Capturing timecodes during a live transmission
In this article:
Capturing timecodes
during live cueing
Capturing timecodes
during live speech input
Overview
Q-Live provides the ability to capture rough timecodes during live subtitling. To do this you must first enable a timecode source.
Currently, Q-Live supports the following timecode sources:
None - no timecode source is enabled
PC Clock - an internally generated timecode source that uses the current time of day from the PC clock
External Timecode Card - timecode that can be read from an external source - Note: timecode cards are not tested by Broadstream, so please contact Broadstream Support for further information as to whether a card may be supported.
You can configure the timecode source from the Configure pane of the Toolbox.
When a timecode source is enabled, the timecode display (above) will show the current time from the timecode source.
You can pause a running timecode device by clicking inside the timecode display. The numbers will dim to indicate that the timecode is paused. Click on the timecode display again to restart the timecode.
Capturing timecodes during live cueing
You must enable a timecode source as described in the previous section.
When you cue a subtitle in live mode, Q-Live fixes its In time as the current value of the timecode source at the moment that the Cue key was pressed. Q-Live floats the subtitle's Out time based on the current default display rate (even if the enable box is unchecked).
If the Store Timecodes from Video Window option from the Live Output Settings> Live - user settings is selected along with the Clear current subtitle by reading rate option and the Add cued subtitles to queue option from the Live Output Settings> Live - customer settings then the timecodes will work differently. If subtitles are cued out faster than the reading rate allows them to be on air, causing the subtitles to be added to the queue and released when the reading rate allows, then the timecodes will be altered to match when they are released to air. (when they appear in the Video Window).
If you use the Clear key to manually clear a subtitle from air then Wincaps Q4 will fix its Out time to the value of the timecode source at the moment when the Clear key was pressed. Note that this is only really meaningful in block transmission mode.
Note that the timing rules will always prevent subtitles from overlapping by reducing the Out time of the previous subtitle if necessary. You can take advantage of other timing rules where appropriate. For example, you might want to enable the minimum gap rule to automatically enforce a gap between adjacent subtitles.
Capturing timecodes during live speech input
Q-Live provides the ability to capture rough timecodes during live speech and Stenograph input.
Note that this feature is only available for the following types of live input:
Direct Dragon speech input
Speech input via the SpeakTitle window
Stenograph input
You must enable a timecode source as described in the previous section. Ensure that the current story doesn't have a media file attached.
Note that
for this feature to work correctly, the current story must not
have a media file attached.
Whenever a word or phrase arrives in the current subtitle in live mode, Q-Live sets the timecode of the last word using the current value of the timecode source at the moment that the last word was received. Q-Live then works back through the rest of the received text, calculating and assigning word timings based on the current default display rate. Although these word timings are not directly visible, Q-Live can use them to determine the subtitle In and Out times whenever live input text is split off from the top of the current subtitle. Note that the timing rules are not applied during live input, though Q-Live will ensure that the captured timecodes do not overlap.
If desired, you can compensate for the time delay between speaking the phrase and the text arriving in the subtitle. This is done simply by subtracting a configurable speech time delay from the value of the timecode source. This delay value is configured in the Speech Time tab of the Configure Live Settings dialog.