This is an ADLAB PRO video.
ADLAB PRO is a project funded by the European Union.
This video is made available to you on a Creative Commons licence.
Hello. I’m Pilar Orero, from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,
and in this ADLAB PRO video I'll talk about technology delivery.
This is Unit 2 in Module 6.
Technology these days allows for the delivery of AD
in a live situation or recorded. It also allows for the production
to be in the cloud or local. Written by one person
or by a collaborative group. You can work in situ or remotely.
Finally, there are three ways to produce an AD: automatically,
that is 100% automatic, by a human,
or using a hybrid or semi-automatic model,
that is, when a human post-edits an automatically-made AD.
In fact, AD has two very different production cycles,
which affects the delivery:
the first is the production of the script, which is later voiced.
The second is the delivery, which can be performed automatically
through text-to-speech or can be read by a human.
Regarding delivery and linked to the production,
we have four situations. Recorded is when we have a movie with an AD,
and this has been previously prepared and recorded,
you can’t alter that. Also, there is no possible interaction
because we are dealing with a finished product.
This is not the case for an opera or a theatre play,
where we can have a draft AD generated
by attending the many rehearsals before the day of the event,
but every day the music tempo and the actors may improvise.
So the AD is delivered as prepared, but some adaptations
may have to be introduced on real time.
We have the AD of a tennis match, where we don’t have the result,
and every minute of the match is a live situation and is improvised.
And finally we have the AD of a TV soap opera, for example.
Or a TV series which is produced and delivered
by a team of audio describers and it takes place over many years
or over many seasons. And for that you would need to have
a style sheet and also to have a knowledge of the characters,
the plot, and all the situations that took place in the past.
How an AD is produced varies
if we use an editor installed in our PC, or an editor in the cloud.
You can also produce an AD without an editor,
with a piece of paper and a pen, or using a text processing software
in your PC and taking down the timeframes manually.
And you can do it live over the microphone as it happens.
You can also be present physically when delivering an AD,
but you might be in a remote location,
so actually you may be doing a football match,
but not being on the field, you may be at home, for example.
Artificial intelligence can be a great help, since increasingly
it will provide added information by automatic locations
or information about the context also automatically.
The production of the text, apart from human-produced,
may be through automatic visual tagging technology,
or generated using the existing linguistic assets, for example,
the script of a movie where it describes the set.
Most automatically-produced ADs are later post-edited by a human.
The sound production can be human, when a voice artist reads the AD,
or based on text-to-speech technology,
which also allows for voice choice.
The speed of the delivery can be altered increasing or decreasing it.
The preparation of this presentation
was supported by ADLAB PRO. Audio Description:
A Laboratory for the Development of a New Professional Profile
financed by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Programme,
Key Action 2, Strategic Partnerships.
Project number:
2016-1-IT02-KA203-024311.
The information and views set out in this presentation
are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the official opinion of the European Union.
Neither the European Union institutions and bodies
nor any person acting on their behalf
may be held responsible for the use
which may be made of the information contained therein.
This was an ADLAB PRO video.
ADLAB PRO partners are: University of Trieste,
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,
University of Antwerp, Adam Mickiewicz University,
RTV Slovenia, Utopian Voices,
Soundfocus and Royal National Institute of Blind People.
ADLAB PRO was funded by the European Union.
This video was made available to you on a Creative Commons licence.