Transcript Captioning Beyond Compliance

CaptionSync Update
Kevin Erler
www.automaticsync.com
September 2010
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Introduction
• CaptionSync is a web-based service provided by Automatic Sync
Technologies (AST) for Transcription and/or Closed Captioning of
media files.
• CaptionSync was initially funded by the US Dept of Education.
• CaptionSync has almost 2000 users across the country – primarily
in Education.
• In addition to captioning, AST has expertise in workflow automation,
video search and navigation, and the use of synchronized interactive
media.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Agreement Overview
AST has a system-wide agreement with the CSU,
which provides for:
o
Special pricing
o
Centralized billing
o
System-wide training sessions
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
3
Agreement Mechanics
• Each CSU campus has an “AST Administrator” responsible for
overseeing usage of the agreement at their campus.
• Any CSU member can get their own CaptionSync by applying at:
http://www.automaticsync.com/caption/csu_sign_up.php
• After AST receives an application, an approval from your campus
Administrator is automatically requested. As soon as we receive this,
the account is created and you will receive an automated notification.
• Every month, the Administrator receives a summary of all usage of
the Agreement for your campus.
• AST does not directly bill your campus – the CO handles all invoicing
from AST and “bills back” all usage to the campuses every 6 months.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
4
What’s New for CaptionSync
• Revamped Web UI
• Improved billing resolution
• New output types
• Improved tutorials
• DVD Transfer offer
• Digital NLE captions
• Several new workflow automation options
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
New Web UI
•
Removal of “application type”
•
Ability to review old News items
•
Improved upload progress and status
•
Fully redundant for improved reliability
•
Extensive help (mouseover, Wiki, and
help buttons)
•
Integrated support form gives you access to help when you need it
•
Plus many more improvements. An overview can be found at: AST
Tutorial on New CaptionSync UI
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Improved Billing Resolution
•
Jobs are now billed in 1 minute increments
(used to be 5 minute increments)
•
Minimum job size still applies
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
New Output Types
• Several new output types to
accommodate new integrations and
more DVD authoring packages.
• Addition of many new word-level
output types (see Word-Level
Synchronization Page)
• New output formats frequently
added.
• See the list at Result Formats List
Page. If what you need is not there,
let us know
([email protected])
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
New Tutorial Page
•
Ongoing effort to refresh our
tutorials.
•
Updated tutorial page to
include many new assets:

YouTube video

Downloadable video

Tutorial PDF
•
New tutorials being added.
•
All can be found at
www.automaticsync.com/help
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
New Services
•
DVD Transfer : send in uncaptioned DVDs
or VHS tapes and get back captioned DVDs.
•
NLE Captions : get back overlay movies to
embed caption data in your SD tape.
•
Result Review : have AST staff review your
content to check and repair any errors –
useful when your audio is very poor quality.
•
These services are not covered under the CSU Agreement, but can be
accessed from your account and will be direct-billed.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Workflow Automation
•
CaptionSync is very simple to
use to upload individual jobs…
but what if you have a lot of
jobs?
•
CaptionSync has an SFTP
portal that allows external
software to interact with it.
•
AST provides a simple drag-and-drop app for this purpose.
•
3rd party software vendors can also integrate to this portal, including
Lecture Capture systems, Content Management systems, and video
editing tools.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
What’s Coming for CaptionSync
• Spanish Captioning
• New workflow integrations
• Additional supplemental services
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
A Quick Tour of CaptionSync
•
Settings: update your account; change password; enroll keys.
•
Help: documentation, downloads, wiki, Support Request.
•
News: review old news items.
•
Caption/Transcribe: submit new jobs, check status, redo jobs.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
What happens after you submit?
• CaptionSync ingests your media file and extracts the audio portion.
Schedules your job for transcription.
• We produce a transcript of the audio portion of the program.
Stenographers are trained to use proper captioning conventions.
• Divide text into captions, observing guidelines about where to break
sentences. System also pays attention to the output formats you
requested to conform to constraints on those formats.
• Synchronize captions to the video timeline.
• Create output files in the format required by your media. Note that
format is dictated by the type of player that the content will be played
on, not by the media itself.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
14
Workflow Efficiency
• How do you select material for captioning?
• What about using automated captioning tools?
• How can you improve your workflow process?
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
15
Deciding What to Caption
Many factors to consider:
• School/System policy
• Time / Urgency
• Available budget
• Usage frequency
• Lifespan of material
• Audience (internal or external)
• Primary purpose (core vs review vs supplemental)
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Using Speech Recognition
• Our work originated from a project funded by
Dept of Education to examine how to make
captioning more efficient.
• Looked at existing techniques, cost structures,
and emerging technologies (including speech
rec).
• Concluded that significant improvements were
possible using automation, but we still needed to
use human stenographers for transcription task.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
17
Word Error Rate: 0%
Everyone loves a booming market, and most booms happen on the back of technological change.
The world's venture capitalists, having fed on the computing boom of the 1980s, the internet boom
of the 1990s and the biotech and nanotech boomlets of the early 2000s, are now looking around
for the next one. They think they have found it: energy.
Many past booms have been energy-fed: coal-fired steam power, oil-fired internal-combustion
engines, the rise of electricity, even the mass tourism of the jet era. But the past few decades
have been quiet on that front. Coal has been cheap. Natural gas has been cheap. The 1970s
aside, oil has been cheap. The one real novelty, nuclear power, went spectacularly off the rails.
The pressure to innovate has been minimal.
In the space of a couple of years, all that has changed. Oil is no longer cheap; indeed, it has never
been more expensive. Moreover, there is growing concern that the supply of oil may soon peak as
consumption continues to grow, known supplies run out and new reserves become harder to find.
The idea of growing what you put in the tank of your car, rather than sucking it out of a hole in the
ground, no longer looks like economic madness. Nor does the idea of throwing away the tank and
plugging your car into an electric socket instead.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Word Error Rate: 10%
Boot hoses a booming market, gloved capote booms happen heart the back of technological
change. The world's venture capitalists, house fed gem's the computing boom of the 1980s, the
internet boom of the 1990s and the biotech and nanotech boomlets of the early 2000s, are now
looking around for the road one. They gaunt they have found bubonic: energy.
Many past booms have been energy-fed: coal-fired steam power, oil-fired internal-combustion
engines, the rise of electricity, even the brushy tourism of the jet era. But the past few decades
have been quiet on magic front. Coal has been cheap. Natural gas gross hoist cheap. Jennifer
1970s aside, oil has been cheap. The one real novelty, nuclear power, went spectacularly off
tabloid rails. The burping to innovate has been minimal.
In local space of a couple of years, all that has paycheck. Oil is no longer cheap; indeed, it has
never been more expensive. Moreover, there is fizzled translogic that the supply of oil may soon
peak as consumption rains to grow, known supplies run out and new reserves become zipper to
find.
The idea of growing what you put in the tank of your car, rather saber sucking it out of a hole in
grim ground, no longer looks like economic madness.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Word Error Rate: 20%
Kazakhstan banter a booming estate, and most systemically happen on the back of technological
bleed. The world's venture capitalists, Italians fed on seltzer computing boom kingdom the 1980s,
the internet levy of paddy 1990s and the harder and nanotech boomlets of the early 2000s,
eroded now looking around for the buckle one. They think they limitless methodology it: energy.
Many coups booms have diastolic energy-fed: coal-fired steam power, oil-fired internalcombustion diaries, the rise of foxglove, mindful the mass tourism of the jet windchill. Pepper
ascent past few decades pragmatic been quiet on that front. Sentences erupt gushers cheap.
Natural gas has falsifying cheap. Untruths 1970s aside, oil has been ultranationalist. The one real
hoax, nuclear power, kite spectacularly off the rails. The pressure to innovate has been minimal.
In the tinted skinner's a couple of years, looking that has changed. Oil is no longer cheap; indeed,
it has never been maximize farthingale. Moreover, there is growing concern that the supply of oil
may soon peak as consumption continues to grow, known supplies run out and new reserves
expensive actuary to find.
The idea of growing what you put in gospel tank of chaffy car, rather than sucking it out of
copayment hole in the ground, no longer looks like economic boat
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Effect of Errors
Intelligibility vs Error Rate
10
9
Intelligibility Score
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
1
2
3
5
Error Rate (%)
Graph of Intelligibility vs Error Rate
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
10
20
Error Rates for General Captioning
Source
Typical Error
Rate
Result
Trained Stenographer
0.5% to 1%
No problems
Student transcriber
??
Expect to be worse
than stenographer
Speech Rec: trained
3% to 5+%
Varies from fair to poor
Speech Rec:
untrained
20% to 40%
Unintelligible
Table of typical transcription error rates
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Google AutoCaption Examples
While speech-recognition does not provide useful
captioning, it can make for great entertainment….
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-PtKgTXO_0
• www.youtube.com/user/UTMcCombsSchool#p/u/24/t2yujfBeuFQ
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwuJfz-7Y-Q
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
23
Workflow Improvements
• Use AST-Link for batch uploads
• Use Lecture Capture systems with integrated workflows
for captioning.
• Use CaptionSync’s direct integration features to
automate workflow with your own content management
system.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
AST-Link
• Need to request feature added
to your account; then
download in Help section.
• Available for PC and Mac.
• Drag-and-drop interface for
uploading large batches of
files.
• Tutorials for use at
www.automaticsync.com/help
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Lecture Capture Automation
• An increasing amount of content is coming from lecture
capture systems.
• Many (but not all) support captioning
• Some support automated workflows for CaptionSync
(Mediasite, Echo360, Panopto, Podcast Producer)
• With workflow automation, you can select to have an
individual lecture, or a whole course captioned with just a
checkbox.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Lecture Capture Automation
Systems with good CC support also offer Search capabilities.
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Lecture Capture Automation
Some Captioned Lecture Capture examples:
o
Captioned Mediasite lecture
o
Captioned Panopto Lecture
o
Captioned Echo Lecture
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Direct Integration
• CaptionSync allows direct
integration to any application
or system.
• Simple and secure interface.
• Allows content to be
aggregated on your side
and then automatically
submitted to CaptionSync.
Campus
Media Server
(or Content
Management
System)
Caption
Server
• Complete documentation and integration assistance available by
contacting [email protected]
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies
Kevin Erler ([email protected])
1-877-AST-SYNC x701
www.automaticsync.com
© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies