We are constantly reminded of the difference that live captioning services can make for a ministry.
Take a quick listen (under a minute!) as our Matt Cook, Aberdeen President, talks about Woodland’s success with live captioning.
After working with Woodlands Church for many years on the post-produced closed captioning and AberFast Station Delivery of the Kerry Shook program, it was just a few years ago that they decided to give our live captioning services a try. Before long, they discovered all of the positive ways live captioning supports their events and services — and, most importantly, makes them more accessible to church embers.
“Woodlands Church has used Aberdeen live captioning services since 2018. The audience engagement and measurable growth have been so positive that we've added captioning to an additional service.”
Vince W. - Online Campus Pastor – Woodlands Church
Earlier this month at NRB Proclaim 17, we hosted a brief talk with broadcasters regarding the most updated FCC laws pertaining to closed captioning. Although it was intended as a review of the laws that are already in place, it proved that many of the laws are still not known, or unclear, to many broadcasters.
The talk was hosted at the Learning Arena located in the vendor exhibit hall. The goal of the Learning Arena is to foster true interaction between exhibiting companies and convention participants to share and connect; highlighting relevant education and training.Read
Audible exhales could be heard throughout the nearly 1 million square feet of exhibit space as the final closing announcement was sent over the loudspeakers of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Some, involuntary gasps of panic from what was left of 103,000 NAB attendees that just realized they didn't make it successfully through the 4 halls of the convention; and others, sighs of relief from the exhibitors of the 1,700 companies as they realized that the past 31 hours of standing on their feet is over.
That closing message also marked the 7th consecutive year of Aberdeen Broadcast Services exhibiting in the South Lower Hall at the NAB Show. This time, with a new location and a fresh look. As we continue to grow as a company, so does the size of our booth and the gathering of our team.
Upgraded 20'x20' booth complete with a 10'x4' triangular overhead hanging sign.
In the years past, Aberdeen has had a nice presence in a 10'x20' space just beyond the main product demonstrations from Red Digital Cinema, Blackmagic Design, and Adobe Systems. This year we were right in the middle of all that activity adjacent to Amazon Web Services.
We could not have predicted the perfect balance of inquiries across our 3 divisions. Frequent visits from producers looking for further education on the new closed captioning laws. TV stations looking to continue to free up their resources in the tape-less world. International producers looking to expand their audiences with multilanguage translations. And, unexpectedly, a dozen universities whose attention has focused on captioning their online courses after the recent lawsuit filed against a couple of Ivy League schools.
This year saw new innovative video and broadcasting technologies introduced at a rate only Flash Gordon could keep up with. 8K display systems, 10-ounce Micro Cinema Cameras, a storm-chasing Jeep Wrangler that would make Bill Paxton salivate, and drones. Drones EVERYWHERE. And like the drones, attendance is soaring: in six years, the turnout has grown to over 21,000 and now represents 164 countries!
It’s also encouraging to see the overall growth in the broadcasting industry at large. After all, the NAB was originally founded as the National Association of Radio Broadcasters and it wasn't until 1951 that the name was changed to include television broadcasts. Now, just “broadcasters” seem to cover it all.
2015 Aberdeen Broadcast Services Exhibitors
(Left to right) Michael, Tony, Arif, Kyle, Matt D., Steve, Becky Isaacs, Nathan, Ryan, Ed, and Matt Cook.
NAB Show, THANK YOU and we’ll see you again next year. April 16-21, 2016.
Sony Electronics and Aberdeen Captioning along with software developer CPC have joined forces to develop the first file-based closed-captioning system that maximizes the benefits of Sony’s XDCAM HD422 tapeless technology. The new workflow uses Sony’s PDW-HD1500 optical deck to make the process more efficient, faster and more flexible.
“Because the XDCAM system is file-based, we’re able to do our work in a much more refined and streamlined way,” said Matt Cook, President of Aberdeen Captioning. “Now, once someone is done with their XDCAM edit, we take their file, caption directly onto that file, and then place it back onto the disc. We’ve eliminated the need to go through a closed-captioning encoder—which can cost up to $10,000—therefore eradicating the requirement to do real-time play-out.”
According to Cook, clients—which include a range of broadcast networks, groups and independent producers—benefit from faster turnaround times and a more cost- and time-efficient process than previous methods.
“The primary benefit for clients is that they can keep their file in its original form, and send it to us on a hard drive, via FTP site, or on a disc,” he said. “Once we put the captioning data back in the video file, we can then return it to the client in the format of their choice.”
The PDW-HD1500 deck is designed for file-based recording in studio operations. A Gigabit Ethernet data drive allows it to write any file format from any codec onto the optical disc media, and it also makes handling either SD or HD content much easier.
“This deck is perfect for applications like closed captioning, where turnaround time is often critical and multi-format flexibility is a key,” said Wayne Zuchowski, group marketing manager for XDCAM system at Sony Electronics.
Cook added, “We can handle any format without a problem. That type of capability and functionality is very important to us because as a captioning company we’re required to deliver a finished product in any format a client requires.”
When Aberdeen receives content from a client, the company first converts it to a smaller “working file,” for example Windows or a Quick Time media file, which is used to do the transcribing, captioning and timing.
“Once the captioning work is done, we marry the original MXF XDCAM file and our captioned data file through our MacCaption software,” Cook said. “With the press of a button, both files are merged, and we can drag and drop it back onto the disc and send out, or FTP it to a client and they can drag and drop onto a disc.”
The Sony and Aberdeen joint captioning system will be on display at NAB in Sony’s exhibit, C11001, Central Hall, Las Vegas Convention Center.
Article Written by Tom Di Nome, from Sony Electronics
