Real-time captioning for live webcasts: lessons and issues

real-time captioning

for live webcasts:

lessons and issues

Intersteno 2015, Budapest, 2015-07-21

Richard Gatarski, Westreamu AB

please note

I am not looking into:

Broadcast television

TV sets

DVB-S/C/T

I aim for (live) web video(and here captions ≈ subtitles)

about us

WestreamU provides affordable full service packages forlive streamed web TV.- designed, affordable, fast

- on location (flight packs)

- multicam, graphics

- no/minimal post production

- accessability

a large production

Costs lots of money!

extremely affordable

tablet productions

the basics

production

streaming service (CDN)

viewers

background

I started as a pro in 2009.

One customer asked:- Can you do live subtitles?

- Can you do live sign interpretation?

- …and later, live audio descriptions?

live (remote) signing, May 2015

needed

My (unusual) requirements:- Support captioners/reporters/etc

- Format lines for video

- Record text, with time stamps

- Interface with live video production software

live captions/subtitles

Many experiments…- DOS-based hardware

- SubPly services for Livestream

- Capblaster (own open source project)

- Streamtext to YouTube

- Text-on-Top Video

Cablaster, May 2013

current approach

Text-on-top Video (beta), May 2015

Text-On-Top Video

Intersteno 2015, Text-on-top

Intersteno 2015, WestreamU

Intersteno 2015, behind the cam

questions?

Some (of the many) issues:- captions insertion point

- remote reporting

- delay and synchronization

- on demand, closed captions

- ?

the future begins

Thank you!