The Case for Automating Closed Captioning

HAMILTON, N.J.-Without closed captioning, the deaf and hard of hearing cannot fully appreciate the video they're watching. When closed captioning is displayed onscreen, viewers can read text of the dialogue while watching the video. And for international video distribution, foreign language captions and subtitles are essential for viewer accessibility.

In fact, this service is so important that a recent U.S. law-the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA)-stipulates that any video that's been broadcast on television must have captions when it streams over the internet. And the FCC's closed-captioning quality rules require non-live programming to have captions that are accurate, complete, in sync with the dialogue, and positioned properly on-screen.

When broadcasters need to distribute a high volume of video to domestic and international markets-and IP outlets including over-the-top services, websites and mobile devices-they need a smart, automated captioning workflow that ensures regulatory compliance without quality compromises.

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

Many broadcasters today want to deliver their video content internationally so it can be enjoyed by the broadest possible audience, and closed captioning is the key to making that happen, said Giovanni Galvez, product manager of captioning products for Telestream, in Nevada City, Calif. Where there are language barriers, foreign language captions and subtitles are a must.

To expand viewership across global markets and ensure accessibility to everyone-whether they're watching via TV, online or mobile-means broadcasters must properly caption or subtitle all iterations of their content for multiplatform, global distribution, Galvez added. Considering the scope and complexity of this task, broadcasters can save considerable time and money by using an automated solution that integrates precision captioning and subtitling as part of their existing media processing workflow.

Telestream's new Timed Text Flip feature leverages the company's Vantage 7.0 media processing platform to automatically process high-quality subtitle and captioning input files-created by the customer or a third-party service-and add them to associated media in accordance with today's broadcast, internet and accessibility mandates.

Galvez said that Timed Text Flip runs on the same automated Vantage workflow that many broadcasters already rely on in their daily broadcasting operations. And multiple processes-such as burning in subtitles, and offsetting captions to match the media following frame rate conversions-can run in parallel, with the finished files automatically landing on servers or other designated destinations for delivery.

CAPTIONING IN IP

EEg's icap alta system is intended for closed captioning of live programming delivered via an IP workflow, with support for 4K, IP and cloud environments.

LINK:	http://www.tvtechnology.com/resources/0006/the-case-for-automating-clo...
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