BroadStream Releases VoCaption-Live, Automated Subtitling Solution
For Immediate Release
BroadStream Announces Official Release of VoCaption for Live Automated Captions and Subtitles
Acquisition of Screen Subtitling Systems creates new product launch.
Duluth, GA USA – 8 May 2020 – Integrated playout specialist, BroadStream Solutions, announced that it will officially release VoCaption, Live Automated Captioning & Subtitling Solution during the NAB Express Show May 13-14, 2020.
This represents the Company’s first new product launch since the acquisition of well-known subtitling experts, Screen Subtitling Systems, Inc. Located in Suffolk, in the UK, Screen has specialized in developing products and solutions for the preparation and delivery of subtitles and captions, including value-added information services across multiple platforms and devices for over 40 years.
We’ve been working very hard to combine the two teams together under one umbrella brand since the acquisition,” said David Bowes, BroadStream’s President and CEO, “and VoCaption represents a great joint effort between our Development and Engineering teams.”
The new BroadStream Engineering Team incorporated AI, artificial intelligence, in the form of a speech-to-text processing engine to create an automated solution that can be used to support live captioners or provide captioning where live captioners are not available and do so at a fraction of the cost of human captioning, with significant quality improvements over previous AI efforts that will benefit hearing disadvantaged viewers, as well as, viewers in locations where television is available, but without sound.
Stenography, as a profession, has been in decline since 2013. As senior professionals retire they are not being replaced by younger candidates who are passing on transcription as a career in favor of other professions. Coupled with this industry decline, we’re seeing increased demand for live captioning due to new regulations in multiple countries, more live and breaking news, 24-hour news cycles, increased use of subtitles in social media and an explosion of new streaming options for viewers. Additional competition for live captioners is coming from corporate events, government briefings, meetings and increased usage from the legal system for depositions and trials are creating resource issues and rising prices for human captioning.
“While many will say machine captions are not as accurate as humans, or, they’ve tried it before and it wasn’t good enough, we’ve watched the AI technology improve dramatically over the last few years, and find it to be on a par and sometimes better than humans with quality audio, and it will only get better and better,” according to Melissa Preslar”, BroadStream’s Chief Operating Officer, “in addition, broadcasters tell us that even when a few errors do pop-up, the significantly lower cost for VoCaption is too good to pass up.”
VoCaption will be available as part of OASYS Integrated Playout, as well as, with Polistream our leading, subtitle inserter. A stand-alone solution that integrates with 3rd party caption inserters will also be available, along with a non-broadcast version for live on-premise captions at events, meetings, briefings, and presentations.
“We are especially excited about VoCaption’s integration with OASYS Integrated Playout and our Polistream Caption & Subtitle Transmission system as these options will enable broadcasters to reduce their hardware investment and take advantage of the automation from OASYS along with the great features that Polistream and VoCaption deliver,” Bowes commented, “plus, many of Screen’s customers have requested a playout solution from Screen that provides all the features they need for playout with a tight integration to Screen’s subtitling and value-add products.”
You can learn more about VoCaption here.
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BroadStream Contact:
Chuck Jones, CMO
BroadStream Solutions, Inc
[email protected]
About BroadStream
BroadStream (https://broadstream.com) specializes in flexible and highly scalable solutions for integrated playout, live automated captioning & subtitling, file-based, captioning & subtitling, caption encoding and subtitling software tools. Our OASYS Integrated Playout solution is used world-wide by broadcasters of all sizes for Content Preparation, Playout and Management. Designed to improve workflow efficiency, solutions are available in SD, HD, and IP as well as SD/HD-SDI and SDI/IP hybrid playout configurations to provide a solid migration path to future technologies, including the cloud, to make transitioning easier.
In 2018, BroadStream acquired Screen Subtitling Systems in the UK. Screen specializes in products for the preparation and delivery of captions, subtitles and value-add information services across multiple platforms and devices. Our combined 60+ years of hands-on experience consistently delivers quality, flexibility, dependability, improved workflows and operational efficiency that scale from single channel facility to multichannel broadcasters and service providers operating hundreds of channels.
