How Broadcasters Can Find Peace of Mind

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We’ve been helping Bob, and many other broadcasters around the world, to find peace of mind in their playout systems. Bob had a similar problem to many other broadcasters: he was constantly stressed about how he could do more with fewer operators, constantly concerned that his playout and captioning solutions would crash from on-going problems, and constantly worried that major problems in their broadcasts would cost them thousands of dollars in commercial revenue.

To bring Bob peace of mind, we provided him with a fully integrated solution by a single vendor. This eliminated one of his major problems of having to work with multiple vendors and support contracts. Our integrated solution, OASYS Integrated Playout, also replaced his old, purpose-built hardware systems with software to manage the same functions.

This same OASYS Integrated Playout Solution is used by call letter stations, PBS stations, cable channels, and other content and service providers around the world to deliver solutions and reliability. With OASYS, broadcasters can manage their system remotely with fewer staff and feel sure that if a problem occurs, the playout system will take over and switch the back-up on-air so no programming or commercials are missed.

Engineers, like Bob, are very happy with OASYS because its a game-changer for their operation:

  • OASYS reduces the amount of hardware needed
  • Removes most purpose-built devices
  • Can be managed remotely
  • Adds multiple redundancy and back-up options so that any point of failure has a way to recover and continue operation, many times without human intervention.

Bob and his team are no longer held hostage by expensive, hard to maintain, proprietary boxes. Their operations thrive using standard IT hardware that is more cost-effective and reliable running our integrated software. It delivers on their operational needs, grows with them and is easily upgraded. Peace of mind, delivered in a timely, professional manner.

Learn More about our OASYS Integrated Playout System here, or contact our team directly.

Do company training videos have to be captioned?

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Many companies use video to provide training to their employees. Topics range from new employee on-boarding to workplace conduct and safety procedures. Video can also be used for continuous training to ensure that employees are up-to-date on the latest policies and procedures as well as product and service related information needed for customer interactions.

Using video for training is a great way to educate employees when a live trainer is not available or needed to cover basic information. To make sure your video content is understood and retained it’s important to make sure the each video includes accurate captions.

Do you legally have to caption training videos?

Yes. According to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Private companies must caption videos, including training videos, video tutorials, and videos used for internal communications to be in compliance with ADA standards.

Specifically, Title I and Title II of the ADA prohibit employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of a disability. This includes job training and providing any necessary aids to ensure equal access to information for all individuals.

Providing captions for all internal videos is one way to ensure your company is compliant.

Failure to comply with ADA regulations could lead to un-neccesary lawsuits. Take FedEx as an example. FedEx was sued by the EEOC in 2014 for failing to provide “closed-captioned training videos during the mandatory initial tour of the facilities and new-hire orientation for deaf and hard-of-hearing applicants”. (https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-sues-fedex-ground-package-system-inc-nationwide-disability-discrimination)

So how can your business ensure you are following ADA regulations?

To start, make sure any company videos include accurate closed captioning. If you have any videos that do not include captions, we can help!

Fill out the form to get a quote for captioning your video content and send us your files. Using advanced ASR technology, our team will create accurate closed captioning files for your videos with fast turnaround times.

Using our captioning service, we create highly accurate captions for your training and informational videos for $0.25 per minute of content.

To make your company videos even more inclusive, consider adding translated subtitles. Adding Spanish captioning is a great way to ensure that all employees, especially those who speak English as a second language, are able to fully retain company information and training guidelines.

Translated subtitles for your company videos is done using a combination of our ASR technology and professional human translators. This way, we are able to provide you with Spanish video subtitles that are both accurate and affordable, starting an unbeatable price of $1.67 per minute. To learn more about how you can add Spanish subtitles to your training videos, visit our subtitling page.

What is ‘Respeaking’?

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Respeaking is a common method used to create captions and subtitles in many countries…but what does it mean?

Respeaking is done by a professional “respeaker” to create captions or subtitles for live and pre-recorded programming. The respeaker listens to the program’s audio and repeats what is said into a special microphone (a.k.a speech silencer), being sure to add punctuation and labels to identify speakers and sounds. Speech recognition software is used to convert the speech to text that is used to create a subtitle file for the program. The speech silencer used by the respeaker helps to improve the accuracy of the captions by removing any background noise and confusing sounds.

This method of respeaking requires the use of highly trained professionals who speak clearly, quickly and accurately. Respeakers, or speech-to-text reporters, must listen to the audio, respeak the audio quickly and accurately, and then check the output to make any necessary corrections. All of this must be done quickly, especially for live programming where the captions must appear in time with the live audio.

Due to the vocal strain from respeaking, respeakers are only advised to do 15-minute stints at a time. For live programming, broadcasters must have a team of respeakers ready to rotate throughout the program to ensure that the subtitle accuracy doesn’t decline as the respeaker’s voice becomes strained.

ASR Technology & Respeaking

Advanced Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) technology is quickly becoming an innovative partner to the process of respeaking. ASR technology, when combined with the method of respeaking, helps to improve productivity and the speed in which captions can be created.

Many broadcasters today use a combined ASR-Respeaker method of creating captions in order to ensure that they are fully utilizing their respeaker’s time. Respeakers can work faster and caption more content when using ASR technology as a supplemental tool. This change in workflow improves overall productivity as content producers are able to extend their re-speakers to more projects and use ASR technology as a supplemental tool to speed-up certain tasks or take over when a respeaker needs a break.

Our team works together with broadcasters to help them combine our advanced ASR technology, such as WinCaps or VoCaption Live, with their current method of respeaking to achieve higher productivity levels.

If you’re interested in learning more about our captioning and subtitling software and solutions and how they can benefit your operation, learn more here or contact our team directly. 

FCC vs. ADA Caption Requirements

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Are your videos in compliance with FCC and ADA requirements?

Both the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) strive to protect and assist individuals with disabilities. This includes individuals who are hard-of-hearing and their rights to have full access to video programming. To ensure access to video programming, the FCC and ADA have set standards and requirements for closed captioning on live and pre-recorded programming.

Does your programming meet their standards and requirements?

Let’s find out:

FCC Requirements for closed captioning on television –

FCC rules apply to all television programming with captions. The organization states that captions must be accurate, synchronous, complete, and properly placed.

  • The program’s captions must match the spoken words while also displaying the background noises in an accurate manner.
  • Captions must be synced with the audio of the programming. Text must coincide with the spoken words and sounds at the same time and speed.
  • Captions must be included from the beginning of the programming to the end of the programming.
  • Captions should not block any important visuals on the screen, overlap causing difficulty in reading, or run off the screen.
  • It’s important to note that these rules also apply to internet video programming if the “video programming was broadcast on television in the U.S. with captions.”

ADA Compliance Laws for Closed Captioning –

The ADA closed captioning guidelines are targeted towards government institutions, public schools and universities, as well as businesses and non-profit organizations that serve the public. The closed captioning requirements for both television and online internet video content are designed to ensure that captions are being created correctly.

  • Each caption should hold 1-3 lines of text onscreen at a time, and should not exceed 3 lines.
  • Captions should have an accuracy of 99%.
  • The captioning font should be similar to Helvetica
  • Background noises, or non-speech sounds, should be added in square brackets.
  • Punctuation and both lower and upper case letters should be used
  • Captions should reflect slang words used in the audio

You can find more information about the ADA’s captioning regulations from their website linked here.

Are there any exclusions?

It’s important to understand that captioning rules only apply to videos that have been aired on television. If content has never been aired on television, then these rules do not apply. However, although not legally required to have accurate captioning, these videos should still include accurate captions. Why? Because video with captions reach a much wider audience. Videos with accurate captions help individuals who are deaf or experience hearing loss to still enjoy the content. Captions allow individuals who are only able to watch the content with the sound off to still enjoy the video. Captions improve retention rates for videos filled with important information, and deliver a better viewing experience.

Are you following FCC and ADA guidelines? If not, a complaint could be filed against you and legal actions may be taken.

Be safe, avoid potential and unnecessary legal problems by captioning your videos with accurate and correctly placed captions.

To learn more about captioning software that complies with FCC and ADA guidelines, visit our Subtitling & Captioning Page.