Have you evaluated your Master Control operations recently?

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Have you evaluated your Master Control operations recently?

What’s going on…

  • more problems than you need;
  • can’t trust the system to be reliable; system aging out;
  • need to find more efficient workflows or make it work with fewer people?

You, more than anyone else, knows how important it is to trust your Master Control software and systems. If they fail, you miss programs and commercials or go off air completely. And if you experience any on-air issues you hear it from viewers and advertisers.

So, are you feeling at peace with your Master Control system, or stressed out? Let’s evaluate:

  • During the week, do you and your team spend too many hours dealing with third-party vendor support or trouble-shooting problems?
  • Can you leave Master Control un-manned or running over night, or days at a time, and be confident your phone won’t ring with new problems?
  • Do you feel confident that your live-captions will work for your next live broadcast?
  • During the holiday season, does your stress increase due to lower staffing levels or slower response times from 3rd party vendor support?
  • Do you have a redundant back-up solution that can take-over automatically when the system detects any problems?
  • Many chief engineers will probably say no. Their systems are overly complex, require more man-power than you can budget and are woefully out of date. They worry about the impact on viewers and staff should the system crater, which it will, when you least expect it.

You are not alone. We commonly hear that Master Control is out-of-date, it causes too many problems; program prep workflows are slow and too much time is spent with multiple support vendors that point fingers or don’t seem to care if your issue is solved today or next week.

Did we just describe your situation? Then maybe it’s time for a change.

If your Master Control system doesn’t bring you and your team joy and peace-of-mind, then you need to learn more about OASYS Integrated Playout. OASYS delivers confidence and peace of mind by using standard IT hardware and fully integrated software that:

  • Reduces your overall dependence on specific boxes because software replaces the need for purpose-built hardware.
  • Reduces the number of support contracts you need to maintain.
  • Reduces your overall foot-print requirement and saves money on utilities.
  • Future-proofs your path forward because the software is easier to upgrade than hardware and saves money in the long-run.

So, if your current system isn’t flexible, doesn’t automate your workflows, doesn’t eliminate your need for purpose-built devices and multiple vendors, then you need OASYS.

Learn more about OASYS Integrated Playout here. 

Captions vs. Subtitles

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What’s the difference between captions and subtitles?

Many people confuse captions and subtitles. They both appear as text on a television, computer screen or mobile phone while a video is playing, and help individuals understand the speech better. So what is the actual difference between the two?

The basic difference is captions are in the same language as the spoken word on the screen and subtitles are in a different language.

Captions take the speech and display it as text in the same language. Subtitles, on the other hand, are a translation of the speech into different languages. This means that with captions, what you read is what you also hear. With subtitles, what you read is a different language than what you hear.

Captions were originally developed to make television programs more accessible to the deaf community. Individuals with hearing impairments may not be able to fully understand the audio but can follow along with the closed captions to understand what is being spoken.

Closed captions prevent discrimination against people with disabilities and are required by law in many countries including America and all of Europe. Not only do captions benefit the deaf community, but they also make multimedia videos more engaging and accessible. With captions, videos can be played on silent in public areas or noisy rooms. Captions also help viewers to better retain information from university lectures, training videos, conference meetings, live events, and so much more.

Subtitles, on the other hand, were originally developed to make television viewing more accessible to viewers who don’t speak the same language as the audio in the program. Videos and TV programs can now be shared across the world with the help of subtitles. Although the speech remains in one language, individuals can add their foreign language, if available, using subtitles to better understand what is being said. Subtitles not only make multimedia more accessible across languages, but also help individuals who are trying to learn a new language. Statistics show that adding subtitles in a foreign language can help individuals learn a new language by watching the words and phrases pop-up on the screen. Subtitles also offer benefits for the deaf and hard-of-hearing who seek to access videos in foreign languages as well.

Both subtitles and captions make multimedia videos and television programs accessible across the world. Video content is quickly invading social media platforms and videos are becoming much more important in education and business environments.

Every video you create should have captions or subtitles to improve engagement, accessibility and retention for all viewers regardless of their hearing situation.

Check out our Captioning & Subtitling Software to learn more about what these technologies can do for you.

How VoCaption Cut WVIA’s Live Program Workflow from Aggravation to a Single Mouse Click

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WVIA, a PBS station operating 3 channels in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the Central Susquehanna Valley, has been using BroadStream’s OASYS Integrated Playout solution and recently added VoCaption, our Automated Speech Recognition solution for live, automated captioning.

Joe Glynn and his staff at WVIA have been providing live captions on a limited basis, but getting live captions on-air took too many steps and had multiple points of failure which increased both stress and anxiety levels beyond what the team needed.

The workflow necessary to launch live captioning each week included having someone call the captioning company to schedule the captioner, provide all the details including date and time of the show, length of the broadcast and arrange for testing prior to the show airing.

On the day of the show an engineer needed to be available at least 15 minutes before the show’s scheduled start to connect the call to the audio bridge and test the outbound audio, which often took a back-seat to microphone checks from the studio. The captioner was required to call-in prior to air to confirm they were available, which didn’t always happen, and connect to the caption encoder so the station could verify that captions would actually appear. If there were issues, those had to be resolved quickly. If the captioner was late, it made things much more difficult and stressful and on several occasions shows aired without captions. WVIA felt the live captioning process was too complicated with too many steps and points of failure and felt there must be a better solution.

Looking to resolve the issues associated with live captioning Joe decided to look at VoCaption to see if automation would help smooth things out. Accuracy was, of course, a concern, but if VoCaption was anywhere close to their current accuracy level it would be worth it to make the switch.

The installation and commissioning hit a few bumps along the way but they were resolved and after a few tests WVIA formally selected BroadStream’s VoCaption, Automated Live Caption Solution.

Joe Glynn, Chief Technology Officer at WVIA commented, “All of the problems and multiple extra steps necessary to put closed captions on-air for a live show were reduced to one single mouse click with VoCaption.” Glynn continued, “While VoCaption did offer us some cost savings, by far the biggest benefit was we now had full control of the process and no longer depended on an outside, 3rd party provider. This change reduced a previously frustrating and complex workflow to a single mouse click.”

With VoCaption, WVIA is saving time, reducing frustration, and improving their workflow by fully controlling their entire live captioning process. Follow Joe Glynn’s lead and install VoCaption to reduce your live captioning frustrations and simplify the process to a single mouse click.

For more information please visit our website to learn more about VoCaption or our Contact Us page to arrange a call or demo.

 

The Importance of Workflow in Broadcast Media

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In the broadcast world the process necessary to take a program and broadcast it to viewers can be quite complicated. Lots of things can go wrong.

Video tape is no longer used and has been replaced by digital video which, in the beginning made things more complicated for broadcasters. Things like video file format, audio, captioning, graphics, scheduling commercial breaks as well as the programs must go smoothly to create a full day of programing and and get it ready to broadcast. Now multiply this process over 24 hours per day and 168 hours per week and the workload can be staggering.

To maintain quality, TV stations use specific routines and processes, called workflows, managed by highly qualified technical staff, to ensure the correct programs air at their scheduled time.

Each workflow can have multiple steps and go though multiple forms of processing or editing to become broadcast-ready.

To make the overall process as efficient as possible, TV stations are constantly looking for ways to improve their workflows, and that means reducing the complexity and number of steps required down to the fewest number of steps possible. With so many different steps and potential friction points, the work can be stressful and anxiety producing. If the workflow isn’t simplified, clearly outlined, and properly managed, many broadcasters can find it difficult to do their job to the best of their abilities.

That’s why the workflow is important. A well constructed workflow can improve efficiency and productivity while improving quality and at the same time helping to create a more stress-free environment.

Let’s use WVIA as an example.

Joe Glynn and his staff at WVIA provided live captioning to their viewers. The amount of live captioning the station needed each week was limited but the work associated with getting live captions on-air was not. The station was using human-generated live captions through an outside vendor.

Their workflow to produce the live captions was inefficient. It involved working with an outside company that provided captioners for live shows. This meant that every week, someone from the station needed to call the captioning company, schedule the captioner, provide all the details for the show, and arrange for testing prior to the show airing.

Before the show began, an engineer or operator was required to connect the call to the audio bridge and test the outbound audio. The captioner was required to call in and confirm they were present before the show began, which didn’t always happen. If the captioner did call in to confirm their presence, then the station had to connect to the captioning encoder to ensure that captions would actually show up on the screen.

After all the planning the station often ran into multiple issues that needed to be addressed at the last minute. No pressure right?

They often weren’t able to perform a necessary audio test with the captioner before the show because they had to do microphone checks for the show. Or if the caption encoder wouldn’t connect before the show a second engineer was necessary to fix the issue to while another engineer continued to get the system ready for the live broadcast.

This workflow was full of stress, constant problems, and little efficiency. Not only that, but the workflow of adding live captions actually hindered their quality and success in other areas of the broadcast.

That’s why workflow is so important – a good workflow improves quality and success while also ensuring that no other workflows are hindered in the process.

To find a solution and eliminate the workflow issues surrounding live closed captioning, Joe reached out to our team at BroadStream to see how we could help. We recommended VoCaption to provide an Automated Live Captioning Solution and helped his team with the installation and training. Once in place, their workflow problems were eliminated.

Today, with one simple mouse click, live captions are triggered and on-screen. No planning, no worry. Hours of work were reduced to that one mouse click. Simple, easy and at a cost savings as well.

The team now has more control. They no longer rely on a third-party for their live captioning because a complicated workflow was eliminated by new and proven technology.

If you want to know more or see a demo, reach out to us on our Contact page.