Publication Title
A distributed live subtitling system
Publication Type
Report
Year of publication
2003
Publisher
City
Language(s)
English
Modalities
Abstract
There is an increasing requirement for broadcasters to provide subtitles for their television programmes. New technology allows this challenge to be met through alternative means of subtitle generation and more flexible operating practices.
The BBC has several national television services and many regional variations, which result in considerable difficulties for efficient live subtitling. A solution was required which has the flexibility to allow any subtitler to select easily and subtitle any service from any location, using speech recognition as well as the traditional method of stenography. The challenge of providing these facilities, with the resilience of a broadcast-critical service, has been met by a networked system of subtitling workstations and subtitle inserter gateways. This paper describes the development of this system and its roll-out in a complex broadcasting environment. It is helping the BBC to achieve the goal of subtitling all programmes by 2008 whilst minimising the additional costs involved.
The BBC has several national television services and many regional variations, which result in considerable difficulties for efficient live subtitling. A solution was required which has the flexibility to allow any subtitler to select easily and subtitle any service from any location, using speech recognition as well as the traditional method of stenography. The challenge of providing these facilities, with the resilience of a broadcast-critical service, has been met by a networked system of subtitling workstations and subtitle inserter gateways. This paper describes the development of this system and its roll-out in a complex broadcasting environment. It is helping the BBC to achieve the goal of subtitling all programmes by 2008 whilst minimising the additional costs involved.