On June 8, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Report and Order, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, aiming to further ensure accessibility for all individuals in video conferencing services. The action establishes that under Section 716 of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA), video conferencing platforms commonly used for work, school, healthcare, and other purposes, fall under the definition of "interoperable video conferencing service."
Under Section 716 of the CVAA, Advanced Communications Services (ACS) and equipment manufacturers are required to make their services and equipment accessible to individuals with disabilities, unless achieving accessibility is not feasible. ACS includes interoperable video conferencing services such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and BlueJeans. The FCC previously left the interpretation of "interoperable" open, but in this latest report, it adopted the statutory definition without modification, encompassing services that provide real-time video communication to enable users to share information.
In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC seeks public comments on performance objectives for interoperable video conferencing services, including requirements for accurate and synchronous captions, text-to-speech functionality, and effective video connections for sign language interpreters.
The FCC's actions on this item are an important step toward ensuring that people with disabilities have equal access to video conferencing services. The Report & Order will help to make video conferencing more accessible and promote greater inclusion and participation of people with disabilities.
This article was co-written with the help of both ChatGPT and Google Bard as a demonstration of the technology discussed in this article. You can also read along with Aberdeen's President, Matt Cook in the recording below - but not really, this is Matt's voice cloned using a short clip of Matt's voice given to AI.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized numerous industries, and its influence on language-related technologies is particularly remarkable. In this blog post, we will explore how AI is transforming closed captioning, language translation, and even the creation of cloned voices. These advancements not only enhance accessibility and inclusion but also have far-reaching implications for communication in an increasingly globalized world.
AI in Closed Captioning
Closed captioning is an essential feature for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, enabling them to access audiovisual content. Traditional closed captioning methods rely on human transcriptionists, however, AI-powered speech recognition algorithms have made significant strides in this field.
Using deep learning techniques, AI models can more accurately transcribe spoken words into text, providing real-time closed captioning. This is not up to the FCC guidelines for broadcast but is oftentimes good enough for other situations where the alternative is to have no closed captions at all. These models continuously improve their accuracy by analyzing large amounts of data and learning from diverse sources. As a result, AI has made closed captioning more accessible, enabling individuals to enjoy online videos with greater ease.
Our team is working hard to develop and launch AberScribe, our new AI transcript application powered by OpenAI, sometime in mid-2024. From any audio/video source file, the AberScribe app will create an AI-generated transcript that can be edited in our online transcript editor and exported into various caption formats. AberScribe will also have added features for creating other AI-generated resources from that final transcript. Resources like summaries, glossaries of terms, discussion questions, interactive worksheets, and many more - the possibilities are endless.
Language barriers have long hindered effective communication between people from different linguistic backgrounds. However, AI-powered language translation has emerged as a game-changer, enabling real-time multilingual conversations and seamless understanding across different languages.
Machine Translation (MT) models, powered by AI, have made significant strides in accurately translating text from one language to another. By training on vast amounts of multilingual data, these models can understand and generate human-like translations, accounting for context and idiomatic expressions. This has empowered businesses, travelers, and individuals to engage in cross-cultural communication effortlessly.
In addition to written translation, AI is making headway in spoken language translation as well. With technologies like neural machine translation (NMT), AI systems can listen to spoken language, translate it in real-time, and produce synthesized speech in the desired language. This breakthrough holds immense potential for international conferences, tourism, and fostering cultural exchange.
Cloned Voices and AI
The advent of AI has brought about significant advancements in speech synthesis, allowing for the creation of cloned voices that mimic the speech patterns and vocal identity of individuals. While cloned voices have sparked debates regarding ethical use, they also present exciting possibilities for personalization and accessibility.
AI-powered text-to-speech (TTS) models can analyze recorded speech data from an individual, capturing their vocal characteristics, intonations, and nuances. This data is then used to generate synthetic speech that sounds remarkably like the original speaker. This technology can be immensely beneficial for individuals with speech impairments, providing them with a voice that better aligns with their identity.
Moreover, cloned voices have applications in industries like entertainment and marketing, where celebrity voices can be replicated for endorsements or immersive experiences. However, it is crucial to navigate the ethical considerations surrounding consent and proper usage to ensure that this technology is used responsibly.
Conclusion
Artificial Intelligence continues to redefine the boundaries of accessibility, communication, and personalization in various domains. In the realms of closed captioning, language translation, and cloned voices, AI has made significant strides, bridging gaps, and enhancing user experiences. As these technologies continue to evolve, it is vital to strike a balance between innovation and ethical considerations, ensuring that AI is harnessed responsibly to benefit individuals and society as a whole.
Been tasked with figuring out how to implement closed captions in your video library? The process can be overwhelming at first. While evaluating closed captioning vendors, it’s good to understand the benefits of captioning, who your audience is, what to consider when it comes to quality, and what to expect from a vendor.
There are several things that an organization should consider and evaluate before choosing a closed captioning vendor. Some of the most important factors include:
Benefits of Closed Captioning
Accessibility: First, and most importantly, closed captioning makes videos more accessible to people with hearing impairments. This can help to level the playing field and ensure that all viewers have the opportunity to enjoy the content.
Non-native English speakers: Closed captioning can be helpful for non-native English speakers. It can help them to understand the content of videos even if they are not fluent in English.
People in noisy environments: Closed captioning can be helpful for people who are in noisy environments. It allows them to watch videos without having to worry about missing any of the audio.
Engagement: Closed captioning can help to keep viewers engaged in videos. When viewers can read along with the audio, they are more likely to stay focused and understand the content.
Comprehension: Closed captioning can help viewers to better understand the content of videos. When viewers can see the words that are being spoken, they are better able to process the information and remember it.
SEO: Closed captions can help to improve the search engine optimization (SEO) of videos. This is because search engines can read the text of captions, which can help to improve the ranking of videos in search results.
Overall, closed captioning is a valuable tool that can benefit a wide range of audiences. It makes videos more accessible, engaging, and comprehensible for everyone.
Evaluating Vendors
By considering these factors, organizations can choose a closed captioning vendor that will meet their needs and provide a high-quality service:
Accuracy: The captions should be accurate and error-free. This is important for all viewers, but it is especially important for people with hearing impairments.
Timeliness: The captions should be delivered on time. This is important for live events, as well as for pre-recorded videos that are being released on a tight schedule.
Format: The captions should be delivered in a format that is compatible with the organization's equipment. This may include closed captions for live events, or subtitles for pre-recorded videos.
Cost: The cost of closed captioning services varies depending on a number of factors, including the length of the video, the number of viewers, and the turnaround time required.
What to Expect in the Process
Start early: Closed captioning can take time, so it is important to start the process early. This will help to ensure that the captions are accurate and delivered on time.
Test the captions: Once the captions are complete, it is important to test them to make sure that they are accurate and error-free. This can be done by having a few people watch the video with the captions turned on.
Provide feedback: If there are any errors in the captions, or if the captions are not formatted correctly, it is important to provide feedback to the closed captioning vendor. This will help to ensure that the captions are of the highest quality.
Use these tips when evaluating closed captioning vendors and you’ll ensure that their videos are accessible to everyone and that they provide a positive viewing experience for all viewers.
In 2022, just days before winning the primary to become the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman suffered a stroke. Like many stroke victims, he experienced a loss of function that persisted long after his recovery, including lingering auditory processing issues that made it challenging for him to understand spoken words. In interviews in the months that followed, John Fetterman relied on closed-captioning technology to help him comprehend reporters' questions and assist in his debates against his primary opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Upon being elected to serve in the US Senate, closed-captioning devices were installed both at his desk and at the front of the Senate chambers to facilitate his understanding of his colleagues as they spoke on the Senate floor. John Fetterman serves on several committees, including the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; the Committee on Environment and Public Works; the Joint Economic Committee; and the Special Committee on Aging. Closed-captioning has proven invaluable, benefiting both John Fetterman and his constituents in Pennsylvania, extending its utility beyond merely enabling him to watch TV at night or understand reporters.
With the assistance of closed-captioning technology, John Fetterman has been able to serve the people of Pennsylvania at the highest levels of government. During a hearing with the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Fetterman himself expressed gratitude for the transcription technology on his phone, stating, "This is a transcription service that allows me to fully participate in this meeting and engage in conversations with my children and interact with my staff." He later added, "I can't imagine if I didn't have this kind of bridge to allow me to communicate effectively with other people."
Captioning and transcription efforts extend well beyond being a mere requirement for broadcasting a program. As captioning technology continues to advance, an increasing number of individuals, like John Fetterman, will have the opportunity to participate in public life, even at the highest levels of government. They will serve others, even as transcription and captioning technology serves them.
Take a look at his setup in action here. Dedicated monitors with real-time captions displayed are becoming an increasingly popular setup at live events. Alternatively, explore the convenience of live captioning on mobile phones, making captions accessible from any seat in the venue. Either option is easily achievable — contact one of our experts to find out more.
On October 11, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the latest CVAA biennial report to Congress, evaluating the current industry compliance as it pertains to Sections 255, 716, and 718 of the Communications Act of 1934. The biennial report is required by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), which amended the Communications Act of 1934 to include updated requirements for ensuring the accessibility of "modern" telecommunications to people with disabilities.
FCC rules under Section 255 of the Communications Act require telecommunications equipment manufacturers and service providers to make their products and services accessible to people with disabilities. If such access is not readily achievable, manufacturers and service providers must make their devices and services compatible with third-party applications, peripheral devices, software, hardware, or consumer premises equipment commonly used by people with disabilities.
Accessibility Barriers
Despite major design improvements over the past two years, the report reveals that accessibility gaps still persist and that industry commenters are most concerned about equal access on video conferencing platforms. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of accessible video conferencing services for people with disabilities.
Zoom, BlueJeans, FaceTime, and Microsoft Teams have introduced a variety of accessibility feature enhancements, including screenreader support, customizable chat features, multi-pinning features, and “spotlighting” so that all participants know who is speaking. However, commentators have expressed concern over screen share and chat feature compatibility with screenreaders along with the platforms’ synchronous automatic captioning features.
Although many video conferencing platforms now offer meeting organizers synchronous automatic captioning to accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy (DHH CAO) pointed out that automated captioning sometimes produces incomplete or delayed transcriptions and even if slight delays of live captions cannot be avoided, these captioning delays may cause “cognitive overload.” Comprehension can be further hindered if a person who is deaf or hard of hearing cannot see the faces of speaking participants, for “people with hearing loss rely more on nonverbal information than their peers, and if a person misses a visual cue, they may fall behind in the conversation.”
Automated vs. Human-generated Captions
At present, the automated captioning features on these conference platforms have an error rate of 5-10%. That’s 5-10 errors per 100 words spoken and when the average conversation rate of an English speaker is 150 words per minute, you’re looking at the possibility of over a dozen errors a minute.
Earlier this year, our team put Adobe’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered speech-to-text engine to the test. We tasked our most experienced Caption Editor with using Adobe’s auto-generated transcript to create & edit the captions to meet the quality standards of the FCC and the deaf and hard of hearing community on two types of video clips: a single-speaker program and one with multiple speakers.
In the fall of 2020, Aberdeen’s AberFast engineers were presented with a challenge: find an alternative for broadcasters who utilize satellite feeds to distribute their programming. The spectrum auction sanctioned by the FCC had cut the number of available satellite transponders in half, leaving broadcasters who use satellite feeds to be hit with premiums, overcharges, and even losing their feeds altogether.
The answer has been in front of us for a while: terrestrial IP-based file delivery.
Since 2010, our AberFast Station Delivery service has successfully delivered over half a million broadcast-ready files all over the world. We have been proving that IP-based program delivery is practical and the future of broadcast delivery which is why we heavily invested our time and money in this technology, allowing us to spin up a new service for satellite replacement:AberFast Lite.
Aberdeen recorded a video interview with the client to discuss the workflow and experience after a successful launch. Throughout the article, quotes and reference points are linked in blue and will take you to that part of the discussion in the video interview. The full video is available in the player at the end.
Client Profile: In Touch Ministries
In Touch Ministries is the outreach ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia. After success with a half-hour religious program called The Chapel Hour, which began broadcasting in 1972, Stanley founded In Touch Ministries and began televising the In Touch program on The Christian Broadcasting Network in 1978. His program remains one of the longest-running religious broadcasts in the US, reaching more than 800 outlets through television and radio.
Awards and honors:
1988: National Religious Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame
1989: Named Clergyman of the Year by Religious Heritage of America
1989: NRB named In Touch with Television Producer of the Year
1999: In Touch named Radio Program of the Year
2017: Thomas Nelson Publishing recognizes Stanley for selling more than 3.5 million copies of his books
As one of Aberdeen’s long-time partners, In Touch Ministries began using Aberdeen’s services as a supplement to their in-house captioning & distribution workflow in 2010. After 11 years, our partnership continues to grow and Aberdeen now handles all of In Touch’s captioning and distribution for the television program.
Over the past 30 years, a significant amount of In Touch’s broadcast outlets have received the program via satellite delivery. For In Touch, the decision to use satellite for so long was heavily based on two factors: price and quality control. The ministry was always concerned about what would happen to the quality of the program when it was distributed through multiple mediums: tape, DVD, file, sat signal, etc. Satellite allowed them to “standardize” their broadcast – they knew that each station receiving the signal was receiving the same quality. However, the desire to standardize to a file-only option had been a hot topic with the ministry for years but nothing existed at the price point they needed and it was just still cheaper to deliver via satellite. Until now.
Because of the changing satellite service business and the FCC Spectrum sale cutting the number of available satellite feeds, In Touch was forced to change satellite providers five times over the last six years. Deadlines were becoming more of an issue when last-minute changes to a program forced their team to frantically resend a feed to hundreds of stations. It was at this time that McKinnon and his team turned to Aberdeen to find a solution.
The Solution
Since 2011, Aberdeen has been in the file-based, terrestrial delivery, space with their AberFast File Delivery service and has delivered over a half-million programs around the world. AberFast was introduced to provide significant financial savings for producers by eliminating tape and delivery costs associated with program delivery. It also allows producers to reach more broadcast outlets in high definition. Beyond financial savings, the AberFast service included a broadcast QC and correction of audio and video levels on all programs before delivery. Each station also received a broadcast-ready file transcoded to their preferred file specifications through a hand’s-off automated point-to-point upload to their servers along with email notifications.
So in the case of In Touch and a broadcast that reaches nearly 300 outlets weekly, how could they scale a terrestrial-based delivery to function similarly to a satellite signal that pushes the program out to all stations at once? Aberdeen now offers a more “lite” version of the full-service AberFast where most of the white-glove treatment is removed, but there is no sacrifice to the program's overall quality.
After surveying hundreds of stations, AberFast Lite settled on the five most commonly accepted file formats that will work in their automated ingest workflows. Each station will choose one format and receive the program through the same automated upload utilized for the full-service AberFast delivery. Stations will also have access to download the files from our online portal if they happen to move or delete the program. No more worries about “missing a feed” as the file will remain available well after the airdate.
The Results
In Touch Ministries has been off satellite since May of 2021 and is currently handling all of the distribution of their 30 & 60-minute weekly programs through Aberfast – station-specific versions are still running through the flagship AberFast service and where a single version is going to 50+ stations, AberFast Lite picks up the baton.
The launch of this service has proven to be such a successful alternative, that we’re thrilled to announce that the AberFast Lite service is available to all programmers who meet certain criteria and are sending a single-version program to 50+ TV stations. Want to see if your program qualifies? Contact us to have one of our engineers go through your workflows and present the appropriate solution. Learn more about the AberFast Lite setup process here.
The discussion between Matt Cook, President of Aberdeen Broadcast Services, and John McKinnon, Executive Director of Programming for In Touch Ministries referenced throughout this article can be viewed in its entirety below.
Technological advancements have made preaching the Gospel through new mediums easier than ever – and the limitations in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced embracing these new technologies a necessity. A majority of the fastest-growing churches in the U.S. had already begun live-streaming their services as a way to grow and connect with their audience that may not be able to physically attend due to distance, age, or a disability. Now, it’s a scramble for everyone to get onboard with a solution.
But this new burden to adapt is not all that bad. So far, we are hearing a positive response from ministries that the newly implemented video streams of their services have not only provided an adequate solution for their congregation but has also gained exposure to more members of their community. This leads us to see a common trend among the churches that make Outreach’s 100 Fastest-Growing Churches in America list every year: online services.
The New Normal
Like nearly every institution in American life, places of worship have been hit hard by the novel coronavirus and subsequent social distancing measures – no longer able to physically gather as one; to collectively nod their heads when a verse speaks to them or sway together during songs of worship.
State-to-state the laws vary, but here in California places of worship have been asked to “discontinue indoor singing and chanting activities and limit indoor attendance to 25% of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower.” And it’s also encouraged to “consider practicing these activities through alternative methods (such as internet streaming).”
So amidst the uncertainty of how and when the regulations will change, religious leaders have turned to online platforms to practice their faith with community members. Since March of this year, BoxCast, the complete live video streaming solution popular among churches, experienced an 85% increase in active accounts and a 500% increase in viewing minutes compared to the same period last year. Even the modestly-sized church streaming platform streamingchurch.net saw an immediate increase in their subscriber base of 20% and their total viewership triple to 60,000 weekly viewers.
Rick Warren from Saddleback Church reports that in the last 23 weeks – since the church moved to online-only services – they have more than doubled their 45,000-weekly attendance. This is their greatest growth in the shortest amount of time in their 40-year history.
The silver lining here is that being forced to find an online solution has allowed the message to be more accessible than ever. And once the setup is in place to live-stream your services, keeping it as an option for your audience unable to attend in person even after all restrictions are lifted will be an invaluable resource for continued growth.
Hearing Loss and the Benefits of Captioning
As audiences grow, it is important to point out that approximately 20% of American adults (48 million!) aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing. Some of the audience may be sitting in silence; literally.
Captions are words displayed on a television, computer, mobile device, etc., providing the speech or sound portion of a program or video via text. Captions allow viewers to follow the dialogue and the action of a program simultaneously. Captions can also provide information about who is speaking or about sound effects that might be important to understanding the message.
Captions help comprehension and clarification of the dialogue – it’s not just with those with hearing loss. Reading along with captions can help other members of the congregation with concentration and engagement.
After surveying a small sample of churches using captioning, we’ve seen similar responses where they’ve started by adding captioning to one service a week to gauge the response. Most find encouraging numbers with engagement on that service and move to add captions to the remaining services and even start captioning their archived videos of past sermons.
So as your audience grows, consider being further accessible with captioning and ensure you’re reaching that additional 20%.
Television stations or advertising agencies will provide detailed instructions on their broadcast requirements for producers to follow before submitting their program. However, before exploring the technical specifications of the bit rate, codec, wrapper, GOP structure, etc. you’ll need to ensure you add your broadcast leader elements to your timeline. Although the broadcast requirement varies from station to station (sometimes absent), we have established a common layout of how the leader elements should be formatted.Read
The introduction of high definition television super-sized our television sets from the square look of the 4:3 aspect ratio, to the widescreen 16:9 ratio. If you acquire your content in HD, the natural instinct when shooting HD is to use the entire 16:9 frame for composing your shots.
Not so fast.
Currently, most television networks in US markets do broadcast in HD. However, since there are still a significant amount of 4:3 television sets still in use, every one of these HD stations also simultaneously feeds SD signals of their content to their SD viewers. In fact, the majority of the US viewership is actually watching in SD. This means your cinematic 16:9 content is being down-converted to the 4:3 screen ratio for SD viewers.Read
Last Friday (June 12, 2009) was the official transition of analog television being replaced by digital television (DTV) in the United States. With this having taken place, I thought it would be the appropriate time to discuss 608 captions (captions for analog TV) and 708 captions (captions for DTV). If you didn't know that two types of captioning standards existed, you most definitely will want to read on.
Please note that in this article I simplified the terms to 608 or 708 captions, but you will often see these terms referred to as EIA-608 or EIA-708 after its developer Electronic Industries Alliance.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT 608 CAPTIONS (LINE 21 CAPTIONS)
608 captions, which are commonly referred to as Line 21 captions, used to be the standard for closed captioning for NTSC TV analog broadcasts in the United States and Canada.
What do 608 captions look like?
These are the captions you are most likely used to. They are known for their limited display capabilities: white letters and black-box background. Typically the letters are in all uppercase as this has become a North-American standard for 608 captions.
How does 608 captioning work?
608 captions are embedded in the television signal and become visible when the viewer uses a decoder, either as a separate device or built into a television set. Without this decoder, the captions are not viewable.
Line 21 captions are hidden in--you got it--the Line 21 data area found in the VBI (vertical blanking interval) of the television signal, which is a non-visible, active video data area. There are two fields in Line 21. Field one contains CC1, CC2, T1, and T2 (the latter being text services). Field 2 contains CC3, CC4, T3, and T4. CC1 is most often used to carry English captions and CC3 is increasingly being used for Spanish captions and captions edited for young children's reading speed.
608 Language Capabilities
Line 21 captions are mainly limited to being encoded in these languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, and Dutch.
608 captions for DTV
Seems kind of like an oxymoron, but even though Line 21 captions are for analog broadcasts, they are also sometimes present in the picture user data in digital transmissions.
Future of 608 captions
Don't think they are going to disappear this year, but because of the transition to DTV last week, 608 CC is becoming less prevalent. That being said, producers are still sending their programs to TV stations with only Line 21 captioning. They may not even know that this is what their captioning company is providing them with as the stations are not always demanding otherwise. This is because 608 captions are still supported in DTV by carrying them inside ancillary data channels. TV stations haven't completely addressed this DTV captioning issue. My bet is they have enough on their plate right now with all of the industry changes. Only time will tell what must be done, but if you are a television producer, ask your closed-captioning service provider if they are providing your digital programs in a 708 CC format. There is a good chance that they are not. In fact, most CC viewed on DTV signals is 608 CC up-converted to 708 CC. That being said, the visa-versa is not true: There is no standard way to down-convert 708 captions to 608 captions as there are many features of the 708 format that are not supported in 608 captions.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT 708 CAPTIONS (DTV CAPTIONS)
708 captions are the standard for all digital television, whether that means standard-definition digital broadcasts or high-definition broadcasts. I have found that many people think that 708 captions are only for hi-def channels, but this couldn't be further from the truth.
What do 708 captions look like?
This is where things get fun. Are you sick of the same old look? Like things your way? You'll be happy because the at-home viewer of DTVCC has some control over how they view the captions. The 708 technology for DTV captioning allows for up to eight different fonts and can be displayed in three different sizes. DTV captioning also allows for up to 64 different colors of text on up to 64 different colored backgrounds. Another nice feature is that the background can be made translucent or even omitted entirely with text displayed as edged or drop shadowed characters. North American 708 captions can have a nicer look than 608 captions and if captioned in the pop-on style, they can have a similar look to that of subtitles you may find on a DVD or Blu-ray disc. One thing the viewer cannot change is the captioning style. For example, roll-up captions cannot be reformatted to pop-on captions. This is in the control of the captioner who created the captions. These 708 capabilities can only be obtained if you have access to a new digital television set with a built-in decoder that supports these functions. Although 708 captions were designed with all these features in mind, each decoder manufacturer has created their decoders with different capabilities, features, and functions, so your control over the captions will widely depend on the specific decoder you are using.
708 Language Capabilities
Unlike Line 21 captions, there are many more language and character-set capabilities for 708 captions. Due to their universal character set (Unicode) and complete range of special symbols, 708 captions were designed to support any character in any alphabet in the world. With 608 captions the viewer chooses between CC1, CC2, CC3, and CC4 to view different language captions, many times only accurately allowing for up to two languages due to overlapping signals. In the 708 caption technology, different languages are transmitted as CS1, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6... This easily allows for closed captioning of the same program in multiple languages, broadening the scope of a program's audience.
How does 708 captioning work?
DTV does not have a VBI (vertical blanking interval) like analog video, but rather 708 captions are placed into MPEG-2 video streams in the picture user data. Known as the DTVCC Transport Stream, the packets are in picture order and need to be rearranged like picture frames are. In the fixed-bandwidth channel, there is space allocated for both Line 21 and DTVCC: 960 bit/s are allocated to be compatible with Line 21 captions and 8640 bit/s is allocated for 708 captions.
The future of 708 captions
More and more DTV viewers will start demanding true 708-type captions, rather than accepting the older up-converted 608 captions. They will see DTV captioning on some programs and love them and want them for all their programming. Even so, my inkling is that 708 captions won't be the only type of captions needed until analog television sets no longer exist. People with analog television sets can still receive a digital signal by using an external converter box and this population will still need access to 608 caption data. So to be on the safe side, I recommend you provide both 608 and 708 captions that can be embedded in the MPEG-2 video streams of digital video, so everyone is happy and most importantly, everyone has access.
