What if captioning wasn't limited to multimedia and entertainment mediums and could transcend, by way of tech devices, into day-to-day interactions with others? It’s what app developers at Georgia Tech are trying to accomplish—real-time captions of real-life conversations. The question is, does it really work?
Some are calling it “instant captions” - a concept rarely synonymous with accuracy (except when real-time captioners are involved). All you need is a smart phone and Google Glass (the Explorer model goes for a measly $1,500). One need only speak into a smartphone microphone, and the app turns spoken dialogue into a transcript. That transcript is converted into captions displayed on the user’s glassware. There’s a slight delay, but the auditory features of Glass appear accurate and (arguably) promising.
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If not, you may want to encourage them to do so. The process is simple, and it provides accessibility to one of the most important ceremonies of one's life: GRADUATION. Read below for some answers to some common questions I get regarding captioning for these important life events.
What is the purpose for captioning commencements?
The purpose of closed captioning commencements is obvious: to provide access to viewers who are unable to hear the ceremony.
Who views the captioning and where do they view it?
Captions are usually present on screens at the commencement itself, on the web for live viewing, and potentially broadcast on a local station and viewed by the family or friends of graduates, graduates themselves, or perhaps the faculty members of the school. If not present at the ceremony, viewers can connect to the ceremony from a home computer or from portable devices like laptop computers, PDAs, Smart Phones, et cetera.
For the captioner, what preparation goes into captioning for a commencement ceremony?
A live captioner will usually want to get names of speakers, especially the keynote speaker and valedictorian, and whoever else may be speaking during the ceremony. The captioner should familiarize themselves with the city the commencement is located in and its adjoining cities, as these names may be mentioned during the ceremony. Depending on keynote speaker, the captioner will do some online research about the speaker's history and life so they can learn where she/he lives, works, what their "claim to fame" is. This information will need to be defined in their dictionary.
How long are commencement ceremonies?
They can vary from three to six hours, depending on the size of the school and graduating class.
Does one captioner do the entire commencement? If not, how do they transition?
Many times, one captioner will caption the entire commencement. If it is extremely long, then two captioners will work on the captioning. Usually at a predetermined point, for example, at the top of the hour, the first captioner will sign off with a [pause in captions] on the screen, until the second captioner dials in and gets linked up and they take over.
Does the captioner get a list of graduates beforehand? If not, how do they caption the names?
They usually do NOT get a list of the graduates. When the graduates are announced, they are usually instructed to not write during that time, although sometimes they may write something like [names being read].
What does a captioner do if they do not know how to spell somebody's name or they do not have it in their dictionary?
The captioner will usually phonetically spell the person's last name as opposed to the first name.
Which universities and colleges currently caption their commencement ceremonies?
Many schools caption their commencement ceremonies, but some specific school who we have captioned for or will caption for this year include:
"A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success." ~Robert Orben
For more information on closed captioning commencement ceremonies, contact us.
Each captioning company will categorize their levels of captioning differently, but a fully operating captioning company will offer at these three types of captioning: live captioning, live-to-tape captioning, and post-production captioning.
Here are descriptions of the different types of captioning:
Live Captioning
Just like it sounds, live captioning is written by a live captioner in real-time. The live captioner is trained as a court reporter and uses a stenograph machine to caption live. They do not type using a keyboard. The live captioner writes at the same time the show is being broadcasted. The live captioner dials in directly into a T.V. station.
Live-to-tape Captioning
This type of captioning is written by a live captioner in real-time. Instead of dialing into a station, they dial into an encoder and an audio line and write in the same “live” style. The show is recorded in real-time, but is mailed out to the station and broadcasts on a later date. This type of captioning is used mainly for extremely tight turnarounds and to reduce cost to the client. The accuracy rate is much lower than post-production captioning.
Post-Production Captioning
Post-production captions typically get transcribed by a transcriber using a video and audio file that has been digitized. Many transcribers work remotely (from home) or on location. Typically, a caption editor close captions this type of captioning. Within post-production captioning, most companies will offer different levels of quality to meet the needs of their clients.
Have you ever wondered how live captioners caption Christian programming? Biblical and Christian terms used during a sermon or teaching do not come easy to the common captioner.
Captioners writing for Christian programming are required to specialize in this area of captioning. Not just any experienced live captioner can accurately write a church sermon. Captioners must add each and every word that is spoken to their dictionary prior to writing the show. To build a large Christian dictionary may take years and endless hours of practice. It doesn't just take time and practice, it also takes a captioner who understands the Bible and Christian terminology. If not, [speaking in tongues] could get captioned as [speaking in a foreign language]. So, if you are a Christian broadcaster that is getting your show captioned, ask about the captioner who writes it. Do they have a comprehensive Christian dictionary? Watch the captions and see if the words that matter most to you are captioned properly.Read
“That person doesn’t even know how to spell.” “They can’t type correctly.” “How come in today’s age of technology can’t they get the captions right?” If you don’t know how captioning works, you’ve probably thought or said this yourself. The captioner’s ability to spell and type is not usually the reason a viewer sees garbled captions. So you ask yourself, “Why?”
The following are reasons why captions appear garbled:
• The most common is the combination of the quality of the video signal and the quality of the decoder chip in the television itself. If the quality of either is poor, it will display words with missing letters, separate letters incorrectly or a miss a word entirely.
• The technology of encoders and decoders working together to reveal the captions properly
• When watching a live program, the captioner may mistroke resulting in a typo
• When watching a live program you may see a word spelled phonetically. This happens when the captioner doesn’t have that particular word in their dictionary. The more experience the writer has, the more words in their dictionary and typically better captioning results.
So the next time you view captioning, pass on the word as to “Why captions look garbled?”
