VoCaption, Automated Live Captioning Update

VoCaption Release 2.12

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VOCAPTION RELEASE SUMMARY

Welcome to an update on VoCaption. VoCaption provides live, real-time captioning for broadcast and streaming providers. VoCaption uses Automated Speech Response (AI) to deliver highly accurate live captions and integrates with BroadStream’s OASYS Integrated Playout and Live Production solutions from Broadcast Pix, Over the past few months we released several small VoCaption versions with new features and fixes. This article will recap everything in one post.

NEW VOCAPTION FEATURES

  • VoCaption has a new desktop application with an optimized user interface that makes it much easier to navigate and use.
  • JSON transcript files can now be created for each transcription session.
  • A new Transcript Editor is available to import and edit VoCaption’s JSON transcription file.
  • VoCaption provides live translation to make your videos accessible to a much wider audience. (Languages supported.)
  • VoCaption and Q-LiveASR both utilize the same audio server code.
  • Support for new integrated audio server
  • Support for HTTP audio stream input.
  • VoCaption now supports New (Asian) bilingual languages, including English/Tamil, English/Mandarin, and English/Malay.
  • Adding a caption engine and logic that uses a configurable delay setting to display well-formed and timely captions from translation
  • Support for EBU-TT-Live block captions for translation with video delay.

ERROR CORRECTIONS AND OTHER CHANGES FROM VERSION 2.11.1 TO 2.12

  • License context processing error handling is fixed.
  • ToLower/ToUpper did not use Invariant Culture, causing locale-specific behaviour.
  • Proper timeout display behavior has been corrected.
  • Fixed an issue with excessive license-failed email warnings.
  • Non-Latin punctuation has been removed.
  • Corrected an issue with reconnecting to Speechmatics SaaS/Cloud ASR even when no audio was detected.
  • Speaker changes in file output were incorrectly labelled and this has been fixed.
  • JSONReplay allowFormattingLiveOutput was not working but has been corrected.
  • Fixed an issue that caused slow start-up or sequence delays due to a stalled task.
  • Fixed an issue with port opening when running as non-admin or admin.
  • Corrected a situation where  save failures were not being reported.
  • Audio timeout/status has been fixed.
  • Fixed an issue with EBU-TT-Live row length.
  • Renamed nufor to Newfor.

KNOWN VOCAPTION ISSUES

The following known issues are being addressed and will be covered in future releases:

  • Unless colour cycle is enabled, the EBUTT-LIVE plugin does not display an audio event like Laughter and Applause when enabled in the configuration option.
  • Every time Laughter or Applause is written in the file, EBUTT and SRT in the file writer produce a new file in the recording folder.
  • The customer dictionary file destination and word replacement point to the incorrect location.
  • The audio server has issues with the RTP source and Decklink.
  • File pickers (custom dic & subs list) work but always point to desktop rather than known file location.
  • The EBU-TT Live Plugin does not display Applause & Laughter words.
  • New transcript file is created when the word Applause or Laughter is written into the transcript file.

Please reach out to BroadStream Support or our Sales Team for assistance.

New OASYS Release version 6.13.13.10

OASYS Integrated Playout v6.13.13.10 Released

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A new version (6.13.13.10) of OASYS Integrated Playout has been released and is available to customers by contacting BroadStream Support.

This new release includes the following new features:

NEW FEATURES IN GRAPHIC SEQUENCE EDITOR

  • In addition to the already supported MP4 export format for OASEQ projects, a new option has been added to export projects in MOV (Animation codec) format. Projects containing transparent elements will now be exported with transparency preserved.
  • Undo and Redo options have been implemented to easily undo or redo any changes in Graphic Sequence Editor. Options are available through shortcuts CTRL+Z for Undo option, and CTRL+Y for Redo option and through Main menu bar -> Edit. The number of undo or redo actions is unlimited. Project modifications are saved sequentially, one after the other. Undo actions that are done in quick succession (less than 300ms apart) will be grouped in the same Undo Switching between various tabs in project and changes in Images and Animations and Preview will not get saved.
  • A Center Wipe transition has been added to the timeline as a transition between events and to Object transitions.
  • Added Template scaling options. When AutoSize for a template is set to Width, you can now choose to scale the template to fit the size set in the editor (Scale to fit design size). Scale it only on X axis or X and Y. If it is scaled on both axes, you can position it on top, center and bottom of designed template. If template with AutoSize Width is used in a crawl, then scaling will be disabled. This feature will work in playout only, not in preview.
  • Option to Keep object position on Paste was added to Editor Options → Options → General. If enabled, object will be pasted on the exact same position in the template, but if it’s disabled (default), the pasted object will be slightly offset to be more visible.
  • An animation scaling option was added for animation objects. Once the scaling number is set and Apply is clicked, scaled animation will be displayed in the project, but will only be added to the project when Save is clicked and original sized animation will be removed upon closing (if not used by any other object).
  • Options to preview the project frame by frame were added to the Preview

HUB

  • Optimized CPU usage.
  • Binding HTTP connection to a network adapter was redesigned. Now it can be bound to a particular adapter or the option can be left empty and it will not be bound to a specific adapter. Option used is <adapter> in Configuration.xml.

LOGGER

  • Implemented functionality to increase the Number of hours prior to start time by half hour (.5), instead of just a rounded hour.
  • Implemented changes so that metadata that is being sent with triggers from Sender and logged in AsRun and AsAired logs is now properly logged in Logger AsRun logs.
  • Option to Convert Skip Entries to Play was added to Edit -> Options -> Log input. This option affects events with error (i.e. missing files) played only when Skip events with errors option in Player is unchecked. Actual skipped events are not logged in AsRun logs.

MAKER

  • Enabled support in 1080p50 for recording in MXF AVC-Intra format.

MEDIA LIBRARY

  • Implemented filtering by framerate and codec. This is available in the File filter pipe element.
  • Dolby E detector for 1080p files was redesigned due to longer Dolby E mark intervals than for interlaced files, so now detection is done properly for all the files.
  • In Global Media Library Settings.xml, an option for automatic memory cleanup was added. Default check is set to 5 minutes (300s) and default threshold is 10GB (10240MB). To enable this option, GML service should be stopped, settings saved and then service started again. It is recommended to use this option only in cases where it’s really necessary.

MULTI-CHANNEL WEB CLIENT

  • All the information from Sender trigger is now passed into AsAired logs.
  • Implemented support for recognizing Player configuration with Program output without Live Graphics.
  • Active hour in Commercial Counter is now highlighted with the darker shade of originally present color, depending on the unused time status (green, orange, red).
  • In RM the functionality to include exported metadata, if present, from AsRun logs into AsAired log was implemented.
  • REST API which shows playout statuses for the on-air Player was implemented. It can be reached on http://<mcwc_ip>:<port>/Players/<channel name>/Playoutstatus.xml. These statuses must be enabled on Players so that MCWC can get correct statuses for the channel.
  • In Redundancy Manager, an option to disable checking for missing files for auto-switching in automatic mode was added.

PLAYER

  • In Configure, Upmix type option was added to Upmix tab on audio streams. It is possible to choose between 1 (regular upmix with 6 tracks) and 5.1.4 (upmix with 2 additional tracks, so 8 tracks total). For 5.1.4 option if there is a backup Dolby E channel present in the video file, then it will be decoded to 5.1 and upmixed to 5.1.4, otherwise stereo audio will be upmixed directly to 5.1.4.
  • Added an option for setting tolerance when events should be marked as done. This option is configurable and available in Preferences->Options->General tab where you can define the number of frames to offset. This means if offset is set to 2, the event will be marked as done even if it played 2 frames less. If the event length is rounded, for example 10 minutes, in 50 framerate and offset 2 it should be marked as done even if it played 00:09:59:48.
  • When Player receives a Play trigger from Sender, it will now write everything from that message into AsRun as one xml tag. In case of PlayNext, action will be logged as Switch and no button label or ReconId will be logged in the AsRun log.
  • Implemented functionality to send statuses of Played, Skipped, and Missed events to the backup during synchronization. If synchronization is loaded on backup in the last few seconds of currently playing event, it will first get the status Missed (because the event is stopped and played again, but there is not enough time for it, this is done on backup side), but on next sync the correct status will be sent and list will be updated.
  • Several optimizations for synchronization have been added, which makes the synchronization faster. Synchronization progress window is now hidden, and synchronization is happening in the background without interrupting the user. Last sync status/time is displayed in Player window footer, as well as sync progress.
  • A new option has been added to Preferences -> Customize to define a custom color for events marked as Commercial or a Promo.
  • Besides regular AsRun logs, we implemented creation of a separate log containing played status and played duration for each event.
  • Two types of Program outputs were implemented: CleanFeed (without any graphics) and ProgramWithoutLiveGraphics (containing all the graphics, except for Live graphics layers, previously marked as CleanFeed). If there are Live graphics layers scheduled for either of these outputs (by index), they will “skip” the number of the output they would normally be assigned to and get assigned to the next output, regardless of its SDI or IP output. Scheduling graphics streams in this case requires caution.
  • The same two types of program outputs were added to IP output stream and follow the same graphics scheduling rules as above.
  • An option to automatically prepare next event after deleting currently prepared event was added to Preferences -> Options -> General tab as Auto adjust prepared event. When enabled, this option will work not only when prepared event occurs directly after currently playing event is deleted, but also if a new event is inserted right after currently playing event. This also works if an event was pasted in that spot in the playlist.
  • REST API which shows playout statuses was implemented. Contact Support for more details.
  • Added support for Blackmagic DeckLink Quad 2 (8-port) and Duo 2 (4-port) HD cards. This implementation allows these cards to be used for configuring inputs and outputs on the Player.
  • Added an optional setting for metadata logging and export into AsRun log. The setting is available in Preferences-> Options -> General. When checkbox is enabled, all the metadata from the event, xml and file itself is logged.
  • Implemented an option to prevent saving state file if playout is stopped and machine is on-air. New setting is added in Preferences->Options->Synchronization->Automatic synchronization: Don’t synchronize if Player is On-Air and stopped. All automatic synchronizations will be suspended if nothing is playing and Player is On-Air. Status in status bar will remain Sync needed. Manual synchronizations will still work.
  • Added option to not display metadata in a custom column if Schedule ID is not present on the event. This can be turned on for each custom column separately.
  • Enabled support in 1080p50 for capturing output in MXF AVC-Intra format.
  • Added logging for IP input number.
  • Improved Dolby E detection for 1080p files.
  • Enabled support for decoding Dolby E in 1080p resolution.
  • Dolby Pro Audio Transcoder (Dolby Atmos) encoder was implemented for IP stream. It has replaced previously used Dolby Digital Plus Professional encoder.

 REDUNDANCY MANAGER

  • Implemented functionality to include exported metadata (if present) from AsRun logs into AsAired log.
  • Added option to disable checking for missing files for auto-switching in automatic mode.
  • Internal optimizations for bitrate statistics monitoring.

SCHEDULE IMPORTER

  • Custom audio shuffling rules were added for live events in Edit -> Options -> Custom channel rules -> Audio shuffling rules. Program option can be used for both regular video files and lives or separate Video and Live options can be used.

 SENDER

  • Sender is now sending button Label, ReconId and Duration information as part of the trigger to the Player. ReconId is written twice and this is expected. When there is no ReconId for these triggers, Sender will still send Duration and button Label.
  • Optional settings have been implemented to support full length label name (for very long button labels) and selectable second row information on the button. Settings can be configured through Settings -> Button second row.
  • Implemented functionality to have Set Buttons window and Show Buttons window open at the same time. Known limitation is that Set Buttons window is not updated according to the current state of Show Buttons window, meaning that if a few triggers have been sent, if xls that’s being imported doesn’t match the current state, Show Buttons window will be overridden with data from Set Buttons
  • Added option to display both initial button count and remaining count on the button. Initial count is originally imported count from the xls list and cannot be manually changed. This option is available in Settings -> Additional button options -> General.
  • Added option to export button information from Set Buttons window into a separate file.
  • Added option to automatically save/load buttons list and status to/from a remote location on the network. This can be set up in Settings -> Additional buttons options – > Repository.
  • Added TAKE button mode. By enabling this option in Settings -> Additional buttons options – > General -> Use take button mode a red TAKE button will be added to the buttons window, on top. Any button can be selected to get prepared, but it will only be triggered after TAKE button is clicked.

 Known Issues

  • Squeeze event scheduled in a hotkey loses its out transition after being cleared through another hotkey.
  • SRT files with ANSI encoding are not working properly. Encoding must be set to UTF-8.
  • Graphic Sequence Editor sometimes crashes when autosize is being changed on multiple templates.
  • Alignment of XML objects in some older OASEQ projects might not be working correctly anymore and might require repositioning of objects.
VoCaption, Automated Live Captioning Update

VoCaption Releases Version 2.11.2

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VoCaption released version 2.11.2 recently. This was an emergency release to fix a situation where VoCaption would arbitrarily shut down after running for 2 days.

Should you have any questions or requests, please contact us at BroadStream Support.  To receive email notifications on releases please subscribe to our news updates.

New Update for MediaMate

New Release for MediaMate Version 3.4.3.0

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MediaMate version 3.4.3.0 has been released and is available to all existing MediaMate customers with a valid support contract. This is a maintenance release and includes error corrections and a few changes. You can see them below. If you have any questions please reach out to Support ([email protected])

Special Notes 

The default installation folder has been changed to C:\Program Files(x86) \Broadstream Solutions\MediaMate and the default folder for storing user preferences has been changed to C:\ProgramData\Broadstream Solutions\MediaMate. These locations can be changed to different folders using the custom setup type during the installation. 

Error corrections and other changes in MediaMate 3.4.3.0 

General 

  • Fixed an issue with MediaMateCmd, executing a model does not function on Server 2022. 
  • Fixed an issue with the application error that caused the MediaMate program to crash. 
  • Fixed an issue when PE2 files containing drop-frame timecode could not be read (the output time code was blank or incorrect). 
  • Fixed an issue with SCC roll-up to PAC creates a large file. 
  • Fixed an issue with certain Greek characters. 
  • Fixed an issue in Conversion that caused vertical row 1 to become vertical row 2. 
  • Fixed an issue with PAC. To STL which leads to a crash and stops processing. 

Cumulative Converter 

  • Fixed an issue where certain subtitles were written with invalid timecode (00:00:00:00). 

Subtitle Adjuster 

  • Fixed an issue with insufficient row space for word insertion. 

Subtitle File Parser 

  • Fixed an issue with justification set to left when STL says leave alignment unchanged. 

SubtitlesToXml 

  • Fixed an issue WebVTT captions output green instead of lime. 
  • Fixed an issue with TTML & WebVTT captions not retaining Lime Green color during import. 
  • Fixed an issue where spaces were not kept on output in IMSC. 
  • Fixed an issue with Arabic numerals being translated to characters wrongly in IMSC conversion. 
  • Fixed an issue with numbers being reversed wrongly during STL to IMSC conversion. 
  • Fixed the issue for EBU-TT-DPTT format output, where an additional ‘px’ was incorrectly being added to the ‘fontSize’ declaration. 
  • Fixed an issue where IMSC did not produce the horizontal alignment. 
  • Fixed an issue with cumulative subtitles in an EBU-TT to WebVTT conversion failure. 
  • Fixed an issue with blank rows in WebVTT files. 

Should you have any questions or requests, please contact us at BroadStream Support.  To receive email notifications on releases please subscribe to our news updates.

 

 

 

VoCaption, Automated Live Captioning Update

VoCaption Releases New Features

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VoCaption, Automated Live Captioning has had several updates over the last few months. Here’s a brief recap:

V2.20.1

  • Support for generating license/minutes expiration alarm emails.
  • Support for generating email usage reports.

V2.12.3

  • Fixed an issue with the Start/Stop button not changing color when clicked.

V2.11

  • New option to add laughter and applause in the Cloud/SaaS version
  • Added speaker change with colors.
  • Added Urdu, Bengali and Swahili languages
  • Fixed an issue SRT time stamp

V2.11.1

  • Introduced a new desktop application with an optimized user interface.
  • Added a new real-time container version 13.4.0
  • Fixed and issue where restarting the speech engine resets all outputs.
  • Fixed an issue where the license did not release when the app was closed.
  • Fixed a security issue with the certificate warning.

V2.11.2

  • Fixed an issue where VoCaption would shut down after two days of being connected to the speech engine.

Please sign up to our News Channel to receive updates on new software and other topics.

New OASYS Release version 6.13.13.10

OASYS 6.13.13 Release

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A new version of OASYS, 6.13.13 has been released. It includes improvements in the following areas:

  • Media Manager
    • Added destination timestamp check for MXF files.
  • Multi-Channel Web Client
    • Playout shortcuts were added to match similar ones in Player.
    • Added a feature for custom played event status. The default is Done, Skipped and Missed.
    • Commercial Counter window now includes both primary and secondary (graphics, etc.) commercial and promo events calculation in Time Used Column.
    • An in-playlist note option has been added to the Event Editor. Color can be changed by editing the inner template properties of the playlist component.
    • Add column for Played Duration which shows the actual event played duration after it is played.
  • Player
    • Added a feature for custom played event status. The default is Done, Skipped and Missed.
    • Added an option to show substream commercial/promo time separately in commercial counter preferences
    • Commercial Counter window now includes both primary and secondary (graphics, etc.) commercial and promo events calculation in Time Used
    • In-playlist note option added to Event Editor -> Notes. It can be used to add one row comments on video events or groups and will be displayed in the playlist. Color of the text and background for these notes can be customized in Preferences -> Customize.
    • Hotkey buttons are now highlighted with yellow color when pressed. Button will stay highlighted for the whole scheduled duration of a hotkey event or until it is removed with other hotkey event.
    • An option to Color the currently playing event row was added to Preferences -> Options -> List.
    • Added option to Show selection duration in footer in Preferences -> Options -> General. It can be used in the same way as Tools -> Calculate Selection Duration, but the calculation will be displayed in the window footer immediately.
    • Added column for Played Duration, which shows actual played duration of the event after it’s played.
    • Active hour in Commercial Counter is now highlighted with the darker shade of originally present color, depending on the unused time status (green, orange, red).
    • MXF files with 9 audio streams can be played (files with 9 audio streams can be processed in LML, but Player has limitation of 8 audio streams and will play 8).
    • Added option to show a certain number of played events above the currently playing one when Current event on top option is enabled. The number of events can be set in Preferences -> Options -> List. Upper limit is 10 events.
    • Output streaming VBV buffer option was added in Configure and is now configurable. Default value is 0.5, but it can be set up to 10. Values over 4 are not recommended, as 4 is already considered a very large buffer by Nvidia.
    • Option for configurable timing calculation pause (in seconds) before switch was added to oachannel file. Tag is <PauseTimingCalculationBeforeSwitchS> and can be set to a value between 3 and 12 seconds. This feature briefly pauses timing calculations when switching between two events to avoid issued with lengthy playlists.
    • Added option to Allow pasting only once after Cut in playlist. It can be found in Preferences -> Options -> List. It is used to limit the Paste operation only once when cutting an event in the playlist, but for Copy it will continue to work normally (unlimited number of Paste available).
    • Added logging for automatically merging playlists.
    • Improved audio processing with Medialooks.
  • Redundancy Manager
    • Added option to Disable maintenance input in manual mode in standalone RM. If this option is enabled and RM is in manual mode, when connection to Players is lost, Player which is on-air will stay on-air and will not switch to maintenance input.
  • Schedule Importer
    • Improved handling of multiple notifications in automation mode.
    • Automatic audio shuffling rules were added. This option can be found in Edit -> Options -> Custom channel rules.

Defects were fixed in:

  • BXF Gateway
    • Fixed issue with handling xml lists which contain non-dropframe timecode.
  • Multi-Channel Web Client
    • Fixed issue with peak times being displayed incorrectly when daylight savings option is on in Windows settings.
  • Player
    • Fixed issue with scheduled empty audio tracks being filled with audio from video file when video instance is changed.
    • Fixed issue with animation in OASEQ blinking on Resubmit action when it’s scheduled on event level.
    • Fixed issue with updating Commercial Counter window on the fly when editing peak times.
    • Fixed issue with IP stream interruption which was happening in rare cases.
    • Fixed issue with events scheduled to Start at specific time not being ignored when found in the playlist above the currently playing event, therefore being considered “in the past”.
    • Fixed issue with past events in Clubland plugin not being deleted.
    • Fixed issue with events scheduled in Clubland plugin not being added one by one to the playlist.
    • Fixed issue where in some rare cases graphics would disappear from the screen before it was supposed to.
    • Fixed issue with every 256th outbound SCTE trigger failing.
    • Fixed issue with static graphics sometimes switching to crawl or roll up upon Resubmit
    • Fixed issue with Automatically resubmit current event after editing Now it works correctly and the event is automatically resubmitted only when this option is enabled.
    • Fixed issue with IP input stream sometimes getting stuck or not recovering correctly.
    • Fixed issue with promo events incorrectly being added to the commercial time, instead of just promo time when Split to Promo and Commercial Time option is enabled.
    • Fixed issue with Expand playlist on load and sync not working correctly when enabled.
    • Fixed issue with objects not being cleared correctly or not being displayed after Resubmit
  • Known Issues-Player
    • When using MXF files with 9 audio pairs in them with Matrox readers, files can be played, but not edited if Edit and preview output is used. They can still be edited without the preview output. This works correctly in Player with ML readers option on.

Should you have any questions or requests, please contact us at BroadStream Support.  To receive email notifications on releases please subscribe to our news updates.

Announcing New Wincaps Features

New Wincaps Release 4.45.15

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A new Wincaps release is available as of 17 June 2025. New Wincaps Release 4.45.15 is now available with the following new features:

Q4 and Q-Live Clients

  • DLP Cinema SMPTE now supports the 2014 spec. See new export options and reference information.
  • Wincaps PAC export now supports centre horizontal position with left justification/alignment.
  • Replaced SQL Compact Edition with SQL Express 2014 LOCALDB for local Datastore.
  • Main Datastore has now been tested with Windows Server 2025. New installation files for the Datastore and Datastore Admin Tool are required, pleases contact Broadstream support for more information.

Q-Live Clients Only

  • Changed the behaviour of the Checked Story status – see Help for status information and the new user option.
  • New option to display an additional ASR input window to allow for speech input through the Q-LiveASR Speechmatics engine.
  • New option in the Live ASR settings to handle speaker changes from ASR input.
  • Fixed bug with Greek Teletext G2 (packet 26) characters not displaying on transmission correctly.

Q-News

  • Setting the HTML remove text on the iNEWS tags now works correctly in Q-News. See Q-News User Guide.

Defects

A number of defects have also been addressed and can be found here.

Translation

This new version of Wincaps can be combined with WincapsASR to provide a productivity improvement reaching 30%. Drop your files in a watchfolder and WincapsASR will process the audio into text as formed subtitles or transcripts. The files can then be reviewed within Wincaps Q4 for accuracy and edited to fix any problems that need attention. Using ASR will save some significant time and improve overall productivity based on feedback from existing users.

WincapsASR is available as on-premises or private cloud in over 50 languages and can be translated in over 30 languages. You can find the language list here.

To learn more about WincapsASR contact our Sales Team. Additional information is also available below:

To be automatically notified when new releases are available please click here to Stay in Touch!

WincapsASR Software Update

WincapsASR, Now with Translation

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WincapsASR, Now with Translation

WincapsASR, new and improved with translation is making waves in the battle to improve captioning and subtitling.

Background

The exponential growth of new video content and delivery solutions coupled with a shortage of skilled subtitlers and very tight timetables to turnaround file-based content has added significant pressure to improve subtitle productivity and maintain quality. Fortuately, ASR, Automated Speech Recognition is able to deliver significant benefits and new workflows to improve productivity and reduce turnarond times, while ensuring quality.

WincapsASR creates caption files automatically from program audio and leverages AI to provide translated subtitles in various languages. The resulting files can be quickly checked and corrected, if necessary, using conventional subtitle editing software like BroadStream’s WincapsQ4 thus marrying traditional methods of subtitling with the latest from the AI world using ASR.

WincapsASR is available when you are to convert file-based content and make it more viewable. It’s based on a platform that is known and appreciated for its simplicity and useful benefits. For starters adding ASR into the mix delivers significant increases in productivity with one large European broadcaster reporting 30% improvements in productivity from their subtitling team. With pressure to keep costs down this is a major win for this customer.

In addition, there are currently over 50 languages available with 30+ languages available for automatic translation to and from English to further make you life easier and improve productivity.

 

Overview

WincapsASR delivers the key features you need. Check out the details and features below.

Input files:

  • Video:MP4 (including audio track selection) and WMV
  • Audio: MP3 and WAV
  • Other formats subject to testing

Output files:

  • SRT, WebVTT and text transcription files

VoCabulary & Configuration

WincapsASR includes these special features that make it easy to upgrade your workflows to add ASR and includes the following:

  • Custom dictionary: improves ASR accuracy, use for program specific vocabulary requirements such as regional geographic names, sports team details, government terms and names, etc.
  • Word replacement: automatic substitutions for known issues with spelling, presentation or persistent misrecognition.
  • Profanity list: a special substitution list that supports wildcards and replacement strategies.
  • Segmentation & timing rules: creates well-formed text blocks that respect word timing, punctuation and linguistic style rules plus timing rules for duration and gaps between captions and subtitles.

Security and Options

It’s important to ensure your content is secure. With WincapsASR:

  • Your video never leaves your environment.
  • Audio is purged after processing.
  • On-premises AI hosting is an option for added security.
  • It uses a containerized architecture for efficient deployment for on-premise or private cloud.
  • Integrates with your storage solution.

Why Should You Care?

Globally, the use of captions and subtitles while watching TV and online video has become increasingly more prevelant extending beyond those with hearing issues to a much broader audience. A 2023 survey indicated that 51% of Americans use subtitles most of the time when watching content. Among younger viewers, 96% of GenZ use subtitles, up from 70% just a year ago.

Why do so many more people use subtitles and captions?

  • Enhanced comprehension: 27% of users enable captions to better understand the content.
  • Understanding accents and dialogue: 70% of viewers use captions or subtitles to comprehend actors with different accents.
  • Localization: Suit the cultural adn liguistics needs for you home audience.
  • Noisy environments: 22% of viewers turn on subtitles when watching in noisy environments.
  • Multitasking: 10% of viewers use subtitles to aid in multitasking when watching video.
  • Learning and focus: Subtitles aid in language learning and focus to help viewers, including those with attention difficulties.
  • Audio clarity: 90% of respondents indicated they use captions because streaming services often provide muddled dialogue that make it harder to understand.

To learn more about WincapsASR click here to speak to one of our team members. If you want to improve your live video subtitling please check out Q-LiveASR. It uses Wincaps to provide editing of live content to improve quality. If you don’t need live updates consider VoCaption.

Want a playout system with an embedded live captioning solution, then check out OASYS.

To be automatically notified when new releases are available please click here to Stay in Touch!

 

New Update for MediaMate

MediaMate New Version V3.4.2.0 is Available

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BroadStream recentlly announced the release of MediaMate V3.4.2.0. The following new features are included in this release:

  • A new component has been added to MediaMate to allow insertion of DVB-TTML into TS files – TTML Encoder. This new option is available in Subtitle Type drop-down in the main PMT Modifier tab: TTML subtitling (0x7F) – this must be selected when inserting TTML in DVB. A new DVB TTML specific tab (TTML Config) has been added.
  • New configuration option is added to the EBU tab in SubtitleFileParser and SubtitlesToPAC components: Maximum Number of Displayable Characters. This option allows the user to set an override for this specific GSI header value when writing EBU STL files.
  • Updated XML output of IMSC Rosetta to match latest specification.

The following are changes or defect updates to V3.4.2.0:

  • Fixed an issue with MOV Extractor loading.
  • Fixed an issue with MediaMateCmd returning 200 (success) code even on a failure. The code returned is still 200 (from the http server/client layer), but there is now a new attribute “error_report” that will provide a human readable error string.
  • Fixed an issue with FLX compatibility between versions.
  • Fixed an issue with a rendering error for Hebrew/Arabic output where extra characters are appearing at the start and end of subtitle sequences.
  • Fixed an issue with SpeakIt not working if the selected output voice is not present on the local machine. SpeakIt component will now report an error and fail the job.
  • Fixed an issue where subtitle adjuster does not wrap the word to next line but truncates the last character when row length is exceeded.
  • Fixed an issue where STL conversion does not remember the justification.
  • Fixed an issue where the Language Code from the EBU STL source files GSI block was always set to English on the output. This fix adds support for these missing overrides in the GSI:
    • Language Code
    • Subtitle List Reference Code
    • Country of Origin

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Announcing New Wincaps Features

Wincaps and Q-Live Release Notes for V4.44.12

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BroadStream recently announced a new version for Wincaps and Q-Live (V4.44.12).

This release covers:

  • Wincaps Q4 and Q-Live clients 
  • Wincaps Q4 DVD Builder and Video Indexer. 
  • Wincaps Q-News, Wincaps Q-Live Gateway, Wincaps Q-Live File Server, ASR components for Q-Live. 

Changes effective with this release include the following:

Q4 and Q-Live 

  • Wincaps EBU STL Flavours have been removed please go to EBU STL Help details for more information 
  • Datastore path can now be configured in the Wincaps client 
  • New option to expand House Styles in SpeakTitle Window 
  • New option to send font file with DLP SMPTE export 
  • Implementation of basic Rosetta IMSC format for export and import 

Q-Live Gateway 

  • Increased device field for creating output Groups in the Q-Live Gateway 

Q-News 

  • Q-News now remembers the dialog sizing when reopened 

Defect Fixes 

  • Fixed bug with Arabic punctuation not respected right to left direction 
  • Fixed bug with Ignore Snaking Limits option not being saved in the Customer Template 
  • Fixed bug with Checked and Complete Story status not changing with specific edits 
  • Fixed bug with video names with specific accented characters 
  • Fixed bug with DLP SMPTE XML <font> formatting

You find additional information on the Wincaps Help Page: PAC topic page 

Installation Procedures

****IMPORTANT***** 

  • Host O/S Windows 10 or above. 
  • Valid licence file must be available for each client machine. 
  • User account performing installation must have full administrator rights on the local machine. 
  • Wincaps is not supported on a Mac. 
  • Wincaps clients are not supported on a virtual machine.  
  1. Prerequisites 

Install the following prerequisites (if not already present) using the default options; 

  •  MS Office Word full installation, Office 365, installed locally (for spell checking).  
  • Media Player (latest version appropriate to operating system) 
  • Note: If using Windows 10 N versions, you will need to download the relevant media pack before installing Wincaps Q4. 
  • QuickTime is required if using the ‘Offline Media’ option for Video Playback of MP4 and MOV 
  • Sound Card recommended for use with MediaLooks MultiFormat video playback option 
  • External Graphics card recommended for Desktop PCs for video playback 
  • Uninstall the current version of Wincaps Q4/Q-Live (if present) via add/remove programs. 
  • Install the new client using the exe installer and follow the instructions on the screen.  When prompted, select “custom installation” if “Q-Live” feature is required (you will need to disable the “Wincaps Q4” feature as Q4 is installed by default). 
  • NB: For Q-Live services, including Q-News, contact [email protected]  
  1. Licence installation 
  •  As above for Licence Server. Licence Server must be Version 9.6 or above. 
  • Please contact [email protected] for assistance with local licencing. 

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