❝ When it comes to interfacing current playout systems with streaming platforms , a tightly integrated system that deals with Asian character sets is essential [ in Asia ].❞
❝ With the increased use of subtitles , we ’ re seeing content gain
traction in different regions .❞
March 2018 CREATION 13
With the tagline of ‘ Worldwide Subtitling Made Easy ’, Cavena Image Products wants to serve as a technology partner to operators distributing video and subtitles and / or closed captioning .
workflows , and deliver reliable captioning to audiences . “ Caption is a vital part of media and entertainment , and ensuring proper access to accurate captioning helps optimise the viewing experience for diverse audiences worldwide ,” he concludes .
One company that believes automation in closed captioning and subtitling still depend on the function in question is Cavena Image Products . “ When it comes to subtitle file generation , the market demands high quality ,” says Henrik Moberg , managing director , Cavena Image Products . “ Automated subtitling and closed captioning has been big news for the past 10 years ; maybe with AI , it is now slowly gaining ground .”
While subtitling service providers rightfully , are constantly looking for the most optimal ways to create and generate subtitle text files , this should not be at the expense of quality , Moberg cautions . He cites the example of Asia : “ When it comes to interfacing current playout systems with streaming platforms , a tightly integrated system that deals with Asian character sets is essential . This is why the Cavena protocol has become the de facto standard in Asia .”
A Swedish company , Cavena has been building subtitling systems for broadcasters and other users for the past 25 years , and is dedicated to building “ functional and reliable ” subtitling systems for translators , translation facilities and broadcasters . Through the addition of a suitable transmission protocol , the Cavena system can also be adopted for subtitle transmission with video over IP .
Malaysia ’ s Astro and Hong Kong ’ s TVB are some of Cavena ’ s broadcast customers in Asia , where there are no constraints resulting from regulations , offers Moberg , who also describes how Asia-Pacific skipped the old European teletext in heritage and went completely with DVB . Today , there are multiple operators distributing video content with original audio , and a number of different languages available in the form of subtitles .
He continues : “ If the spoken language of the audience is large enough , there may also be audio dubbing . And even if I personally do not like to see James Bond speaking anything else than English , dubbing or subtitles is driven by market demand , and that is the way it is .”
With the tagline of ‘ Worldwide Subtitling Made Easy ’, the message is clear , although , delving deeper , Cavena is about serving as a technology partner to operators distributing video and subtitles and / or closed captioning . “ We assist with simplifying workflows with any subtitle file , on any platform ,” Moberg emphasises . “ Non- Latin characters between different operators is a challenge , where we assist with our knowledge of complex Asian character sets , right down to the details of each font and character . Non-Latin characters for over-the-top ( OTT ) platforms is a core competence for us .”
Closed captioning and subtitling are key tools for content providers to reach global audiences . However , translation of captions and subtitles will be vital to reach a wider audience , particularly in Asia-Pacific , suggests Hiren Hindocha , president and CEO of Digital Nirvana . “ If you are not translating captions , you are missing out on a larger audience across the region . Integration of multilingual closed captions or subtitles on videos can expand viewership globally , especially in this part of the world .”
Where Asia-Pacific is concerned , he points out that there
Closed captioning increases the searchability of an asset and for content owners , it increases the visibility of their videos . For users , they are able to locate the content they want with ease .
❝ When it comes to interfacing current playout systems with streaming platforms , a tightly integrated system that deals with Asian character sets is essential [ in Asia ].❞
— Henrik Moberg , Managing Director ,
Cavena Image Products
are audiences who are less proficient in English , and thus are watching their favourite local programmes with English closed captions or subtitles . Conversely , they may also be watching English programmes with local-language closed captions or subtitles . As for video sharing platforms such as YouTube , the secondarylanguage translations of captions not only help the videos reach out to a wider audience , but also improve searchability and discoverability , as YouTube indexes secondary language captions and subtitles .
With so much content now residing on streaming services such as YouTube , Amazon , Netflix , Hulu , Vimeo and so on , automated caption services can help bring global awareness to content , says Hindocha .
He continues : “ Captioning opens avenues for content providers to reach a global audience , and it creates a larger audience through online viewing .
“ In environments where users on laptop and mobile devices don ’ t want to or can ’ t turn on their volume , closed captioning allows them to watch a show sound-free and increases the providers ’ audience .”
Another factor driving the use of closed captioning is the creation of metadata , according to Hindocha . Closed captioning increases the searchability of an asset and for content owners , it increases the visibility of their videos . For users , they are able to locate the content they want with ease .
“ Automated speech-to-text conversion , coupled with state-ofthe-art workflow and experienced
captioners , reduces the time and cost to publish , and provides better search engine discoverability — while complying with all legal guidelines ,” says Hindocha , who is also a champion of cloud-based closed captioning .
With cloud-based caption synchronisation services , media clips are scanned for unsynchronised captions and sent to an application for automatic synchronisation and format conversion . This technology coordinates all pre-recorded and online video content through an automated process over the cloud , providing a suite of options for clipping , data transfer and caption formats , as well as integration directly to the customer ’ s video platform .
“ As cloud-based technology does not lock a provider into a specific vendor , users can integrate this technology into their existing workflow via APIs ,” says Hindocha . Digital Nirvana provides a cloudbased closed captioning service that uses audio finger printing to automate near-live synchronisation of live broadcast options , with the ability to revise the text .
The company ’ s new automated closed captioning and subtitling service also includes pop-on and roll-up captioning services for all technology platforms , and offers high-quality caption generation for all pre-recorded and online video content through an automated process over the cloud . The service is designed to handle multiple SD and HD video formats , as well as a wide range of caption file formats , and in addition to its multi-format capability , Digital Nirvana ’ s enterprise-level workflow is equipped
❝ With the increased use of subtitles , we ’ re seeing content gain
traction in different regions .❞
— Hiren Hindocha , President and CEO ,
Digital Nirvana with checkpoints to ensure content and caption quality .
Video and audio fingerprinting technology also improves the ability to find clips from a huge library , while Digital Nirvana ’ s caption lookup , along with its synchronisation process , offers advantages to production houses and streaming video providers to sync captions after editing content for air in multiple countries . “ As the original captions are retrieved using the lookup process , there ’ s no need to re-do the entirety of their corresponding subtitles and captions ,” Hindocha explains .
He emphasises how content owners are becoming increasingly aware of the reach and return-oninvestment ( ROI ) of their content with subtitles in various languages . This serves as a catalyst to provide textual representation for their video content , in contrast to prior practices , where entire movies were dubbed into another language at a high cost for presentation to other markets .
“ With the increased use of subtitles , we ’ re seeing content gain traction in different regions ,” Hindocha says , while noting the evolution of closed captioning . “ It steadily evolved from conventional methods to voice writing , to what is a far more automated process currently .
“ The applications of closed captioning have also evolved , as it now improves the discoverability of video content and the cognitive modelling ( simulating human problem solving in a computerised model ) for automated analysis of broadcast content ,” he concludes .
The applications of closed captioning evolved , as it now improves the discoverability of video content and the cognitive modelling for automated analysis of broadcast content , according to Digital Nirvana .