GUIDE TO Closed Captioning

Transcription

GUIDE TO
Closed
Captioning
Sponsored by
AA Special
Special
Supplement
Supplement to
to
CC: Communicating
Clearly
By Tom Butts, Editor-in-Chief, TV Technology
Broadcasters have been
pioneers in many aspects of
television and video technology but perhaps no technology best represents our
commitment to public service than closed captioning.
When broadcasters began
rolling out closed captioning
in the 70’s, our industry was among the first to offer
a service that helped expand the television medium to
the disabled.
PBS was among the first to offer closed captioning
when it began the service on Julia Child’s “The French
Chef” in 1972. During the decade, the FCC worked
with the broadcast industry to expand the service to
commercial television; In the 1990’s, the signing of
the Americans With Disabilities Act and additional
legislation to integrate closed-caption decoding in TV
sets helped expand the ability of all persons to share in
the viewing experience by the time the FCC mandated
the service in 1997. And closed captioning is not just
for the disabled; for those where English is a second
language, it has also proven invaluable.
Today’s closed captioning is available for a variety
of programming, but among the most challenging are
unscripted live events. Digital technology has helped
improve closed captioning services, giving broadcasters the ability to customize fonts and screen placement
and accelerate the transcription process.
INSIDE:
FCC Pushes Caption Deadlines............................... 3
Closed Captioning Mandate
Spurs Business For Vendors.................................... 11
[2]
GUIDE TO CLOSED CAPTIONING | DECEMBER 2014
However, with television moving beyond the traditional living room set into mobile devices, the
challenge of providing accurate, easy-to-view closed
captioning becomes even greater. Although advances
in automation and voice recognition technology are
making closed captioning more accurate and easier to
With television moving
beyond the traditional living
room set into mobile devices, the
challnge of providing accurate,
easy-to-view closed captioning
becomes even greater.
implement, policies and technologies for the process
remain in flux. The FCC has recently taken steps to
expand the scope of closed captioning to online video,
and in particular, broadcast content posted online. A
number of deadlines are approaching over the next
several years to phase in these new rules.
In this new ebook, we take a look at those deadlines
as well as new solutions that can help you comply with
the rules and enhance your closed captioning services.
We hope you find it enlightening and informative.
Have a comment or suggestion about this ebook or other ebooks
from TV Technology? Drop us a line at [email protected].
FCC PUSHES
CAPTION DEADLINES
Industry contemplates impact of mandates
By Susan Ashworth
Program
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Three new deadlines looming on
‘A MANUAL PROCESS’
the horizon are pushing the professional video industry to
In the simplest of terms, the two FCC rulings extend the
catch up on one of the quietest technologies in our midst:
original closed-captioning rules that the FCC handed down in
closed captioning.
2012 for online video. Fast forward to today, where both fullThe deadlines—one in February 2015, another in 2016,
length online videos and short video clips must now be capthe final in 2017—have been handed down by the Federal
tioned, and that means broadcasters, cable and satellite distribCommunications Commission in order
to provide smoother and more accurate
Required Steps For Programmers To Create Closed
Steps for overclosed-captioned communications across
Captions For TV and the Internet
the-air captions
a wider-reach of programming.
Steps for IP clip
But the requirements are being met
captions
with resistance from opponents who feel
Captioned Programming
the deadlines are unrealistic, cumbersome
Script via
Telepromter
and overly restrictive.
ENT
(e.g. ENPS,
“I am concerned that expectations
iNEWS,
Grab video
surrounding caption quality may exceed
Webhost
Comprompter)
and caption
site
the practical ability of companies to
data for IP
Caption
Video
deliver,” said Maria Browne, an attorEncoder
ney with Davis Wright Tremaine, a San
Content
Prerecorded/
Francisco law firm that follows media
Delivery
Third Party/
Live
In House
Network
communications. “Companies with limWeb Vendor
(if capable)
ited operating budgets will find it difCaptioners
ficult to comply fully and immediately,”
Re-encode
for IP video
she said, pointing, for example, to the
If problems
with
Video
may send
fact that captions for live programming
Capture Video
captions for
back to
and Extract
can be impacted by any number of fac-If
multiple IP
Captions
captioners
Captions
formats
tors, including the clarity and paceproblem
of
s may
the captioned speech, the experience
create closed
captions for TV and
If problems
may
send Required steps for programmers to
of human speech to text operators, or
send back to
back to the Internet
the current technological limitations caption
of
captioners
ers to
speech to text software.
utors need to follow new rules if they plan to air programming
Is the broadcast industry ready for allfix
that?
on television and then post clips of that programming online.
There’s concern that the volume and significance of recent
There’s little debate on the merit of captions themselves.
legislative changes may be overwhelming for many broadcastLooking much as it did when closed captioning debuted in
ers and, as a result, “broadcasters may have not had sufficient
1997, the simple scrolling text allows persons with hearing distime to internalize and develop a plan for monitoring caption
abilities to have access to television programming in a relatively
accuracy,” said Drew Lanham, senior vice president of media
simple manner. Supporters point to side benefits: the ability
for Nexidia in Atlanta.
CAPTION continued on 6 u
TV TECHNOLOGY
[3]
Live Voice Captioning
Using Voice Recognition to produce
Closed Captioning output has been in o
the works for some time although
there have been several drawbacks.
One of the problems with using voice
recognition for captioning has been
Accuracy: since the words spoken
and their order, is nearly infinitely
variable – making content and context
o
of any string of words difficult to
calculate with any degree of certainty.
Even using the current Voice
Recognition technique of the “Shadow
Speaker”, who repeats the Anchors o
words into a headset, is somewhat
iffy.
Comprompter’s “Caption Central”
software stresses the use of a live
audio feed directly from the Anchors o
without someone repeating the words.
This offers the distinct advantage of
not requiring another body, yet
providing Live Voice Captions in realtime.
To make the system reliable 24/7, we
designed it as an “appliance” that did o
not require any baby-sitting or preprep for each newscast; a system that
would auto-start and auto default to
the standard “Go” settings, should the
computer crash for any reason.
o
Completeness, Accuracy, and
Synchronicity
Caption central is designed to pass o
through the scripted text from any
newsroom system; provide instant
and real-time voice captioning for the
non-scripted portions of the newscast
with an accuracy rating equal to, or
better than, a steno captioning
service. Finally, I’ve included a set of
Captioning Measurements … so you
can find out how your station is doing
or what you need to do meet the new
FCC ENT Best Practices Standards:
o
o
News
If you are sending out your Talent
Text, plus the verbatim of Sound bites
and Packages, then you are
captioning about 60% of your
newscast.
If you are sending out only your
Talent-Prompter Text you are only
captioning about 40% of your
newscast. This is far less than what
you are now required to be doing.
Sports
o
If your Sports Anchor is scripting only
Readers, Leads and Tags … but AdLibbing over Scoreboards and
o
Highlights, then you are only adding
about another 10% to your total.
Under the new FCC rules this is an
unacceptable level of performance.
o
Weather
If your Weather Person is scripting
the entire Weather show – wonderful
– you are adding another 15% to your
captioning total.
If your Weather Person is Ad-Libbing
the show but you are sending out
some Text lifted from the weather
wire or AP, then this adds about 10%.
This is kind of a good service … but
far below the new FCC Standards.
If your Weather Anchor is presenting
the entire weathercast without any
Scripting or Captioning, you are
adding 0% captioning to your total
caption count. This is entirely
inadequate and potentially finable.
Teases and Happy Talk
If your News, Sports and Weather
Anchors are scripting every Bump,
Tease, and Hot Cross, then you have
a great team that is adding another
10% to your captioning total.
If your On-Air Talents are scripting the
Teases but Ad-Libbing the Happy
Talk, then this is only adding about
5% to your total.
This little failure can put you under
FCC scrutiny if your station gets
enough complaints.
by: Ralph King, Comprompter
Emergency News and Weather
Broadcasts
If you are not captioning your
emergency cut-ins and
announcements you are losing about
2% to your total captioning
percentage.
This one failure alone can cost your
station a lot of money!
SUMMARY
If your Newscast is operating at the
top of every measurement, you are
servicing 100% of your license
responsibility in terms of the Hearing
Impaired.
But most local stations’ captioning
commonly falls into the 70% to 85%
range. Even if you normally caption
everything except “Happy Talk” you
are losing the most important 5% of
your show … the part that the Hearing
Impaired complain about the most ...
the part where people are smiling and
laughing … but the hearing impaired
are left out … always left out!
Caption Central can fill in these
caption holes for you for about half of
what one FCC fine might cost. Be
safe … and provide a better service to
your viewing clients.
Ralph King is the President and Founder
of Comprompter … a Newsroom and
Automation software company currently in
th
its 34 year of operation.
Contact Ralph at:
[email protected]
Caption Central Live Voice Captioning from Comprompter News and Automation
Caption Central
™ 2014
“Live Studio Voice Captioning”
•
What would you pay for a Live, Anchor Voice Captioning system that also feeds
your NewsRoom Computer System through to your Encoder … then in a split
second transcribes your Anchors Voice instantly into captioning and sends it as
well?
•
What would you pay for a Live, Anchor Voice Captioning system that allows you to
fill every non-scripted segment in your newscast with accurate captioning?
•
What would you pay for a Live, Anchor Voice Captioning system that would allow
you to go to air immediately with Breaking News and Weather Alerts … with
Captioning?
•
What would you pay for a Captioning system that can also send out Live or Pretyped Text to your Captioner?
•
And Finally …
What would you pay to the FCC for One Instance of “Failure to Caption”?
Here’s the answer to all of these issues … Caption Central …
One system that does it all!
•
NewsRoom Captioning
•
Studio Voice Captioning
•
Keyboard Captioning
“Caption Central even saves a copy of everything it does so you can use it for any other purpose you need!!!” •
•
•
•
•
NewsRoom Input Voice Text Output Voice Audio Output Keyboard Output On-‐Air Output Newsroom Voice Captioning Keyboard Captioning Captioning “Is Voice Captioning perfect? No … Is it ever going to be perfect? No … But Caption Central comes pretty darn close!” Ralph King, CEO,
Caption Central System Includes: CC2 Software, USB Serial Hub and XLR to USB Audio Converter.
•
You provide the Computer.
Contact us for more information or a price quote … If you want an In-‐House Caption Central Demo … call us!!! Comprompter News and Automation
1601 Caledonia Street, Suite E, La Crosse, WI
“Providing NewsRoom Solutions since 1982”
608-785-7766
tive measures in the event of captioning
CAPTION continued from 3 u
problems and requires that video proto improve literacy and ease adoption
gramming distributors obtain certificaof English for non-English speakers.
tions as to the exempt status of relevant
This isn’t new ground for the FCC, as
programming.
the commission handed down significant
The second FCC ruling in July required
captioning requirements in the 1990s and
that short video clips be captioned as well,
then again in 2002.
regardless of the length or content of the
And yet the move is stinging to some,
segment. The reasoning? Since consumparticularly stations who may not be
ers often bypass full-length video proprepared with technology or personnel
gramming in favor of short-form news
to handle this new batch of caption creand spots clips, those must be captioned
ation, who aren’t versed on the intricate
as well. With 77 percent of Internet users
new requirements, or who may be otherregularly watching video clips online,
wise unprepared to handle the scalability
“It’s time to update our closed captioning
challenge that lies ahead.
rules to reflect these changes,” said FCC
“Captions are pervasive in almost all
Chairman Tom Wheeler when the ruling
phases of professional media produc- Maria Browne, attorney with Davis
was announced. “With [this] item, we go
tion, and unlike other elements of the Wright Tremaine
further and require captioning for video
final product that can be checked using
clips that end up on the Internet.”
automated tools, [it] remains a manual process,” Lanham said.
There are two key issues at hand: one, that captions must
now be provided for full-length online videos that have been
SOME EXCEPTIONS
broadcast in the U.S.; and two, that four new quality checkThe FCC squeezed in several caveats, though. Captions
points must be in place in an effort to improve the quality of
are only required on programming that aired with captions
the sometimes-jumbled and mismatched captioning universe.
on television in the United States. The FCC also clarified that
Those four specific requirements are accuracy, synchronicity,
snippets of English or Spanish on programs that are otherwise
program completeness and positioning (see sidebar).
in a different language do not need to be captioned.
The rules also impose new requirements on manufacturers of certain
equipment that are designed to receive
or playback video programming, such as
set-top boxes, DVD players and tablets.
But both the NAB and NCTA have
expressed a host of concerns over the
new rulings, balking at the elimination of
captioning exemptions, new formatting
regulations and additional monitoring
requirements.
“These definitions are overly restrictive, and unnecessarily intrude upon the
ability of licensees to use commercially
reasonable judgment to determine the
timeframe and manner by which content
can be edited and displayed to viewers,”
the NAB said in formal comments to
the FCC.
Other pitfalls noted by the NAB
Telestream MacCaption (Mac) and CaptionMaker (Windows)
include unrealistic deadlines, unneeded
quality requirements, unwelcome mandates on emerging technologies like 4K, and the fact that proThe new ruling also clarifies a number of grey areas: it
grammers might be held responsible for captioning clips that
untangles the captioning requirements for foreign languages
are not within their immediate control.
and on-demand programming, confirms that the rules apply
Particularly galling seems to be that the new rules do
to LPTV stations, mandates that broadcasters take correc-
[6]
not extend to third-party organizations. The
rules also don’t target sites like Netflix and
YouTube, as their programming isn’t shown
over the air. Consumer-generated media is
also exempt.
“Third-party websites, by definition, operate independently and licensees and programmers have no control over a clip once it
leaves the programmer’s website,” the NAB
statement read. “Expecting the same level of
quality when the clip is on a website operated
by a third-party is unreasonable.”
Both NAB and NCTA also pointed to the
need for flexibility to experiment with new
innovations.
Opponents have also pointed to the fact
that the new rules are cumbersome and
restrictive, with the potential for fewer clips
to be created because of the additional burdens. There are also the challenges of meeting
a quickly approaching timeline: new quality
guidelines must be met by Jan. 15, 2015; captions for online clips that are lifted right from
a program must be raring to go by 2016; news
and sports clips and segments that form a
montage must be addressed by 2017.
While this may require equipment and
personnel investments that the industry isn’t
quite prepared for, the commission believes
it’s time.
“Earlier this year, the commission acted to
enhance quality standards for closed captioning on TV that had been languishing at the
FCC for over a decade,” Wheeler said.
There’s more to come. The FCC is considering an additional ruling that will require
closed captioning of video clips provided by
third-party distributors as well as eliminate
the grace period that now exists for captioning live programming clips. More tussles are
expected when it comes to waivers, as the
commission considers restricting the waiver
process.
COMPLIANCE CONFUSION
Where does that leave things? Some are
calling for a rollback of the restrictions; others are asking that the FCC shift the responsibility of captioning to a greater number of
sources.
“[One problem] is that there is no single
measure of whether your content is compliCAPTION continued on 10 u
Closed Captioning:
What You Need to Know
What’s Happened:
Over the past year, the FCC has handed down two new rulings that offer more specific guidance on closed captioning
for online video. The upshot: there are new, specific rules for
captioning full-length videos online as well as for online video
clips. You got the gist of it: Except for a few exceptions, it all
needs to be captioned, and under a stricter set of rules.
The Four Heavies in the Corner:
The FCC has highlighted four key guideposts for video distributors to follow. The goal is to ensure that captioning quality
replicates the experience of television programming as much
as possible. Under the new rules, all closed captions must be:
1. Accurate and reflect the dialogue, music and other sounds
present in the programming;
2. Synchronized and able to match the video and audio content of the programming;
3. Complete and run from the beginning to the end of the
program;
4. Appropriately placed on screen so as not to block other
visual content.
The Deadlines You Need to Know:
2015: Those four above-mentioned quality-specific guidelines
must be met by Jan. 15, 2015, with appropriate monitoring
and maintenance plans in place. That means if your captioning
goes haywire, you better have a backup plan.
2016: Clips lifted straight from a program and posted on to
the Web, known as straight-lift clips, must be captioned starting Jan. 1, 2016.
2017: Montages of video clips must be captioned starting Jan.
1, 2017, with live (or nearly live) video clips such news or sports
captioned by July 1, 2017.
What is Exempt:
Video clips that are in your online library before the applicable
compliance deadline, as well as programming that was not
previously aired in the U.S. with captions. Also exempt is
programming from Web-only video sites and consumergenerated media.
TV TECHNOLOGY
[7]
tive to be handled that way.”
In addition to FCC fines, failure
to meet these nonlinear distribution
requirements will result in content rejections, delivery delays and lost revenues.
A number of manufacturers have
stepped up to offer support around
the issue, from Wohler to Nexidia to
Telestream to EEG, which recently
rolled out the newest extension of its
iCap system, called CCPlay FilePro Live,
a cloud-enabled captioning solution that
CAPTION continued from 7 u
ant with the quality ruling,” said Bill
McLaughlin, vice president of product
development for EEG Enterprises, a
Farmingdale, N.Y.-based provider of
captioning technology. Detractors point
to confusing definitions of word accuracy, punctuation, timing and visual
style. Add to that the fact that violations
are initiated by viewer complaint, which
may not always be based on an accurate
understanding of the rules.
“These definitions are overly restrictive,
and unnecessarily intrude upon the ability of licensees
to use commercially reasonable judgment to determine
the timeframe and manner by which content can be
edited and displayed to viewers.”
Jason Livingston, product manager
for closed captioning for Telestream
ware from Telestream help users ensure
that edited clips and montages can automatically have the original captions preserved and correctly synced up with the
edited clips.
“Some of the larger content creators
are finally starting to see the value in
providing quality closed captioning,
and I hope that will be true for more
and more content providers in the
future,” said Jason Livingston, product manager for closed captioning for
Telestream in Nevada City, Calif. ■
CREDIBLE
AUTHORITATIVE
INFORMATIVE
INSPIRING
CREDIBLE
—National Association of Broadcasters
works to caption short pre-recorded
clips. Other solutions like Nexidia QC
are in place at Turner Broadcasting,
where the technology is being used to
automate quality control of closed captioning and video descriptions. Solutions
like MacCaption and Post Producer soft-
“There’s a lot to absorb,” he said.
“It’s not something like CALM [the
audio standard] where you can plug in a
device that will measure whether you’re
compliant and put full trust into that.
The regulations have too many dimensions, and are not sufficiently quantita-
AUTHORITATIVE
WE’VE GOT YOU
COVERED.
INFORMATIVE
INSPIRING
HARMONIC—ENABLING PAGE
THE VIDEO ECONOMY ➤ 49
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MARCH 21, 2012
BROADCAST • PRODUCTION • BROADBAND • SATELLITE • MOBILE
➤ What’s New at
NAB?
The Radio Technology leadeR
—page 8
➤ Product
Previews
CREDIBLE
creative
WE’VE GOT
YOU COVERED.
PLANET
AUTHORITATIVE
INFORMATIVE
creative
PLANET
INSPIRING
—pages 18-79
➤ Exhibitor List
—pages 80-106
BY SUSAN ASHWORTH
LAS VEGAS—Starting from very simple roots in
1923, when a handful of broadcast engineers
gathered annually to talk technology, the NAB
has grown into a behemoth of a show. And yet,
through all the years and iterations, one thing remained the same: The NAB moniker alone made
it clear exactly to whom the convention was targeted.
And as we have for the last several years, we
find ourselves in the midst of a long-coming shift.
Yes, this is a show for broadcasters, but has that
entire definition now changed? Who exactly do
we define as a “broadcaster” now?
Years ago, when the show opened its doors
to collaborators/competitors from the satellite
and cable worlds, it did so slowly. This go- round,
the convention has more roundly and openly embraced the influx from all digital media and entertainment professionals.
The result is a convention that sits on the cusp
The Kansas City Chiefs
Broadcast in
Surround
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March 2012 | radioMagonline.coM
3/5/12 1:18 PM
2/28/12 6:26 PM
TVTechnology
MARCH 14, 2012
FEBRUARY 22, 2012
|
In-Depth Technology for Radio Engineers
|
RF Safety Surveys at
Broadcast Sites: A Basic Guide
$2.50
|
RADIOWORLD.COM
Par EmmanuEllE PautlEr
PARIS — Radio Notre Dame, station
FM catholique de la région parisienne,
qui émet sur la fréquence 100.7 MHz
à Paris, Laon et Beauvais, fête ses
30 ans avec l’installation prochaine
dans son nouveau siège parisien, près
de Montparnasse, et la restructuration
d’une partie de ses équipements de
diffusion, un nouveau logo et la création d’une nouvelle webradio.
Plus grosse radio associative de
France, elle compte 35 salariés permanents, 35 pigistes et intermittents
et quelque 70 collaborateurs bénévoles. Elle vit
à 80 % de dons d’auditeurs fidèles, de toutes
catégories sociales, professionnelles et géographiques (région parisienne, province et même
The Process of Measuring RF Safety Compliance Often Is Misunderstood
BY RICHARD STRICKLAND
Calculations and tables often are
used to determine whether a broadcast
site is compliant with the RF radiation exposure regulations of the Federal
◗ WHITEPAPER
Communications Commission. There
are situations, however, where the only
practical way to determine compliance
is to make measurements.
Broadcasters must comply with FCC
regulations. Failure to do so can result in
fines that have been as high as $25,000.
But compliance should not be the only
issue; RF safety must also be considered.
There are several important points to
keep in mind with regards to groundlevel and rooftop level measurements at
broadcast sites.
The Maximum Permissible Exposure
limits are for spatially averaged exposure, which means the field strength is
evaluated based on the average exposure over the height of a person. This
is important because the RF field levels vary dramatically as a function of
REGULATORY COMPLIANCE VS. RF SAFETY
Although every situation is different,
the following simple rules apply to most
radio and television broadcast installations (See chart at right):
height above ground. The MPE limits
for General Population/Uncontrolled
exposure are instantaneous — no time
averaging is allowed. However, the
MPE limits for Occupational/Controlled
exposure are based on the average exposure over any six-minute interval of
time. Very few broadcast sites will
qualify to use the higher MPE limits for
Occupational/Controlled exposure.
Another important point is that expo-
Regulatory Compliance
RF Safety Issues
FM Radio & TV
All ground-level areas must have spatially averaged RF field levels that do not
exceed the FCC’s Maximum Permissible
Exposure (MPE) limit for General Population/
Uncontrolled exposure.
RF safety issues are normally confined to personnel
who ascend the tower or a nearby tower with the
possibility of exposure to RF levels that exceed the
MPE limit for Occupational/Controlled exposure.
aFGHanIStan
AM Radio
All ground-level areas must have spatially
averaged RF field levels that do not exceed
the FCC’s MPE limit for General Population/
RF safety issues include RF shocks and burns and
exposure to induced currents when on a tower,
including a de-energized tower in a directional array
when one tower is energized.
lE radIo 2012
sure to high RF fields near AM towers
is a regulatory concern but not an RF
safety concern; RF burns from exposure
to a tower are. Finally, because the MPE
limit is higher outside of the human
resonance band of 30 to 300 MHz, surveys at mixed sites with UHF-TV plus
VHF-TV and/or FM antenna systems
require test equipment that compensates
for the difference in MPE limits unless
BROADCAST • PRODUCTION • BROADBAND • SATELLITE • MOBILE
Radio Notre Dame innove pour ses 30 ans
What’s this guy doing?
Learn about spatial
averaging on page 8.
A L’intérieur
• L’OTAN permet d’atteindre les populations
afghanes par ondes courtes — page 4
• Un nouveau salon dédié à la radio en février
à Paris — page 5
stations can be powered down.
BASIC SURVEY TECHNIQUES
I always start a survey by moving
about the site, constantly moving the
probe in a somewhat oscillatory manner
to cover as large a volume of area as possible. The goal at the beginning is to get
a feel for the typical magnitude of the RF
radIonEt
• Visite guidée
par iPhone d’un
quartier historique
de Londres
— page 8
(continued on page 8)
INSIDE
➤ What’s New at
NAB?
par l’agence de création publicitaire
parisienne « Le Nouveau Bélier ». « Ce
logo », explique Bruno Courtois, « est
le résultat d’un travail en profondeur
pour positionner Radio Notre Dame
dans l’univers multimédia. Le nouveau
visuel définit l’identité de la station
par rapport au symbole puissant de
la cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris,
et non par rapport au diocèse. Par
ailleurs, cette cathédrale stylisée par
un design informatique très contemporain, de couleur jaune sur fond bleu
sur les supports écrits, est parfaitement
adaptée aux applications multimédia
jusqu’à Dubaï !). Elle enregistre actuelleet se décline en difment beaucoup de nouveaux donateurs, et
férentes couleurs sur
le montant moyen des dons atteint facileles webradios de la
ment 365 €, soit un euro par jour, défiscalistation.
sable. Le reste de ses revenus provient de la
Créée en 1981
publicité et de partenariats commerciaux.
par le Cardinal JeanBruno Courtois, Directeur Général de
Marie Lustiger, Radio
la station depuis 9 ans, a réussi à étaNotre Dame vient de
blir l’indépendance économique de Radio
fêter ses 30 ans et a
Notre Dame (qui jusqu’en 2006 recevait
inauguré pour Noël,
du diocèse de Paris une subvention d’enle 25 décembre 2011,
viron 1 500 000 €) et à développer consiune nouvelle webradérablement son budget de fonctionnement
dio : ‘Musique Sacrée’
annuel (frais de diffusion, loyer, salaires)
(avec une programmaqui se monte à environ 2 800 000 €. Une
tion spécifique 100 %
journée de programmes représente un coût
musique sacrée) parde 7000 €. Pour stimuler les donateurs, la Bruno Courtois, Directeur
rainée par Gilles
station a lancé en 2007 l’opération « radio Général de Radio Notre Dame
Cantagrel, musicolodons », temps fort qui mobilise chaque
gue et ancien direcannée l’antenne pendant 48 h : les auditeurs font teur de France Musique, et par Edith Walter,
des promesses de dons et « c’est une opération animatrice sur la station de ‘l’Agenda musical’.
très médiatique qui fait intervenir toutes sortes
C’est sa deuxième webradio, après ‘Foi et
de personnes et attire sur les plateaux de directs Raison’, centrée autour de la foi, la formation
non stop des invités exceptionnels », souligne et la prière, et fonctionnant sur la reprise de
Bruno Courtois.
programmes intemporels. Le Web nécessite une
équipe de 4 personnes : 1 rédacteur en chef, 1
webmaster, 1 journaliste et 1 programmateur
La nouveLLe identité de Radio notRe dame
‘La vie prend un sens’, tel est le slogan inspiré webradio.
qui figure désormais sur son nouveau logo conçu
(Suite page 6)
NEWS &
ENGINEERING
• Leslie worries about the outlook for radio
if it doesn’t innovate in the dashboard
quickly enough. — Page 3
—page 8
• A bad connection on an AM tower can
throw the impedance off — a little or
a lot, depending. — Page 16
➤ Product
Previews
|
The News Source for Radio Managers and Engineers
➤ Exhibitor List
—pages 80-106
NAB, PAGE 8
FEBRUARY 22, 2012
|
BBG Seeks to Realign
Its Structures & Finances
BY RANDY J. STINE
WASHINGTON — The U.S. inter-
national broadcasting landscape will
look different following the resignation of a key leader, budget cuts and
recommendations by its main governing board to consolidate administrative
services and reduce language services.
The streamlining comes at a time
when some observers worry that U.S.
global media must meet increased
competition from expanded operations of Radio China International,
THE VIDEO ECONOMY
TVTechnology
◗WHITEPAPER
Digital Radio May Yet Be a Player
In the•Multiplatform
BROADCAST • PRODUCTION
BROADBAND •Future
SATELLITE • MOBILE
Cantopop singer Charmaine
Fong, right, joined an RTHK
DAB Road Show event at
—page 8
➤ Product
Previews
• How to keep your cool at the
—pages 18-79
transmitter site. — Page 12
➤ Exhibitor List
BUYER’S
GUIDE
—pages 80-106
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Some 30 years
Tsz Wan Shan Shopping
ago, when the Institut für Rundfunktechnik
Centre in November 2011
began work on what would eventually
to promote the launch of
become the Eureka-147 DAB project, no
DAB+ in Hong Kong.
one could have predicted how tangled
the implementation of digital radio would
casters sunset their analog operations;
become.
local radio will still have the option to
Worldwide, radio remains primaroperate on FM, however.
ily analog, but the past year has seen a
The biggest spur for digital radio
surge of progress toward a multiplatform
in Europe, however came in August
future in which digital radio is an impor2011 when German public and private
tant player.
In the United Kingdom, the year
ended with 29.1 percent of radio listening happening via a digital platform,
according to the fourth quarter 2011
RAJAR audience measurement survey.
That is up from 25 percent for the
same quarter of 2010. The vast majority of these listeners are tuning through
DAB receivers, although radio listening
find ourselves in the midst of a long-coming shift.
BY SUSAN
ASHWORTH
through a digital
television
platform and
Yes, this is a show for broadcasters, but has that
via the Internet
also saw growth.
LAS VEGAS—Starting from very simple roots in entire definition now changed? Who exactly do
1923, when a handful of broadcast engineers
annually to talk technology, the NAB
STEADY PROGRESS
gathered
• Tiny devices and smartphone apps
change the world of remote gear.
— Page 16
grown radio
into a behemoth
of a show. And yet,
Elsewhere, has
digital
saw steady
through all the
years and
iterations, one thing reprogress in Australia,
Czech
Republic,
mained the same: The NAB moniker alone made
Denmark, Malta,
Sweden, Switzerland
it clear exactly to whom the convention was tarand other regions.
geted. In Norway, regulators have set 2017
thehave
year
And as
as we
for national
the last several years, we
public-service and commercial broad-
we define as a “broadcaster” now?
to collaborators/competitors from the satellite
the convention has more roundly and openly embraced the influx from all digital media and entertainment professionals.
Taxi-back
The result is a convention
that signs
sits on in
theAdelaide,
cusp
South Australia, were part
of a pre-Christmas
to promote digital radio.
NAB, campaign
PAGE 8
broadcast sites.
|
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p01 203rad00.indd 1
FM Radio & TV
AM Radio
MARCH 14, 2012
diffusion, un nouveau logo et la créaailleurs, cette cathédrale stylisée par
tion d’une nouvelle webradio.
un design informatique très contemPlus grosse radio associative de
porain, de couleur jaune sur fond bleu
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manents, 35 pigistes et intermittents
et quelque 70 collaborateurs bénévoles. Elle vit jusqu’à Dubaï !). Elle enregistre actuelleet se décline en difà 80 % de dons d’auditeurs fidèles, de toutes ment beaucoup de nouveaux donateurs, et
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station.
Créée en 1981
publicité et de partenariats commerciaux.
par le Cardinal JeanBruno Courtois, Directeur Général de
la station depuis 9 ans, a réussi à étaNotre Dame vient de
fêter ses 30 ans et a
aFGHanIStan
du diocèse de Paris une subvention d’enle 25 décembre 2011,
viron
1
500
000
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et
à
développer
consiune nouvelle webraafghanes par ondes courtes — page 4
dérablement son budget de fonctionnement
dio : ‘Musique Sacrée’
annuel (frais de diffusion, loyer, salaires)
(avec une programmaqui se monte à environ 2 800 000 €. Une
lE radIo 2012
journée de programmes représente un coût
musique sacrée) parde 7000 €. Pour stimuler les donateurs, la Bruno Courtois, Directeur
rainée par Gilles
station a lancé en 2007 l’opération « radio Général de Radio Notre Dame
Cantagrel, musicoloà Paris — page 5
dons », temps fort qui mobilise chaque
gue et ancien direcannée l’antenne pendant 48 h : les auditeurs font teur de France Musique, et par Edith Walter,
radIonEt
• Visite guidée
par iPhone d’un
Bruno Courtois.
quartier historique
de Londres
— page 8
(Suite page 6)
RF Safety Issues
Measuring Up
A L’intérieur
IN NIELSEN’S SHADOW, RIVAL RENTRAK BUILDS MOMENTUM
TVTLA-Jan-Feb.indd 1
2/3/12 1:59 PM
voir page 15
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2/28/12 6:26 PM
TRANSMITTER BUYER’S GUIDE — Page 32
3/1/12 12:46 PM
Février/mars 2012 | La Source d’Informations pour les Directeurs et Techniciens de Radio | radioworld.com
RADIOWORLD.COM
creative
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network.com
Distribuée en France et dans les régions francophones d’Europe, d’Afrique, d’Asie et des Amériques
RW Mar 14.indd 1
RTHK
WORKBENCH
Page 4
INSIDE
NEWS &
ENGINEERING
|
• An award-winning
broadcaster says yes,
it is possible to sound
‘live and local’ on a
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Digital Radio May
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BY T. CARTER ROSS
• Dear Internet: Please … talk to me?
— Page 30
OPINION
|
Some 30 years ago, when the Institut
für Rundfunktechnik — a research center focusing on broadcasting technology
sponsored by public-service broadcasters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
— began work on what would eventually become the Eureka-147 DAB project, no one could have predicted how
tangled the implementation of digital
radio would become globally.
Worldwide, radio remains primarily analog, but the past year has seen
progress toward a multiplatform future
in which digital radio is an important
player.
In the United Kingdom, the year ended
with 29.1 percent of radio listening happening via a digital platform, according
creative
PLANET
network.com
A look around that new, unique three-museum
Page 26
facility in central Ohio.
U.S. International Broadcasting Considers
How to ‘Innovate and Integrate’
BY RANDY J. STINE
WASHINGTON — The U.S. inter-
look different following the resignation of a key leader, budget cuts and
recommendations by its main governing board to consolidate administrative
competition from expanded operations of Radio China International,
Voice of Russia and Iran’s Press TV,
to mention a few.
Advocates seek a slow but steady
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to reduce the impact of cuts to the
five U.S. government-funded civilian
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million people each week.
The U.S. Broadcasting Board of
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funded operations that broadcast
overseas, released a five-year plan in
Commercial Radio Australia
BY T. CARTER ROSS
unveils Jil FM,
Algeria’s first station dedicated to
youth. — Page 3
Broadcast in
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to mention a few.
Advocates seek a slow but steady
to reduce the impact of cuts to the
networks, which claim to reach 187
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édition francophone
In today’s market, are any of us
truly indispensable?
How to ‘Innovate and Integrate’
3/5/12 1:18 PM
2012 Looks to Be a
Growth Year for Digital
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NAB?Algérienne
• Radio
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tangled the implementation of digital
• Dearfind
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talk toofme?
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— Page
30is a show for broadcasters, but hasradio
Yes, this
that would become globally.
Worldwide, radio remains primarLAS VEGAS—Starting from very simple roots in entire definition now changed? Who exactly do
ily analog, but the past year has seen
1923, when a handful of broadcast engineers we define as a “broadcaster” now?
gathered annually to talk technology, the NAB
OPINION
has grown into a behemoth of a show. And yet, to collaborators/competitors from the satellite
in which digital radio is an important
through all the years and iterations, one thing replayer.
the convention
has more roundly and openly emmained the same: The NAB moniker alone madebroadcaster
says yes,
In the United Kingdom, the year ended
ux from all digital media and enterit clear exactly to whom the convention was tar-it is braced
possiblethe
to infl
sound
with 29.1 percent of radio listening hapgeted.
‘livetainment
and local’professionals.
on a
pening via a digital platform, according
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01- 16 News.indd 1
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diffusion, un nouveau logo et la création d’une nouvelle webradio.
Plus grosse radio associative de
France, elle compte 35 salariés permanents, 35 pigistes et intermittents
et quelque 70 collaborateurs bénévoles. Elle vit
à 80 % de dons d’auditeurs fidèles, de toutes
catégories sociales, professionnelles et géographiques (région parisienne, province et même
◗WHITEPAPER
broadcast sites.
RF Safety Issues
AM Radio
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aFGHanIStan
afghanes par ondes courtes — page 4
lE radIo 2012
à Paris — page 5
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RWEE Feb 22.indd 1
radIonEt
• Visite guidée
par iPhone d’un
quartier historique
de Londres
— page 8
ailleurs, cette cathédrale stylisée par
un design informatique très contemporain, de couleur jaune sur fond bleu
sur les supports écrits, est parfaitement
|
BY T. CARTER ROSS
become.
Worldwide, radio remains primarily analog, but the past year has seen a
surge ofRadio
progress May
toward a multiplatform
Digital
future in which digital radio is an imporYet
a Player in the
tantBe
player.
Multiplatform
Future
ended with 29.1 percent
of radio listening happening via a digital platform,
BY according
T. CARTER to
ROSS
the fourth quarter 2011
That
is up from
percent
für Rundfunktechnik
— a25research
cen-for the
same quarter
of 2010. technology
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on broadcasting
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listeners arebroadcasttuning through
sponsored
by public-service
DAB
receivers,
although
radio listening
ers in
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Austria
and Switzerland
through
a digital
television
platform and
— began
work
on what
would eventuallyvia
become
the Eureka-147
projthe Internet
also sawDAB
growth.
BUYER’S GUIDE
• Dear Internet: Please … talk to me?
— Page 30
OPINION
— Page 16
ADVERTISEMENT
MARCH 2012
NEWS
|
|
broadcaster says yes,
it is possible to sound
‘live and local’ on a
budget. — Page 46
BUYER’S GUIDE
become.
Worldwide, radio remains primarily analog, but the past year has seen a
surge of progress toward a multiplatform
future in which digital radio is an important player.
ended with 29.1 percent of radio listening happening via a digital platform,
according to the fourth quarter 2011
That is up from 25 percent for the
same quarter of 2010. The vast majority of these listeners are tuning through
DAB receivers, although radio listening
through a digital television platform and
via the Internet also saw growth.
DAB Road Show event at
DAB+ in Hong Kong.
operate on FM, however.
2011 when German public and private
STEADY PROGRESS
— Page 16
Elsewhere, digital radio saw steady
progress in Australia, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Malta, Sweden, Switzerland
and other regions. In Norway, regulators have set 2017 as the year national
public-service and commercial broad-
RTHK
1 Color - 0 Cyan / 100 Magenta / 99 Yellow / 4 Black
Subscriptions: Visit www.nbmedia.com | Advertising: Eric Trabb, 212-378-0400, x532; [email protected]
11/25/14 11:53 AM
BY T. CARTER ROSS
WORKBENCH
3/1/12 12:46 PM
For more information, contact:
In the Multiplatform Future
• Radio Algérienne unveils Jil FM,
youth. — Page 3
Page 26
RADIOWORLD.COM
2012 Looks to Be a
We Got You Covered TVT 2H.indd 1
DAB+ in Hong Kong.
operate on FM, however.
2011 when German public and private
ect, no one could have predicted how
tangled
thePROGRESS
implementation of digital
STEADY
radio would
becomedigital
globally.
Elsewhere,
radio saw steady
Worldwide, radio remains primarprogress in Australia, Czech Republic,
ily analog, but the past year has seen
Denmark, Malta, Sweden, Switzerland
and other
in which
digitalregions.
radio isInan Norway,
importantregulaTaxi-back signs in Adelaide, South Australia, were part
tors have set 2017 as the year national
player.
How to ‘Innovate and
of a Integrate’
pre-Christmas campaign to promote digital radio.
public-service
and commercial
In
the United Kingdom,
the year ended broadBY RANDY J. STINE
with 29.1 percent of radio listening hapto mention a few.
pening via a digital platform, according
WASHINGTON — The U.S. interAdvocates seek a slow but steady
look different following the resignato reduce the impact of cuts to the
tion of a key leader, budget cuts and
recommendations by its main governnetworks, which claim to reach 187
ing board to consolidate administrative
competition from expanded operaoverseas, released a five-year plan in
tions of Radio China International,
RW Mar 14.indd 1
The News Source for Radio Managers and Engineers DAB
| Road
$2.50Show| event
RADIOWORLD.COM
at
For Digital
Abroad
2/7/12 4:49 PM
INSIDE
[10]
INSIDE
NEWS &
WORKBENCH
ENGINEERING
creative
PLANET
Advertising: Eric Trabb, 212-378-0400,
x532; [email protected]
network.com
et se décline en difjusqu’à Dubaï !). Elle enregistre actuelleférentes couleurs sur
ment beaucoup de nouveaux donateurs, et
les webradios de la
le montant moyen des dons atteint facilestation.
ment 365 €, soit un euro par jour, défiscaliCréée en 1981
par le Cardinal Jeanpublicité et de partenariats commerciaux.
Bruno Courtois, Directeur Général de
Notre Dame vient de
la station depuis 9 ans, a réussi à étafêter ses 30 ans et a
le 25 décembre 2011,
du diocèse de Paris une subvention d’enune nouvelle webraviron 1 500 000 €) et à développer considio : ‘Musique Sacrée’
dérablement son budget de fonctionnement
(avec une programmaannuel (frais de diffusion, loyer, salaires)
qui se monte à environ 2 800 000 €. Une
musique sacrée) parjournée de programmes représente un coût
rainée par Gilles
de 7000 €. Pour stimuler les donateurs, la Bruno Courtois, Directeur
Cantagrel, musicolostation a lancé en 2007 l’opération « radio Général de Radio Notre Dame
gue et ancien direcdons », temps fort qui mobilise chaque
année l’antenne pendant 48 h : les auditeurs font teur de France Musique, et par Edith Walter,
Bruno Courtois.
(Suite page 6)
For more information, contact:
FM Radio & TV
• Radio Algérienne unveils Jil FM,
youth. — Page 3
|
RTHK
MARCH 14, 2012
FEBRUARY 22, 2012
Taxi-back signs in Adelaide, South Australia, were part
of a pre-Christmas campaign to promote digital radio.
1 Color - 0 Cyan / 100 Magenta / 99 Yellow / 4 Black
CLOSED CAPTIONING
MANDATE SPURS
BUSINESS FOR VENDORS
Media companies are finding new ways to
leverage financial and operational benefits
of supporting those with hearing disabilities
By Michael Grotticelli
NEW YORK—With the government mandate for adding
closed captions to all video content, whether delivered on television or online now past, TV stations and video distributors have
been working hard to comply. The rules apply to both HD and
SD TV shows, films, commercials, live news broadcasts, and
video on demand libraries. Failure to comply with the new captioning regulates may result in fines, penalties, and/or rejection
of a show by a broadcast facility or MPVD operator.
In fact, the FCC has required most television programming
to be captioned since 1997. In 2010, this requirement was
extended to all programming delivered online that was also
being delivered over traditional TV platforms.
The new rules in 2014 modify these past mandates to
address the issue of closed caption quality. The FCC breaks
this down into the basic components that make captioning
understandable and useful to the audience:
• The captioning’s word accuracy and completeness with
respect to the audio program;
• Its accuracy of synchronization with the audio program, and
• Its placement on the screen to maximize readability and
minimize disruption to the visual program.
Bill McLaughlin, vice president of product development at
EEG Enterprises, in Farmingdale, N.Y., said the new Report
and Order that was passed in February and takes effect Jan. 15,
2015, defines the criteria for acceptable closed caption quality
in much more detail than any previous document, and includes
a detailed set of “Best Practices” to ensure that the highest
possible level of captioning is achieved on both live and prerecorded programming.
VIDEO DISTRIBUTORS HAVE OPTIONS
Suppliers of the required software and hardware technology
interviewed for this article all report increased business, due to
the new law, and that their customers are finding new ways to
leverage financial and operational benefits (if there are any) of
supporting those with hearing disabilities. Most stations follow local regulations on closed captioning as a public service
condition of their license and can face sanctions (fines, loss of
operating license) for failure to do so.
[More information regarding the mandate can be found
here]
“Adding closed captioning to programming is not just
a regulatory issue, it also can engage and attract new audiences and help monetize content across various platforms,”
said Mohammad Shihadah, CEO of Apptek in McLean, Va.
The company offers a full range of automated transcription
and translation software for closed captioning, subtitling and
metadata creation for broadcast and web use to help stations
around the world comply with different (although similar) government mandates. “Additionally, AppTek’s closed captioning
creates rich metadata for media monitoring and search engine
optimization for archives,” Shihadah said.
APPTEK
One product designed for live closed captioning applications
is AppTek’s fully automated Omnifluent Live Closed Captioning
Appliance, which is a piece of hardware running Omnifluent
Media software that the company said delivers same-language
MANDATE continued on 14 u
TV TECHNOLOGY
[11]
Nexidia QC: Unique tool for automation
of broadcast compliance and QC for captions,
video description, and languages
Ensuring quality and compliance of closed captioning
and video description in the exploding number of files
is vital in ensuring a positive consumer experience and
meeting government regulations. The combination of
drastically increased media volumes and enhanced quality
requirements has led to a huge scalability problem, and
these challenges are too significant to be addressed using
current manual approaches. Leveraging new, automated
technology, these features can be checked quickly, at
scale, and at significantly reduced costs.
Moreover, the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) has been rolling out new rules aimed at improving
the quality of closed captions and extending those rules
to cover internet distribution. Similar requirements are
also being rolled out in numerous countries around the
world.
Nexidia QC Advantages
Nexidia QC is a file-based QC software application that
can automatically test critical components of media with
proprietary technology — tests that, until now, could
only be performed manually.
This unique tool automates the QC of closed captions,
video description, and languages — both audio and
text — for broadcast and IP workflows. With Nexidia
QC, quality control and compliance processes that are
currently done manually become automated, saving
significant time and operating costs, and helping to avoid
costly mistakes and potential fines, while also enabling a
higher-quality experience for viewers across all platforms.
Nexidia QC can also automatically align improperly timed
captions for subsequent rebroadcast and IP distribution.
Nexidia QC’s REST API allows it to integrate easily into
other workflow, orchestration, and QC applications for
both compliance and file-based distribution purposes.
Current integrations include Telestream Vantage, Evertz
Mediator, Dalet AmberFin UQC, Aspera Orchestrator,
and Volicon Observer.
Available Integrations:
How It Works
Nexidia QC’s unique tests compare the captions to
the spoken words in the audio to verify that closed
captions are not only present, but also match the
audio — something no other media QC application
can do.
The software performs the following caption tests:
Missing captions—speech without captions
Incorrect captions—speech and captions don’t match
Synchronization shift—captions appear too early
or too late
Synchronization drift—captions grow further out of sync
over the duration of a program
The tests are based on user-defined parameters for
acceptable levels of caption accuracy, timing, and
coverage. Test results are pass/fail, and users get a
detailed report with timecodes of problem areas. In
addition, Nexidia QC provides a player which allows
users to easily navigate to and review problems
indicated on the timeline.
Nexidia QC’s caption alignment capability automatically
retimes caption files in order to resolve synchronization
problems. Each block of the new caption file is timed to
the actual speech.
Video description verification compares two audio
tracks, ensuring that the two tracks are sufficiently
similar and that the description track contains additional
segments of dialogue. User-configurable parameters set
acceptable frequency of descriptions.
Language verification analyzes the spoken word
content, verifying that the expected language is
present on a given track, and indicates the detected
language in case of failure. This feature is particularly
relevant for international broadcasters who might
be dealing with multiple language tracks for a given
piece of media.
Comprehensive reporting
shows pass/fail as well
as timeline and list views
of found errors.
USE CASES
Compliance
Nexidia QC, combined with a compliance monitoring
tool like Volicon Observer, gives users an end-to-end
tool for compliance recording and caption- and videodescription compliance reporting. Using the tests defined
earlier, the compliance solution works with Nexidia QC
to report on FCC requirements pertaining to caption
completeness, accuracy, and synchronicity, analyzing all of
the broadcasted content without the time and expense of
manual verification and reporting. Nexidia QC alerts users
when there are errors and can automatically synchronize
captions with the associated media, eliminating livecaption delay, and easily preparing content for the web or
rebroadcast.
File-based Distribution
In a file-based workflow, Nexidia QC ensures that content
is being created, edited, distributed, and received in
the right languages, with the correct captions, at the
right times. It can be used to check media at any point
in the content lifecycle — from ingest through edit —
and verify versions for delivery to OTT vendors and
other partners. Integrations exist with several workflow
automation systems, such as Telestream Vantage. Results
appear within the given user interface, enabling users
to ensure captions are correct and in-sync at every
step, that description is present, and that the correct
languages appear on the correct track, all without human
intervention.
For more information on Nexidia QC visit www.nexidia.com/media/products/nexidia_qc
For more information on Nexidia products for Media & Entertainment visit www.nexidia.tv
To speak to a representative, please email [email protected]
MANDATE continued from 11 u
captions for live content with accuracy and speed that match
or eclipse those produced by a human at a fraction of the cost.
“AppTek designed this appliance to reside at the broadcaster’s facility and easily integrate with their existing production
workflow,” Shihadah said. “Through customization for speakers and language, AppTek’s appliance can deliver captions with
an average accuracy of 90 percent or higher and an average
latency of six seconds.”
Indeed, accuracy and speed are critical elements of captioning a live or any other type of event. So, as a whole, have most
stations complied with the new mandates? Well, according
to the vendors we spoke to, it’s complicated. To do it right,
implementation takes planning, time and money.
going to be able to do this.
“New requirements for latency, accuracy, and caption positioning, are going to nudge a lot of stations who haven’t yet
to adopt IP-based live closed captioning connections to their
transcribers,” McLaughlin said. “Non-IP based systems tend to
have problems on one or more these requirements; with a dialup audio coupler, the audio quality is not high enough to get
optimal transcription accuracy, plus captioners can’t see video
feedback to check the caption positioning; meanwhile, with
a satellite return, the captioning delay is about double what it
needs to be due to the compression and delivery time.” Modern
IP systems like [EEG’s] iCap resolve all these problems, and the
new FCC rules are going to continue to increase adoption.
EEG’s live CC encoders, the HD490 series, include soft-
EEG HD491 encoder
EEG
“This is a difficult question to answer, because many of
the ‘best practices’ are qualitative in nature, and so compliance isn’t a simple yes-or-no in all cases,” EEG’s McLaughlin
said. “The FCC Report & Order did not mandate quantitative
targets for word accuracy or caption latency, though they did
issue a FNPRM [Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking]
indicating that this option was on the table for the future if
stakeholders, including consumer advocacy groups, did not
believe significant improvements were being made through the
existing guidelines.”
He said there are definitely some aspects of the mandate
that require changes at many stations, particularly those outside
of the top 25 markets that use teleprompters/newsroom computers for most of their live captioning. “The new mandate is
very specific that all segments of newscasts must be captioned,
including weather and field reports, which in most cases are
not in the teleprompting system,” McLaughlin said. “This is
going to require stations to use scarce existing staff to create
transcripts and enter them into the system, or to develop relationships with professional captioning companies to get the
segments done.”
Another important new requirement, he said, is that the
“accuracy” category defined by the FCC specifically includes
captioning of non-verbal audio cues like sound effects, music,
and off-screen speaker identification. This is a big problem for
any stations that are attempting to create live with operator-less
voice recognition systems. Even if the system meets accuracy
targets for spoken words, it isn’t going to help at all with
description of non-verbal sounds. Only a human operator is
[14]
ware for connecting to captioners through the iCap network.
iCap provides high-quality, low-latency, secure audio feedback
to a remote captioner, as well as video feedback to control
positioning. iCap also logs all active connections, and has data
archive features, which can be an important part of a broadcaster’s responsibility to document and address any on-air caption discrepancy, either for technical reasons or due to human
error. iCap is an expandable software system that offers a lot
more control over the live captioning process than point-topoint dial-up connections.
For stations that have a new need to caption segments
of their news programming that they may have been previously leaving uncaptioned because they weren’t available in
the teleprompter script, EEG offers iCap VC, which is a “respeaking” voice recognition system that can be used with an
iCap-capable caption encoder either remotely or within the
plant. iCap VC works with PC-based speech-to-text software
to generate real-time transcripts with only minimal user voice
training. This, the company said, can save a lot of time over
entering transcripts into the teleprompter system by hand.
COMPROMPTER
For many broadcasters, voice recognition is considered the
“Holy Grail” for closed captioning, and while the technology is still developing, some companies like Comprompter,
a La Crosse, Wisc.-based company specializing in news and
automation software for broadcast and cable companies, are
touting increased accuracy with the technology.
The company recently unveiled v2.0 of its Caption Central
closed captioning platform, which was specifically redesigned
to provide the most accurate affordable captioning solution
for broadcasters. When on-air staff deviate from the script,
the product allows transcribers to switch from script to nonscripted text with one click of the mouse.
“When we brought out our original voice recognition in
2012, the best we could do for accuracy was about 90 to 92
percent,” said Comprompter President Ralph King. “But in
the last six months, we have taken our voice captioning well
into the high 95 to 98 percent range. Caption Central provides
a single AD-LIB button click to switch from scripted to nonscripted captioning on the fly.”
Caption Central v2.0 also stresses live studio input directly
from the on-set anchors. Some of the features include built-in
voice training, and two forms of learning words, simply by reading them, either from the news script or from a list of words.
Nexidia has also partnered with Volicon, a Burlington,
Mass.-based provider of enterprise media intelligence solutions for automated scalable monitoring of closed captions and
video description content. Leveraging the content recorded by
the Volicon Observer video monitoring and logging system
THE IMPORTANCE OF TIMECODE
Nexidia, an Atlanta-based developer of dialogue and audio
analysis technologies for optimizing audio and video media, is
using its technology to help automate quality control of closed
captions, video descriptions and languages for broadcast and
IP workflows. The company recently released Nexidia QC
v2.3, which features caption retiming and expanded support
for international formats and languages.
Accurate timecodes are essential for complying with
FCC rules on closed captions and this new version of
Nexidia QC tests for and repairs out-of-sync captions due
to drift, which can occur when timecodes are misrepresented or changed as a result of frame rate conversion to
meet a delivery specification.
“The new mandate is very specific
that all segments of newscasts
must be captioned, including
weather and field reports, which
in most cases are not in the
teleprompting system.”
—Bill McLaughlin, EEG
This added functionality means that Nexidia QC is the
first caption tool to automatically correct live captiontiming issues, according to the company. This ensures that
captions are synchronized with the speech in repurposed
content, according to Drew Lanham, senior vice president
and general manager of Nexidia’s Media and Entertainment
Division.
The new version also features an expanded library of
languages and adds support for STL and EBU-TT, the most
widely used captions in Europe.
Nexidia QC is a software application for automated closed
caption and video description verification, closed caption
alignment, and language identification for broadcast and
IP workflows.
and the automated file-based QC capabilities of Nexidia QC,
the solution performs continual monitoring of caption matching, proper language identification, and alignment, as well as
evaluation of video description content.
The Observer system captures, stores, and streams aired
content and provides instant access to live and recorded
content from an easy-to-use Web-based GUI. The system’s
quality of experience module provides real-time alarms for
faulty video, audio, and closed captioning by issuing alerts via
email/SNMP with a direct link to content and a master fault
log. In the joint solution offered by Volicon and Nexidia, the
Observer system passes along its continually captured content
to the Nexidia QC software for evaluation.
The Nexidia QC software tool performs automated closedcaption and video description verification, closed-caption
alignment, and language identification. Nexidia QC overcomes
the challenge of ensuring content is being created, edited, and
distributed in the right languages with the correct captions at
the right times. It automates manual processes, thus reducing
operating expenses, and automatically identifies errors to avoid
fines and improve quality for viewers.
Volicon has also partnered with Grass Valley to integrate
Capture and Share applications, which are part of Volicon’s
Observer platform, with Grass’s EDIUS video editing software to enable complex searches of all captured content.
MANDATE continued on 18 u
TV TECHNOLOGY
[15]
Closed-captioning Standards
Volicon has a long history of monitoring closedcaptioning text, and today the Observer
platform is installed in over 90 percent of the
broadcasters providing this capability. The
effective monitoring of closed-captioning has
become essential because in 2014 the FCC
implemented its first quality standards for
closed-captioning. Those standards have since
been finalized, and they will go into effect in
January 2015.
effectively, providers need a way to monitor
to improve caption quality and to respond to
captioning inquiries quickly and unambiguously
without increasing OPEX — the time or human
resources dedicated to closed-captioning
monitoring. The Volicon Observer system
allows users to easily achieve these objectives.
Originally engineered to enable broadcasters
to address compliance requests including
captioning, Volicon’s Observer technology
These standards are important today not only
because the FCC has made them law, but also
because quality captioning is critical to viewers’
quality of experience (QoE). High-quality
closed-captioning makes programming more
accessible and consumable for a broad array
of viewers. As much as 25 percent of viewers,
including the hard of hearing and fmany others,
take advantage of closed-captioning at home,
at the gym, in restaurants, and in other venues
in which audio is low or nonexistent.
Volicon’s Closed-captioning
Compliance Solutions
Meeting these new captioning standards will
be challenging not only because the bar has
been set higher, but also because networks
and video programming providers (VPDs) will
likely field a much higher volume of complaints
about captioning now that the law addresses
quality. To handle both of these factors
Automated Caption
Quality Compliance
The flexibility of the system in handling
multiple caption tracks and all caption formats
(608, 708, SCTE-20), and even post-set-top
box, means that users can perform caption
checks from origination to STB output.
Through a partnership with Nexidia, Volicon
also offers an automated solution that brings
efficiency to caption-quality compliance in even
the largest media facilities.
The Role of CC Text in Web,
Mobile, and Social Media Content
Closed Caption Compliance Workflow
In short, these FCC closed caption quality
standards create four subjective standards for
closed captions: accuracy in indicating dialog,
sounds, music, and speakers; synchronicity, in
that captions are aligned in time and appear at a
speed that can be read; completeness, meaning
the full program duration; and placement
so that captions do not occlude faces, key
graphics, or important on-screen text.
system also can generate a closed-captioning
compliance report that provides detail and
summary performance data on both programs
and channels. By providing alarms when bad
captions are identified, the Observer system
supports proactive handling of captioning issues.
has evolved into the preeminent compliance
solution. The system continually records
broadcast content and subsequently enables
fast access to suspect segments, which can be
clipped and exported with burned-in closedcaptioning that serves as unambiguous proof
of compliance, or lack thereof.
Equipped with extended capabilities, the
Observer Media Intelligence Platform
empowers broadcasters not only to monitor
aired content and ensure compliance with
standards and regulations governing loudness,
metadata, decency, and captions, but also to
repurpose content — complete with accurate
retimed captioning — for the Web, social
media platforms, and mobile services. Given
Content Repurposing Workflow
Caption-quality Spot Check
For caption-quality spot checks, the Observer’s
live multiviewer feature provides media and
data — an accurate closed-captioning overlay
— to enable periodic at-a-glance review with
respect to timing, accuracy, completeness,
and correctness. Manual review functions
allow users to dial back to the target time and
date and check caption quality. The Observer
the 2010 CVAA online captioning law, this is a
critical step in delivering compliant captioned
content and, in turn, taking advantage of new
revenue-generation opportunities.
Compliance is at the heart of the Observer
system, and with it, users can stand prepared
for Jan. 15, when the FCC standards governing
captioning finally come into full effect.
EnsurE Your Final Captioning ExpEriEnCE MEEts
thE FCC’s DEFinitions For aCCuraCY, sYnChroniCitY,
plaCEMEnt, anD CoMplEtEnEss
Observer Media Intelligence Platform
• Closed Captioning Quality Spot Check
• Compliance reporting and exportable clips for affidavit of proof
• Repurpose your content for web, cell, and social media with accurate cc text
• Handles multiple caption tracks and all caption formats (608, 708, SCTE-20)
• Able to check from origination to post-STB
• Preserving and retiming of CC text for web, cell, and OTT content distribution
+1 781.221.7400 • www.volicon.com • [email protected]
MANDATE continued from 15 u
AVOIDING FINES
Stations or program providers that don’t comply face
fines, but only if a complaint is logged with the FCC. The
Commission is responsible for investigating these complaints,
and giving the broadcaster a chance to respond with tapes,
logs, process documentation, and any other relevant information. There is a basic allowance for “de minimis” (trivial)
errors, meaning isolated mistakes that were corrected reasonably quickly and not indicative of a systemic violation of the
best practice standards. If there is a systemic or egregious
problem, fines can result for the broadcaster.
Therefore, vendors say, it’s important that broadcasters
document what is being done to address each item. This will
be very useful in the event of a complaint, for the station to be
able to point to specific actions being taken to ensure that the
caption quality is as good as it can be.
“It is expected that any violations or complaints regarding
captioning will be submitted by viewers to the video programming distributor [VPD], which includes cable operators,
broadcasters, satellite distributors and other multichannel video
programming distributors, or directly to the FCC,” said John La,
product manager for modular products at Evertz Microsystems
in Burlington, Ontario. “The FCC will provide the VPD with 30
days to resolve the complaint before imposing penalties.”
EVERTZ MICROSYSTEMS
Evertz has been providing captioning equipment for over
14 years and products such as the 7825CCE-3G and HD9084
captioning encoders have been used by many customers to
provide an interface into which captions can be inserted into
video for live broadcasting. These caption encoders provide
the monitoring and control mechanisms to allow TV stations
and VPDs to make the adjustments necessary to conform to
the new FCC mandates.
Some of the functions of the 7825CCE-3G and HD9084
include:
• Switching between live captioning and captioning from a
teleprompter;
• Live captioning over a remote IP interface;
• Saving and inserting captions directly to or from a file
stored on a local Compact Flash card;
• Moving captions up and down based on user or automation
inputs, and
• On-screen display for real time decode of the encoded captions.
I-YUNO
I-Yuno, a South Korean company with new offices in
Burbank, Calif., offers a system called CaptionCast that
provides subtitling, captioning and dubbing services via a
cloud-based service, special software, and on-site support. It
recently introduced a fully automated “fingerprint triggered”
[18]
broadcast caption inserter. The single-channel CaptionCast
inserter listens to incoming audio streams to trigger captions
using digital audio fingerprints. TV stations have the option to
revise inaccurate live captions using i-Yuno’s captioning cloud
service called iMediaTrans.
David Lee, president of I-Yuno, said this helps reduce the
need for extra equipment and manpower while providing highly
accurate captioning results sooner. The company also allows
customers access to high quality captioning and subtitling services—only an on-site server is required—for a mere $4 per
minute. The company also offers a free lease of a single-channel
CaptionCast inserter if customers commit to 1,000 hours of
closed caption services with i-Yuno, within a five-year period.
PLANNING AND
COMPLIANCE ARE CRITICAL
At the end of the day, stations have to spend time researching
where their content is coming from and whether it properly complies with the captioning rules, because, remember, it’s not the
content creator that gets fined by the FCC, but the distributor.
“I think stations are still trying to understand the rules,”
said EEG’s McLaughlin. “They are still trying to figure out
whether they need to dedicate more staff hours to captioning,
and whether they need to upgrade equipment or change workflows. Again, many of the best practices are qualitative; the
compliance issues are pretty complex and not as binary as I’m
sure many of the people responsible for implementing them
would like them to be. ■
Go Online
Here are a few informative online resources
for closed captioning:
The Media Access Group at Boston public
broadcaster WGBH is a pioneer in developing
closed captioning methodologies and
technology:
http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/
mag/about/
The FCC’s webpage dedicated to closed
captioning:
http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/closedcaptioning-video-programming-television
National Association of the Deaf:
http://nad.org/issues/technology/televisionand-closed-captioning
SMPTE’s Timed-Text Format, which the FCC
has mandated for closed-captioning compliance:
https://www.smpte.org/sites/default/files/
st2052-1-2010.pdf

GUIDE TO Closed Captioning

Transcription

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