Captioning services to the enhanced digital Media distribution platform

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Authorized third-party vendor for the giant Digital Media Distribution System.

Authorized third-party vendor for the giant Digital Media Distribution System.

Introduction

This platform successfully got through the digital age by incorporating new technology to develop an enhanced digital distribution platform that could deliver music and videos directly to 30,000+ broadcast, streaming, and publisher destinations in no time. This formed their core patented technology which was called the Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS). 

At present, DMDS is 100% cloud-based, allowing for deeper integration between senders and receivers of the advertising, music, and entertainment industry. They can manage their files without using any specialized hardware. This has been most effective and cost-efficient for record companies, independent artists, music promoters, award shows, advertising agencies, post-production houses, and broadcast cable networks to streamline their file management process using the DMDS platform without losing quality and saving time and dollars for everyone involved. 

Project requirements

This giant media content tech company receives thousands of videos for distribution. Achieving all broadcast specifications in-house is tedious when the volume is enormous. This is when Mr.Christopher Kim, the director of Customer Solutions and Advertising from the NJ facility, contacted us to get their videos, mostly TV shows and full feature films, to be captioned. 

We had to caption 127 files, approximately 20 to 60 minutes in duration. All these videos were comedy shows with multiple speakers. English to English titles first needed transcriptions before preparing caption files. We followed the standard TAT and ensured to deliver the output on a rolling basis. Let us forget not to mention that the rates proposed were very lenient due to the bulk volume. 

Transcription instructions

Before captioning any media file, we require transcripts/ verbatim print materials. Transcriptions are time-coded for appropriate audio-video synchronization. Here are transcription instructions as requested by the client.

  • Verbatim transcription to be done. Should capture uhs, ahs, and all other fillers. 
  •  Speaker tagging is to be included.
  •  Non-verbal elements are also to be transcribed.

Captioning requirements

We had to adhere to standard US broadcast captioning standards. They insisted on following center-aligned pop-on captions. These captions should default to 1 to 3 lines maximum at the bottom and not more than 32 characters a line, and no captions should be displayed for less than a second. When graphics and other essential visual elements of the picture appear at the bottom, captions should be moved to the top or made into two lines. New captions were to be created at the start of a new sentence with speaker tagging. Also, the output of these caption files was to be delivered in .scc format.

Every mistake contributed to the successful completion of the project

Understanding all the above-mentioned captioning and transcription requirements, we worked on a few test files and sent them to the client for his approval. The audio quality was average, and we had to put in extra effort to maintain accuracy throughout. The client then came up with several other special instructions that had to be accommodated in their video files, like two music notes at the end of the line for extended music, sound cues in brackets, text case for dialogue, number rules, and more. We made all the necessary changes and double-checked the captions to ensure we hadn’t missed any. 

Thus we proactively worked on all their new requirements and accepted all challenges even though we were on the verge of the deadline. On a rolling basis, files were delivered back to back, and updates were shared with the customer ahead of the stipulated TAT. The caption files were uploaded through our secure dropbox link for the client to download.

The next project

Overall we worked on numerous videos for a total of 3149 minutes. Immediately after this, we received our next project. Video files for around 629 minutes with the same captioning requirements. The in-house team got fully equipped with their previous captioning experience. In the shortest TAT, we delivered accurate captions to all 22 files. The client reviewed them, and the captions were certified error-free. 

It’s a privilege to mention that CaptioningStar is associated with this intelligent platform as an authorized third-party vendor.

We offer accurate broadcast closed captioning services to all the over-the-air television networks. Contact us for any type of captioning, any kind of industry, and any time. We offer round-the-clock support to all your requirements. Also, we can provide other post-production services like video editing/trimming, dubbing/voice-over, audio description, translations and subtitles, live streaming, and uploading this content to various VOD and OTT platforms.