Per our last post, we discussed the benefits of using voice recognition software. However, we understand that part of the process is to go back and correct the errors. Voice writing “on the fly” by a trained professional still only produces captions that are 95% accurate at very best, but usually under 90%. (And this is using software that has been trained to understand an individual captioner’s voice.) Closed captioning remains a field where a trained human professional’s product will surpass any computer program.

So while this new embrace of closed captioning is still a step in the right direction, we encourage companies to remember that accuracy is important especially when it comes to your message. (Also remember that your SEO will be enhanced if the captioning text of your online video is completely accurate.) Why risk having your professional video ridiculed for closed captioning blunders?

To get an idea of just how inaccurate voice recognition captions can be, check out: http://youtubecaptionfail.com/.

California Representative Henry A. Waxman states: “Today, as we mark the 20th anniversary of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, the House is giving Americans with disabilities access to smart phones, other communications technology, and video programming. This bill ensures that millions of Americans with disabilities can participate in our 21st century digital society.”

Senator John Kerry said, “Technology and the Internet have broken down barriers, and no one should be or has to be excluded from modern communications and the new economy because of a disability. It’s been 20 years since the Americans With Disabilities Act knocked down barriers to employment and government services — and now it’s time to do the same thing [with regard to] blocking people with disabilities from getting online.”

So what happens next? The bill gets sent to the Senate for vote and if it passes, it will be signed into law!

Mark Robertson wrote an article on his website titled “In-Depth Look at YouTube Closed Captions, SEO, and YouTube Indexing,” where he explores the many added benefits of adding closed captions to YouTube videos. In addition to increasing accessibility and allowing your video to have a global reach with the addition of multi-language subtitles, Robertson points out yet another added benefit—advanced search filtering. Both Google and YouTube allow users to filter their video search to include only videos with associated closed captions. If your Web video is not closed captioned, you are not only limiting your video’s accessibility, but you are missing out on an easy marketing strategy.

For more information on captioning your Web or YouTube video, visit our website!

Need multi-language translation for your YouTube video? No problem! Aberdeen will provide a professional and experienced translator to ensure that your message is understood globally.  All you need is a YouTube account.

To learn more about DCMP’s “YouTube Ready” qualification visit:

http://youtubeready.dcmp.org/

Also, watch Aberdeen’s YouTube video for more information on our captioning and subtitling services for your YouTube video at:

http://abercap.com/youtube_captioning.html

With a growing trend towards Internet video, advocates are urging Congress to pass a bill that would mandate captions on online videos that have also appeared on television. They are also pushing for captions to be more accessible by requiring closed-caption buttons on remote controls. Stelter notes, “The prospect of legislation is motivating some major Web site operators to add captions more quickly.” A few companies are attempting to create a universal standard for online captions, which would make it easier to adapt TV captions to other formats.

Media companies are beginning to understand the importance of captions and are now taking action. YouTube and Google provide captions for any video uploaded as of April, which is mutually beneficial—the text added to their videos aides in searches. Hulu, a Web site that offers free TV episodes, now offers captions for many of its popular shows. Eric Feng, the chief technical officer for Hulu, stated that “Users send us feedback about closed captions more often than almost any other feature, so what started as a small side project has turned into a very important part of our user experience.”

Adding captions to all Web videos is a giant endeavor, which will likely take a huge amount of time, but in the end, it will provide accessibility to the 36 million Americans who rely on captions.

While traditional evangelism definitely has its place, there is no better way than the Internet to reach millions of people across the world with the least amount of effort.  Many ministries are using Internet-based evangelism by setting up virtual church campuses where members in remote areas without access to a physical church can attend.  These virtual churches have opened up the opportunity for millions of people who otherwise may not have been able to hear the Gospel or attend a good local Christian church.

ADDRESSING THE LANGUAGE GAP

When a cyber-church hopes to open its ‘virtual doors” to an international community they should first think of how they will communicate to a non-English-speaking community.

Providing multi-language subtitles is the most efficient and cost-effective method to localizing your webcasts in multiple languages.  Subtitles can be combined with just about any player: Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, YouTube, RealPlayer, etc.  If you want your message to be understood by a multi-lingual audience, there is no way around localizing your programming for various languages.  This article summarizes the main ways to tackle subtitling.

COST AND QUALITY CHOICES

The Automated Translator

The cheapest option to subtitle your English video is automatic translation.  Google offers this as a free service for YouTube videos.  The main problem, however, is inaccuracy.

Here is an actual example of one such English to Spanish translation:

The original English subtitle: “The history of the Flood is precise. The history from Abraham on is precise. Everything else is precise. There’s precision in the Law and the history books. There’s precision in the Psalms and the books of literature that we call poetry. And there is precision in the prophets.”

The automated translation: “La historia de la inundación es preciso. La historia de Abraham en es preciso. Todo lo demás es preciso. No hay precisión en la Ley y en los libros de historia. No hay precisión en los Salmos y los libros de la literatura que llamamos poesía. Y no hay precisión en los profetas.”

But there are two serious problems with this translation. First, it doesn’t use the proper term for the Flood.  It is like calling the Flood “the inundation” in English. Second, it says that the Bible ISN’T precise in many instances, which exactly the opposite of what the speaker intended.

The main point is that automated translation will often distort, add or subtract from the Word of God, while a good human translator relies on the translations of the Bible into Spanish that have been diligently compared to the original Bible manuscripts. Therefore they do not need to do their own translation of the Bible.  Finally, good Christian translators rely on the Lord to give them the proper words, something a computer could never do.

The Volunteer Translator

If you have volunteer translators in your church, this can be an excellent way to go.  The translation will be free, but you will most likely have to team up with a subtitling company to create the needed subtitle file. Nevertheless your cost will be significantly lower.

One of the main advantages to using volunteers is that the translator will most likely be familiar with the speaker’s style and message as well as have a heart for what they are translating.

Nevertheless, there are two points to be aware of when dealing with volunteers.  First, just because they “know” another language, doesn’t mean they will be able to properly translate into that language in a Christian context.  Be sure they are native speakers of the target language, as well as having attended Christian church or listened to Christian teaching in their native language.  Also, as with all volunteers, you must be sure they can meet your production deadline week after week.  Be sure to have a back-up plan.

The Non-Christian/Amateur Translator

If you search for the cheapest subtitling package cost, you may end up with a “non-Christian” or “amateur” translation.  With a non-Christian translator or inexperienced translator you may find a cheaper rate, but you will run into problems similar to what you find with automatic translation. The terminology used is often of secular nature, or worse yet, that of another religion when referring to Christian matters. For example, in Japan, where less than one percent are reported Christians, it is very difficult to find a Japanese-speaker able to properly translate the word “atonement,” as this concept does not exist in Japan’s main religions, Buddhism and Shinto.

Another example that had me chuckling for hours was in an interpreted church service from English to Spanish when the interpreter referred to the Holy Ghost as the “Fantasma Sagrado,” instead of the correct Spanish term, “Espíritu Santo.”  For a Spanish-speaker this is like calling the Holy Ghost something similar to the Sacred Phantom. It doesn’t quite work.

The Experienced Christian Translator

Of course, this is the best option, but not always the most affordable.  The experienced Christian translator is a Christian with a heart for the message and also with the training and tools to localize your message properly to the target audience.  When searching for a full-package subtitling service, be sure to ask the company about the translators they use.  Do they have experience translating Christian material?  How many years of experience do they have?  What other Christian material have they translated?  Ask to see their resumes.  In addition to a good Christian translator, if you are willing to pay top dollar, also be sure there is an additional proof of the translation before the subtitles go live, so that any errors are caught.  If you have people available in your ministry to do a proof of the final translations, this option can bring your cost down significantly.

THE BOTTOM LINE

All and all, when translating your message for multi-language subtitles, be sure to allow feedback on the translation from the viewers.  This can be a simple box below the video where the viewer can input their feedback.  You never know, you may even get viewers across the world willing to translate your message for free.  Are you getting the number of viewers you desired in each country?  If not, it may be that the subtitles are so poor that the viewer gives up.

Although there are many service options out there at many different costs, the important thing is that you know exactly what you are getting and you evaluate what will work best for your ministry.  From years of experience, the old saying still rings true: You get what you pay for.

If you are a supporter, it is very important to email Congress about this bill to increase its chances of survival and passage. Use https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml to contact 

Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. Captioning supporters also need a similar bill introduced in the Senate, so use http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm to contact Senators.

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:

• MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
• Sonoma State University
• Cal State University, San Bernardino
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• College of New Jersey

For more information on closed captioning commencement ceremonies, contact Steve Holmes at 800-688-662 or info@abercap.com.

Copyright notice:

© Joanna Scavo & Aberdeen Captioning, Inc. 2009.

This article can be freely reproduced under the following conditions:

a) that no economic benefit be gained from the reproduction

b) that all citations and reproductions carry a reference to this original publication on [online] http://www.abercap.com/blog

Most companies are able to caption webcasts in the following formats:

• Windows Media
• Real
• QuickTime
• Flash

THE ON-DEMAND PROCESS:

Client

• creates finalized webcast video file and post it to our FTP site

Captioning company

• creates verbatim transcript and translation
• creates caption (edit, sync and place text)
• performs caption quality check
• creates a caption file for your specific format
• emails the file to client

Client or Authorizing Company

• Your webmaster places webcast video and caption file in the same folder and captions appear when played. For multiple languages, your webmaster will create a button and text section on your website for users to select subtitle captioning. The webmaster will then link the file to your video.

THE LIVE PROCESS:

Client

• sets up encoder and webcast equipment
• provides audio and modem lines

Captioning Company

• provides live captioner to write the spoken word