© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies CaptionSync Update Kevin Erler 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 3 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 44 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: 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 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 UIAST 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 )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 Formats List

© 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

© 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 14 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 15 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 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 17 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 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.

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© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies Effect of Errors Graph of Intelligibility vs Error Rate

© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies Error Rates for General Captioning Table of typical transcription error rates SourceTypical Error Rate Result Trained Stenographer0.5% to 1%No problems Student transcriber??Expect to be worse than stenographer Speech Rec: trained3% to 5+%Varies from fair to poor Speech Rec: untrained 20% to 40%Unintelligible

© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies 23 Google AutoCaption Examples While speech-recognition does not provide useful captioning, it can make for great entertainment…

© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies 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

© 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 Captioned Mediasite lecture o Captioned Panopto Lecture Captioned Panopto Lecture o Captioned Echo Lecture 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. Complete documentation and integration assistance available by contacting Caption Server Campus Media Server (or Content Management System)

© 2010 Automatic Sync Technologies Kevin Erler AST-SYNC x701