1. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 1 Automated Webcast Captioning and Video Search: Quick, Easy, and Inexpensive Kevin Erler, Ph.D. Brent Robertson Automatic Sync Technologies www.automaticsync.com/caption June 2005

2. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 2 Agenda Introduction to AST Captioning Web Media Backgrounder on Automatic Captioning A Simple Demo Video Search

3. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 3 Agenda Introduction to AST Captioning Web Media Backgrounder on Automatic Captioning A Simple Demo Video Search

4. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 4 About AST AST was founded in 1998; work on our technology started in 1990. AST is a leading provider of synchronization and audio search tools Partially funded by the Dept of Education (SBIR program) to pursue automated captioning All AST technology has been created in-house over the past 15 years

5. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 5 About AST AST provides captioning services for:  Education  Broadcast TV stations  Producers  Caption Vendors AST can provide captioning for:  Webcasts  VideoTape  DVDs  Broadcasts

6. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 6 Agenda Introduction to AST Captioning Web Media Backgrounder on Automatic Captioning A Simple Demo Video Search

7. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 7 Streaming Web Content Audio/Video material that is presented through a web interface and that visitors to your site can view on demand. Normally presented using one of the three popular web media formats: QuickTime, Real, or Windows Media. May be managed through some type of course management software.

8. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 8 Advantages of Web Streaming Audience reach: you can reach a broad audience that may not always be able to physically attend your event. Viewer convenience: viewers can watch the content at a time and place of their choosing Learning Accommodation: allows learners to proceed through the content at their own pace Cost: provides an inexpensive and convenient media to reach your audience.

9. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 9 Why Caption? ADA Compliance: web video content is subject to section 508 Universal Access: make your content as usable as possible by as many people as possible Improving Comprehension: captioning improves comprehension for all viewers, especially for those with English as a second language Indexing and Searching: captioning allows the video material to become searchable with traditional text searches Provide Viewers with More Access Options: institutions can improve the quality and range of methods through which viewers can access their products

10. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 10 Why Caption? Compliance! Accessibility Improved product for all

11. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 11 Captioning Applications In-class video: content used right in the classroom as part of the teaching material Distance Education: course content transmitted via television, videotape, DVD, or (increasingly!) the web Virtual campus tours: web-based video tours of a campus to inform prospective students and parents Remote Conferences/Seminars: conference presentation and seminars are increasingly archived on the web for later viewing

12. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 12 Captioning Applications Web-based course content: supplemental course content or lecture material presented on a course website PR / News Service: content generated by the public affairs department Special events: guest lectures, convocations, letters from the president archived on physical media or the web

13. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 13 Streaming Media Are Ideal Text in a separate pane. No obscuring the video. More flexible fonts, colors, and line lengths.

14. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 14 Barriers to Captioning Expensive Takes time Increases production complexity

15. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 15 Barriers to Captioning Traditional captioning? o Can cost several hundred dollars per hour o Can take several days to have done Or, you can do it yourself? o 6 to 12 hours of your time to accurately caption a one hour video with pop-on captions

16. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 16 AST’s Goals Speed o Turnaround time for a submission: about 10 minutes Much lower costs than manual captioning Convenience o Simple to use website available when you need it o No special software or tools required o Directly upload your webcast media with no special processing needed

17. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 17 Agenda Introduction to AST Captioning Web Media Backgrounder on Automatic Captioning A Simple Demo Video Search

18. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 18 The AST Captioning Process Service is entirely electronic; submit your program and receive caption results minutes later Input is the program media file (.rm,.wmv,.mov,.mp3, etc) and program transcript (.txt), submitted through a web interface Output is caption files for any of the major streaming players (Real, QuickTime, WMV) Can also provide captioning for traditional video, and DVDs

19. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 19 The user submits the media file to AST (electronically) The system manages the transcription process (if required) parses the transcript and breaks it into captions aligns the timing of each caption to the media file itself, positions each caption according to your instructions, creates the final caption file for your specific media type. The AST Captioning Process

20. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 20 How to? Four basic steps in using automatic captioning:  Record the media file  Obtain the transcript  Submit the files to the AST server  Post the final result

21. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 21 Preparing the media file System can accept.wav,.mp3,.rm,.mov,.wmv,.wma,.ra files directly. No preparation required for web media. Simple software extraction tools (free) available for extraction of audio from.mpg (DVD) or.avi files. For videotape, need to create an electronic copy of the audio. Simply connect the tape player to your computer to extract this recording.

22. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 22 Transcription If you already have the transcript, AST can provide formatting guidelines. If you have internal transcription resources, have them transcribe the audio to a simple.txt file. If you wish to use AST’s transcription service, you can skip this step and submit only the media file – the system will manage the process of getting your submission transcribed. System can also work with your external transcription vendors; vendors can interact directly with AST system.

23. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 23 Overview: Offline Production Producer captures video content AST Transcriber Media file sent to AST Caption files for webcast Webcast video Edited transcript to AST Audio forwarded for transcription

24. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 24 Where is it appropriate? Automated captioning can save you significant time and money, and enable you to caption substantially more content. Automated captioning is suitable for you if: material is largely narrative with minimal sweetening program transcripts are available or show can be transcribed you are captioning archival material (ie: not real time events)

25. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 25 Agenda Introduction to AST Captioning Web Media Backgrounder on Automatic Captioning A Simple Demo Video Search

26. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 26 Simple Demo 1.Log into secure website

27. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 27 Simple Demo 2.Select the Application Type (Web or Broadcast)

28. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 28 3.Submit a Program o Description o Text File (if available) o Media File Simple Demo More detail on this in a moment

29. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 29 Simple Demo 4.Get Results Back Returned via email in about 10 minutes o Subject line: “Caption Results” o Body contains tracking number and other info

30. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 30 SJSU: http://www.sjsu.edu/vtour/streaming_media.htmhttp://www.sjsu.edu/vtour/streaming_media.htm UCB: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/archive.html?prog=100&group=59http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/archive.html?prog=100&group=59 Apple/NASA: http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1000919/ramhttp://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1000919/ram CSUN: http://www.abletv.net/html/csCSUN2004.htmlhttp://www.abletv.net/html/csCSUN2004.html UW: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/TVI/http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/TVI/ Ryerson: http://www.ryerson.ca/tour/video.htmlhttp://www.ryerson.ca/tour/video.html VCU: http://worksupport.com/Topics/brown_bag_frieden04.asphttp://worksupport.com/Topics/brown_bag_frieden04.asp See Some Results

31. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 31 Accessing Results and Reports o Use the web for viewing history, retrieving results Additional Features

32. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 32 Help Additional Features

33. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 33 Additional Features Advanced Settings o Output Files o Font o Character Case o Window Size o Colors o Line Length o Justification o Naming

34. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 34 Webcast Result Files Video File Can be played separately without the captions Caption File Basically the text transcript with timing information Can be played separately without the video (except WMP) Pointer File Tells the media player to play the two pieces together synchronized

35. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 35 RealMedia o The pointer file is a.RT.SMIL file (a “smile” file) o The caption file is a.RT file o The video file is a.RM file QuickTime o The pointer file is a.QT.SMIL file (a “smile” file) o The caption file is a.QT.TXT file o The video file is a.MOV file Windows Media Player o The pointer file is a.ASX file o The caption file is a.SMI file (a SAMI file) o The video file is a.WMV file Webcast Result Files

36. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 36 AST’s Search Data Files o These files are used for populating a web-based Video Search database o We’ll talk about this in the Video Search section Choose as many as you need -- there is no additional cost for more than one output type. Webcast Result Files

37. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 37 What to do with these result files? o Place the pointer file and caption file up on your streaming server where your video file is streamed o You need to ensure the pointer file refers to the correct location, name, and protocol to play the caption and video files. Check with your media expert on location and protocol. o If you select output filename = media filename in the Advanced Settings, then when you submit BIO_07.MOV you’ll get back BIO_07.QT.TXT and BIO_07.QT.SMIL which refers to these filenames Webcast Result Files

38. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 38 Agenda Introduction to AST Captioning Web Media Backgrounder on Automatic Captioning A Simple Demo Video Search

39. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 39 Video Search For web media, it is possible to randomly access the media (instead of watching the video from start to finish). AST’s system makes it possible to perform text-searches on the content. Powerful benefit for entire viewer community; allows viewers to access material of interest without scanning hours of video. Once the text of interest is located, viewers can jump to the precise point on interest in the video.

40. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 40 Video Search

41. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 41 Video Search

42. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 42 Search Results

43. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 43 Video Search Consider the benefit of allowing text searching of all of your video content Extremely cost effective -- the Video Search file is no additional cost when you caption the webcast Very accurate –- clicking the search result gets you to the precise point of interest

44. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 44 Video Search Visit some deployments: UC Berkeley: (needs Real Player 10 installed) http://rodan.berkeley.edu/ast/vs_search.php UC Davis: (needs Real Player 10 installed) http://urdev.ucdavis.edu/broadcast/newswatch.php Apple/NASA: (needs QuickTime Player installed) http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1000919/

45. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 45 Some parting words… Our goal is to make captioning accessible : o Convenient o Simple o Inexpensive o Fast o Flexible While regulations help encourage captioning, compliance can only become universal if captioning itself is made easily accessible

46. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 46 Other Resources Check out UC Berkeley’s press release on webcast captioning: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/09/20_captioning.sht ml http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/09/20_captioning.sht ml Take a look at AST’s home page for more information: http://www.automaticsync.com/caption http://www.automaticsync.com/caption Examine our growing series of “how-to” videos (all captioned!) at: http://www.automaticsync.com/help http://www.automaticsync.com/help

47. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 47 "AST's captioning has helped us achieve greater accessibility for our online virtual tours of the San José State Campus, especially for our diverse student population. As a media producer, I found AST's interface extremely easy to use, and the results were excellent. And best of all, the practically instantaneous turn-around is great!" [Bob Reynolds, Academic Technology, SJSU]

48. © 2005 Automatic Sync Technologies 48 Kevin Erler ( kevin@automaticsync.com ) kevin@automaticsync.com Brent Robertson ( brent@automaticsync.com ) 1-877-AST-SYNC Visit www.automaticsync.com/caption