Unit 1, Media accessibility
element 5, Media accessibility services
Live subtitling sample 1.
This video is reproduced with permission of
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
This video includes a 5-minute long video
about live subtitling produced by ACMA
Australian Communications and Media Authority.
The video illustrates how subtitles
or captions, as they are known in Australia, are made.
It focuses on live subtitling produced by respeaking
and stenography.
"Captioning: Behind the scenes".
This video
shows viewers
how captions
are made.
Captioning makes TV meaningful.
At least 1 in 6 Australians
is hard of hearing.
Captions are the text version of speech and sounds.
They allow viewers who are hearing-impaired
or have the sound turned off to read what's said
and understand when sounds occur
when watching TV.
Let's take a look at how captions are made.
Captions are made by people.
They can be created earlier
and added to the show as it airs
or created live
when the program is broadcast.
Or captions can be a mixture
of pre-prepared and live.
The time when captions are made
determines whether they appear in a block
or scrolled across the screen.
Live voice technology development gives the idea
of it being a mechanical task
but there's a lot of human involvement.
Captioning is harder than it seems.
People often ask captioners
if they're really fast typists, which we all are.
But mainly in live captioning
we often do 10 or more things
at once.
You listen, talk and read at once
we must change the colour
everytime there's a new speaker.
We also must insert sound effects
cheering, for instance.
We move the captions
to the top or the bottom
depending on where crucial information is
and add punctuation.
Providing the context is pivotal.
We type how it's said: is it a joke, is it serious…
It's a very dynamic environment.
There are 3 types of captioning:
typing, respeaking or stenography.
Respeaking requires the captioner to hear what's being said
and speak into the microphone
connected to software, which types out the words.
The captioner
will edit the text and change its colours
before the text is displayed on the screen.
A stenocaptioner uses a steno machine
to type out the words being said.
The tool is linked to a computer
that translates the shorthand
into readable text.
A stenocaptioner
will also edit the text and change its colours.
Then, the text is displayed.
Captioners face challenges: multiple speakers
fast speakers
unfamiliar and complex words
strong accents and background noise.
It's not always possible to make
a timely reproduction of the speech
without some paraphrasing.
Why can't Australian broadcasters
use overseas captions?
We can use overseas captions
but they might be incomplete or unusable.
Often there are intellectual property rights issues
so the files
can't be transferred.
The cost and the time
needed to get the files
make it cheaper to redo them.
Why are live captions used on pre-recorded programs?
When programs are delivered close to their broadcast time
there isn't time to produce
the captions
and deliver them in time.
Captioning can take up to 8 hours
for an hour of content.
Can captioners fix errors if they see them?
Yes, but it takes time and can cause delays
so only important errors should be fixed.
Big errors (writing the wrong name
or the like) will be corrected
to help understanding.
Often, little words
that won't affect the understanding
we might have to skip
to keep up with the schedule.
Viewers can't miss anything.
We're mindful of what they can understand.
That's crucial.
For more information about captioning
and the obligations of broadcasters
and subscription TV licensees in Australia
please visit acma.gov.au.
Credits. Title: "Captioning: Behind the Scenes".
Producer: ACMA.
Year of production: 2017.