In Broadcast - June 2018 - 38

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 8 - Issue 6 | June 2018

InAPAC

Subtitling Technology
Still in a State of Evolution
Subtitling and captioning technology can often be viewed as being in a state of stagnation,
but that is not quite true, says Dean Wales, Marketing & PR, Screen Subtitling...

eople may ask what has actually
changed to have a significant
evolutionary effect on it as a
technology? It's just text on a screen,
right? Not quite.
As a pioneering subtitle and caption
systems developer and manufacturer,
Screen has had to rise to a number
of tough challenges over the years,
namely the SD to HD switchover and
rollout, 4K, VOD/OTT, and possibly one
of the most demanding in the past has
got to be 3D. Our technology has had
to keep up with these developments to
continue to provide reliable and highquality subtitles.
New Challenges
But
those
really
significant
advancements have plateaued more
recently so our challenges have come
at us from a different angle. The first
being in the realms of the 'subtitler'
itself. There has been a colossal shift
in how the professional subtitler
works, charges for its services, is paid,
etc. but also in who actually needs or
wants to create and prepare subtitles
today. Carrying the hefty weight of
creating and maintaining what is
considered an industry standard piece
of software, that's to say Wincaps,
presents a degree of responsibility. We
advocate the need for quality subtitles
and feel obliged to offer software to
achieve that in the most accessible and
affordable way possible.
The range of people requiring
subtitle creation and preparation
software is far broader now; medical
and education bodies for instance,
religious organisations, in fact
any business that has realised the
importance of having video and
consequently captions on their
websites.
This has led to a new array of
products and a more convenient
delivery method of existing products.

Wincaps

Subscription Availability
Screen has taken its core
professional creation products i.e.
Wincaps (and associated products),
and Poliscript and has made versions
of them available on an affordable
subscription basis via our online
Store. We've been monitoring and
surveying the market closely and have
been adjusting the available feature
level of software offered in this way.
Subscription fees have been examined
too so they're suitably aligned with
market subscribing expectations and
Wincaps Q4 is now available from
£24.99 per month. An educational
version is also available for download
via the Store and we're working on
a much more convenient enterprise
version of Wincaps.
Screen Store
An additional strategic angle to
the Screen Store is to offer a sales
channel in that space to relevant
third parties with complementary
products which has a substantial and
already established global reach and
reputation. We are inviting companies
with appropriate apps to contact our
partnerships team to discuss inclusion

Text solutions has recently
intensified.
The
most
significant
issue faced with this new
technology however is one
of accuracy, and even with
the more advanced speech
engines, the accuracy will still
not replace a human operator.
While many companies are
jumping on the Automatic
Subtitling Live bandwagon,
we have seen the quality
vary. Depending on location
and regulations, for some
broadcasters an accuracy of
90% may be enough, but with
one in every 10 words being
Wincaps is industry-standard software incorrect, for most this simply
and terms.
isn't good enough.
Licensing requirements too have
Screen has been working with this
extensively changed and following technology for a number of years now
greater demand from our customers and it is only recently that the speech
most of Screen's products are engines available to us have matured
available with flexible licensing now to a level where we are happy to
with our file-based product MediaMate put our name to them and provide a
recently joining that club.
solution.
We were pleased to offer a preview
Speech to Text
at IBC in 2017 and the recent NAB,
With many more countries being and with further development we are
legally pressed to provide captions for delighted to be bringing a taster of
live events such as news broadcasts, the next stage of this technology to
the need for cost effective Speech to BroadcastAsia.

Screen Store

http://www.inbroadcast.com https://subtitling.com/products/subtitle-delivery/transmit/polistream/ https://subtitling.com/products-solutions/subtitle-creation-software/ https://store.subtitling.com/

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