Pressure to release TV content quickly for tablet and connected TV services calls for streamlined subtitle management says Gordon Hunter, CSO, Softel
In Utopia, IP broadcasting would use the same subtitling standards and formats as conventional broadcast TV, but the reality could not be more different. The gold rush launch of new video services to tablets, connected TVs and other devices has driven a coach and horses through conventional subtitling standards, and to make matters worse, new legislation and accessibility pressure groups are setting the expectation that more and more IP video content will be subtitled. So how can broadcasters step-up to these challenges whilst protecting their bottom line in a business that already faces pressure on margins? The answer is to re-think the conventional subtitling workflow, and to break down the challenge into four distinct pieces.
Subtitle re-synchronisation: video is often re-edited for each IP service, scenes are deleted, duration is clipped, and advertisements added; all of which result in the need to re- synchronise the original subtitle file. Achieving this manually is time consuming and inefficient;
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however it is possible to achieve huge cost savings by tightly integrating speech analysis tools (that are powerful enough to detect disconnects between the spoken word and the original subtitles) in to specialist subtitling systems. In fact it is possible to auto-generate re-stitched subtitle
files ready for fast deployment on secondary broadcast services. Subtitle file conversion: a subtitle workflow has to be able to accurately read and write subtitle files in an ever-growing list of global file formats. Many of the new IP broadcast platforms specify a subtitle format that loosely conforms to DFXP (an XML timed text file), but little if any standardisation prevails. File-base subtitle encoding: the insertion of subtitles into video files is a complex challenge given the proliferation of file wrapper and broadcast formats. The workflow has to take into account whether the subtitle encoding is undertaken as part of a target specific video transcode task, or as a separate managed task. Subtitle QC may form part of MAM workflow,
Gordon Hunter: ‘Re-think the conventional workflow’
Friday 07.09.2012
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either as a manual or an automated process. Broadcast integration: the migration to commoditised IT- based transmission platforms requires that ‘time of air’ subtitle delivery becomes one of many ‘functions’ offered within an integrated content delivery solution; such a solution offers the promise of cost reduction benefits and other efficiencies if the system has a proven bloodline. If these four challenges are understood, and subtitling is considered as an integral part of the video re-publishing puzzle, then it’s practical to automate
most of the work involved in re- purposing existing subtitle assets for use on new IP video services. To address each step manually is not a scalable solution to businesses whose mantra is fast and efficient re- deployment of content. At IBC, Softel is continuing to lead the charge in the supply of end-to-end subtitling solutions, and with recent partnerships with speech analysis specialist Nexidia, and multiple industry leading video workflow suppliers, we are ready to help linear and IP broadcasters through the process of subtitle delivery. 1.A27
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