Title
Live subtitling in Europe and North America. Different approaches, similar challenges
Conference name
Intermedia. 5th International Conference on Audiovisual Translation
City
Country
Poland
Modalities
Date
19/09/2019
Abstract
Ever since live subtitling was first introduced in Europe and North America as a regular service towards the end of the 20th century, it has been approached very differently in those two continents. Until now, real-time captioning in the US and Canada has been treated as a profession, rather than a research area, and it has been very much related to communication access real time translation (CART), and more specifically the use of stenography on court. Given the need to provide a verbatim account of the audio in this legal context, when applied to TV, real-time captioners have taken a similar verbatim approach (Jensema, McCann, & Ramsey, 1996). In Europe, where live subtitling is a vibrant area of research within audiovisual translation and media accessibility, respeaking is currently the most common method, which explains the non-verbatim and more edited approach to live subtitles (Romero-Fresco, 2009). Despite these differences, live subtitling in Europe and real-time captioning in North America are now facing similar challenges, which is bringing them closer than they have ever been. One of those challenges is quality, as countries in both continents are having to asses and report on the quality of live subtitles, revise the need to include quality metrics in official regulations, find ways to certify live subtitlers and quality evaluators and test the use of new approaches, such as the use of automatic live subtitles or interlingual live subtitling.
Building up on several studies conducted by the authors (Fresno, 2019; Romero-Fresco et al., forthcoming; Romero-Fresco, 2016), this presentation will provide an overview of the present and future of live subtitling in Europe and North America. Firstly, it will compare data on live subtitling quality (accuracy rates, speed and delay) across several European and North American countries using the NER model. This will be followed by an analysis of the official live subtitling regulations and the professional certifications (whether for respeakers, such as LiRICS in the UK, or for quality evaluators, such as the NER certification in Canada) available in those countries. Finally, the presentation will focus on how European and North American countries are tackling new developments in live subtitling, with data on interlingual live subtitling from the EU-funded ILSA project and the first preliminary results comparing the use of respeaking and automatic subs in the UK and Canada.
Building up on several studies conducted by the authors (Fresno, 2019; Romero-Fresco et al., forthcoming; Romero-Fresco, 2016), this presentation will provide an overview of the present and future of live subtitling in Europe and North America. Firstly, it will compare data on live subtitling quality (accuracy rates, speed and delay) across several European and North American countries using the NER model. This will be followed by an analysis of the official live subtitling regulations and the professional certifications (whether for respeakers, such as LiRICS in the UK, or for quality evaluators, such as the NER certification in Canada) available in those countries. Finally, the presentation will focus on how European and North American countries are tackling new developments in live subtitling, with data on interlingual live subtitling from the EU-funded ILSA project and the first preliminary results comparing the use of respeaking and automatic subs in the UK and Canada.