent of compression codecs it's great to see that dream finally becoming a reality, he concludes.

AmberFin has developed two white papers to help broadcasters and content owners navigate the complexities of captioning. Called An Introduction To Captions In File-Based Workflows and How to simplify the complexity of multilingual multi-format, multi-channel captioning workflows with AmberFin iCR, these white papers can be downloaded at http://www.amberfin.com/knowledge-zone.

About AmberFin

AmberFin is a company at the heart of solving file-based workflow problems for content owners, broadcasters, sports organizations and post-production houses. The AmberFin Media Factory, based on the iCR family of modular software products, digitizes and transforms new and archived content, combining a service oriented design philosophy with intelligent use of cost-effective generic IT. This enables customers to save time, increase revenues and grow in-line with business demands.

Unique to the Media Factory system, AmberFin's industry first approach to Quality Control, known as Unified Quality Control (UQC), introduces a QC mark that brings a new level of trust to media assets. UQC uniquely combines an automated process with a human touch, enabling more efficient and effective decision-making and new levels of confidence in the file creation and transformation processes.

Since its inception, AmberFin has enjoyed continuous growth thanks to hundreds of iCR systems being deployed worldwide. Systems that are trusted where quality matters by some of the world's leading media organizations including HBO, AP, Reuters, WWE, ITV, Sony Pictures, NBA, Turner Broadcasting, ZDF, NRK, National Geographic, BT, Discovery and Warner Brothers.

LINK:	http://www.theiabm.org/article.php?group_id=8010...
	See more stories from iabm

Most recent headlines