The Process and Pitfalls of Monitoring Closed Captions

摘要

Ensuring the quality of every aspect of videoprogramming that is delivered to viewers has long been apriority for leading broadcasters. Each aspect of theoutbound signal, including video, multiple audio tracks,captions and associated metadata can be verified usingmodern automated tools. Due to new laws and FCCregulations, more attention needs to be given to certainaspects of the delivered signal, including captionaccuracy, synchronicity, completeness, and placement onthe screen.This paper describes a system that records the finishedoutbound program stream and performs an automatedanalysis of the captions. The accuracy, completeness andsynchronicity can be measured on a continuous basis forevery stream without human intervention while placementcan still be spot checked or subject to human review.Alarms can be set and reports generated to show whetherthe quality goals have been achieved for a given timeperiod, and the actual signals can be stored for extendedtime periods if need to comply with an FCC request.These automation solutions can enable broadcaster andnetworks to monitor caption quality in a scalable waywhile enabling them to compare captions, trackperformance over time and issue critical feedback toimprove the caption process.