Live captioning: It shouldn’t happen to a captioner – but it does

April 11, 2016/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

Live captioning mishaps!

When your machine spits out a word that makes you blush

It’s not easy being a captioner. Live captioning at up to 300 words per minute is challenging enough without your stenography machine having a life of its own. The results can be shocking for everyone involved.

Regina DeMoville

Here’s one of our captioners, Regina DeMoville:

I’d just started doing live captioning for broadcast, and was working on a news programme. It was an ad break and I’d turned the realtime captioning off on my stenography machine so I could fix any mistakes and add vocabulary into my steno dictionary. I noticed that I’d tried to write ‘harass’ and it had come out wrong. So I wrote it again, correctly this time, and added it into my dictionary. Unfortunately our software had a mind of its own.

After the commercial I resumed live captioning. To my horror the software spat out “her ass” as I started writing! I was mortified and thought for sure I’d be fired! Thankfully, the TV station did not catch my mistake and I still have a job!

Regina’s TV broadcast captioning set up

That reminds us of the time when a captioner provided live captioning for a university. She was live captioning onto a large screen, to a room full of students. Just one little mis-key on the steno machine and the phrase ‘you’re used to f…..king’ came up instead of what had been said. Cue a room full of laughter and one horrified captioner deeply relieved she was providing realtime captioning remotely!

Regina captions a convention in Las Vegas

When you need to swear but the computer says no…

Here’s Regina again…

I was live captioning a deaf-blind convention in Las Vegas and they had a comedian on stage during the keynote speech. The only prep they gave me was the comedian’s name so I had no idea what was coming. A few minutes in he started telling a joke that contained the F word. As a broadcast captioner I can’t let swear words go out over the air, and had removed those words from the dictionary on my steno machine to make sure.

Once the comedian got into his stride it seemed like every second word was the F word. And because it wasn’t in the dictionary and I was live captioning, I had to write each individual letter out every time he said it. By the time he was halfway through the set it was getting harder and harder to keep up, and completely added to the stress of trying to remember the last joke and the punchline perfectly!

And then there was the Jay Z concert I was live captioning. Knowing how much he swears I’d updated the dictionary in the steno machine in readiness, but the damned steno software censored every swear word he said. The tech guys sorted it out for the second half, but until then the client must have wondered at Jay Z’s newly-reformed character!

Has anything unexpected happened during your live captioning events? Let us know!

Getting the best out of remote captioning for teleconferences

December 21, 2015/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

Whether you’re an organisation with deaf employees, or a deaf professional yourself, there are some key things you need to know to ensure live remote captioning of your teleconferences goes smoothly. Here are our top 10 tips:

Book remote captioning as far in advance as you can. That helps us to provide a captioner who will suit your needs. If, for example, you are working on a project involving a series of teleconferences, we’ll do our best to provide you with the same captioner throughout.
Don’t forget to provide us with the teleconference access details as soon as you get them. Our captioners join your calls at least ten minutes before they start to ensure your remote captioning is ready from the get-go.
If you have an agenda and list of attendees we’d love to see them in advance. It makes a big difference to your experience of remote captioning if we can add those details to our software before the call.
The same goes for any technical terms and names of people, places, events etc that you might discuss in the meeting. Don’t worry, we don’t need chapter and verse on them, just to add them into our remote captioning software ahead of the meeting so we use – and spell –them accurately. All this preparation helps us ensure our remote captioning, and real-time transcription, are as accurate as possible.
It’s a good idea for speakers to identify themselves at the start of the teleconference and, if possible, when they speak. This helps the deaf participants to know who is speaking.
If there is a Chairperson for the meeting, please ask participants to take turns to speak. We recognise that can be a challenge during teleconferences, but every little helps!
Everyone on the call will benefit if participants are reminded to speak clearly, and ensure they are in range of a microphone.
If appropriate for the teleconference it will help live captioning if all non-speaking participants have their phones on mute. It can be hard for everyone to hear over the sound of train announcements or street hubbub.
Do let us know in advance if there is any video or PowerPoint presentation planned. With 1Fuzion – state-of-the-art technology – our remote captioning can stream on top of your presentation or YouTube video, meaning deaf participants only need one screen to watch the film/presentation and read the captions.
Talk to us! If you have any queries or want expert advice on your teleconference, just email us on bookings@121captions.com or call us on +44 (0) 20 8012 8170. If a query arises during a live remote captioning session, deaf participants can message the captioner direct via the chat box on the captions screen.

To find out more about our remote captioning services for teleconferences, meetings, events and training, contact us.

Speech to text reporter & palantypist services

June 7, 2015/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

What does a speech to text reporter or palantypist do?

You might remember how a court reporter will use a shorthand machine in the courtroom. The court reporter is also known as a speech to text reporter (STTR) or a palantypist, who writes down everything that is heard. Many STTRs started their careers as court reporters – these communication support professionals specialise in working for deaf people.

The short hand machine enables the STTR to write at the speed of someone speaking, at over 180 words per minute with a minimum 98% accuracy. This correlates to one error in four pages. Some very experienced STTRs can write up to 300 words per minute. The STTR can give extra information such as [phone ringing] or [applause], to keep the deaf reader informed of what is happening. The font type, size and colour, and background colour, can be changed to suit the viewer.

communication support speech to text palantypist

A palantypist keyboard

A steno machine

How does speech to text work?

Several keys are pressed at once to generate whole words and phrases. The short hand machine or keyboard is linked to a laptop which has software that converts the shorthand syllables into a written language such as English, so that someone can read the words from the laptop screen. The text can be projected onto a larger screen for a wider audience, or relayed over the internet.

The palantypist adds words to a dictionary in their software, so they build up expertise in the areas they are working in. One of our STTRs has worked for many years in the shipping industry, with all the specialised vocabulary stored in her laptop. Having this pre-programmed vocabulary helps the communication support professional to match syllable clusters to written forms, and write a word much faster. Errors can occur when a STTR mishears a word or where the meaning requires clarification by what is said next. Speech to text is also used for subtitling and closed captions in television broadcasts or webcasts.

US steno keys

Hebrew steno keys

Is speech to text the same around the world?

In the UK there are two types of keyboard used by a speech to text reporter; palantype and stenotype. Palantype is British, stenotype is American. The output text appears on the screen in a slightly different way. Different keyboards are used in other countries, such as the veyboard in Europe. The software also varies from country to country.

The British term for a speech to text reporter is palantypist. The American term for a speech to text reporter is ‘CART’ – Communication Access Real-time Translation. CART is also called open-captioning, real-time stenography, or real-time captioning.

Qualifications of the communication support professional

In the UK, many STTRs are members of NRCPD, the National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind People. This means they are deemed to have reached the minimum standard of 180 words per minute. NRCPD registration also means they have a duty to safeguard their client, and the client has an avenue of redress in the event of a complaint.

In the USA, CART writers are members of NCRA, National Court Reporters Association. The NCRA has seven levels of qualifications;

Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) Written knowledge test, Literary at 180 wpm, Jury Charge at 200 wpm, and Testimony/Q&A at 225 wpm. After dictation, 75 minutes is given to transcribe notes from each leg with 95% accuracy.

Registered Merit Reporter (RMR) For advanced-level court reporters. Written knowledge test, Literary at 200 wpm, Jury Charge at 240 wpm, and Testimony/Q&A at 260 wpm. After dictation, 75 minutes is given to transcribe notes from each leg with 95% accuracy.

Registered Diplomate Reporter (RDR) Written knowledge test. The RDR is the highest level of certification available to court reporters.

Certified Realtime Captioner (CRC) Captioning training to transition to the realtime captioning field. Written exam and Literary at 180wpm.

Certified Realtime Reporter (CRR) Two-voice testimony at 200 wpm at 96% accuracy.

Certified Broadcast Captioner (CBC) Written test and ability to produce an accurate, simultaneous translation and display of broadcasts using realtime translation software of Literary matter at 180 wpm.

Certified CART Provider (CCP) Written test and five minutes Literary at 96% accuracy 180 wpm.

Remote speech to text

Speech to text technology has moved into the 21st century. A speech to text reporter can be anywhere in the world, and send live text or captions over the internet to the viewer. This is called “remote speech to text” or “remote captions” when streamed on top of an image. Realtime text is streamed to your PC, laptop, iPad, tablet, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, e-reader, or Google Glass. Your meetings and events can be captioned for you where ever you are.

To book remote speech to text, simply email us. We will email you a link which you click to open a new window for the captions. Your link can be private and password protected, or open to the public. You can ask for your live captions to be streamed on top of your Powerpoint presentation, YouTube video, or on your webpage.

Our team love remote speech to text because it means there is no speech to text reporter in the room with us – it’s just us and our colleagues. You can book a remote writer any time of the day, and at short notice. All you need is an internet connection and a microphone to give sound to the writer. This service can be booked for a minimum time of one hour, then in 15 minute blocks. Our writers have over 20 years of international experience, can write in over 16 languages, and they can understand deaf voices, so they are able to write what everybody says. Your transcript is automatically sent to you when your event ends.

To find out more or to book a speech to text reporter

To find out more about our expert speech to text services for deaf people, contact us.

Live captioning in South Africa

May 22, 2015/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

If you’re a student, do you find it hard to hear in lectures? Would you benefit from having live captioning of your lecture streamed to your smartphone or tablet in one second, and having a transcript immediately afterwards?

We are the first captions provider to provide live captioning services in South Africa. This is a fantastic achievement as there are so many barriers to deaf access in education, such as the lack of sign language interpreters. Real-time captioning of lectures is being very enthusiastically welcomed, it is seen as a real game-changer for deaf students.

Jody talks about live captioning

Jody, one of our clients, wrote about her experience of live captioning in the classroom;

I have two cochlear implants and I am studying an Honours in Genetics this year.

121 Captions is a service provided that produces a live transcription of a class or conference whereby the person who needs the live transcription can read what it happening on his/her cell phone/tablet/laptop.

Currently, 121 Captions have been assisting me with my lectures every day since the beginning of April. As I listen to my lecturer, I read the live transcription from my cell phone, although a tablet is more ideal.

Without 121 assisting me, I wouldn’t have been able to fully understand my lectures as I tend to miss out when I listen. I also can’t remember things when I hear it, which makes it even more difficult. I am therefore able to remember everything I read, thus 121 also provides the transcription of the lecture at the end of the day for me to read in my own time and to study from.

It is one of the best services I have encountered, not only for people with a hearing disability but for anyone who needs a transcription of a class, lecture, conference or even a board meeting. Thank you 121 Captions for assisting me!

How does live captioning work in the classroom?

Check out the video to see how live captioning is set up in the classroom and used by students. If you would like to enquire about our live captions service, contact us or email us at bookings@121captions.com

Our live captioning platform

April 4, 2015/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

Our live captioning streaming software is the most stable, secure, and fastest in the world, streaming live captions to you in less than 3 seconds. Our captioning platform is the ideal solution for professionals who wish to have their teleconference calls or events captioned. It is now even better!

Our live captioning platform delivers time-saving solutions for CART providers, captioners and court reporters who provide live captioning streaming for business meetings, classroom lectures, depositions, stadium captioning, as well as Adobe and WebEx collaboration. Broadcast Engineers are excited about the ability to provide captions for live video webcasting while at the same time, sending closed captions to TV.

In the last few months alone we have added the following enhancements to to an already robust platform:

For the Viewer:

Streaming text formatting: Coloured Highlighting, Bold, Underline Font colours etc and saved with the transcript.
Streaming text speed control: The viewer can control how fast the captions arrive to the screen making it easier to follow what is being said. The words flow smoothly across the page at the slower pace.
The Stream Box, Notes Box & Chat box are all resizable. Plus the stream box can be opened in a new window.
Optimized view screen for mobile devices.

For the Captioner

Test Stream: Writer can test the communication link free without accumulation of session time.
Easily managed recurring sessions
Macro for: Subscript ; Superscript; Bold; Underline
Macro for: New Line – Solves problems with Feeding Scripts using F12 key
Macro for: New Speaker Colour – Automatically changes the text color of a new speaker.

To find out more about our live captioning platform

Contact us at bookings@121captions.com

The wonder of live captioning

February 26, 2015/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

I’m in the middle of a conference call with five other people, taking a brief on what they want me to write for their website.

One person is travelling on a train, two are in an echoey room, one has a strong Australian accent and the last one is in his car.

It’s hard enough for most people to hear everyone clearly in that situation. And I’m deaf.

But I have an advantage over everyone else. While I’m on the phone, the text of the conversation is appearing on my laptop in front of me. A captioner from 121 has joined the call and is typing the conversation for me to read – word for word in realtime.

I can ‘hear’ clearly what everyone is saying. I am able to interject with my thoughts or advice as needed, and, because the live captioning is so quick, I laugh at funny comments and witticisms at the same time as everyone else.

The team I work with know that a captioner is on the call and will watch, open-mouthed, as an accurate record of the conversation streams across my laptop screen.

But most of my colleagues don’t realise I use this facility. This is because the captioner joins the call well before it is due to start and will sit there patiently until the conference begins (though how they cope with the muzak for so long I don’t know!).

Another bonus of having the captioner is the transcript of the call I receive as soon as the call has finished. Obviously it’s not a formal record of what was said, but it’s a great contemporaneous note that I use to check my understanding of the conversation, and what the actions follow from the call.

And all this comes for free – well to me anyway. That’s because it’s one of the reasonable adjustments that Access to Work will accept and pay towards if an assessor confirms live captioning is what you need.

Live captioning from 121 has been a God-send for me. Running my own business with clients all round the country would be an incredible challenge without it. For the first time in a long time I am able to participate in phone calls, confident that I will ‘hear’ everything accurately and be able to contribute fully to the conversation.

Lisa Caldwell runs her own business as a copywriter at Ministry of Writing. She has severe/profound hearing loss after gradually losing her hearing over the last 8 years. You can get in touch with her at credocommunications@gmail.com

Google Glass: Meet the Glass Guides

March 24, 2014/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

Guides are the first people you meet when you get Glass, and they know just about everything there is to know about it. They help set you up and make sure you’re fitted properly. If you have any questions, issues, or just want to chat, they’re always there for you – on email, phone, and across all Google Glass’ social platforms.

They come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and are seriously some of the smartest, funniest people on the team. See what they have to say for themselves…

This video was recorded entirely through Glass. Sadly, it is not captioned, but check out the transcript below (thanks to our captioner Michelle!).

Transcript – Meet the Glass Guides

>> I’m from San Francisco.

>> Huntington beach California.

>> Washington, DC,

>> Colombia, South Carolina.

>> City of Angels, baby!

>> Brooklyn New York.

>> St. Paul, Minnesota.

>> Before I came into the Glass team I was doing a lot of different things actually.

>> I taught marine science.

>> I worked on Google plus.

>> I acted all over in regional theatres.

>> Assistant women’s basketball coach.

>> I worked in university as a lecturer.

>> I love meeting all of the Explorers because they all have really great stories.

>> The best thing about helping Explorers, is just being the first point of contact.

>> I’ve been lucky enough to get to travel around and see a lot of cool places, meet a lot of cool people, all while introducing them to a really cool technology.

>> Watching them open up the box and be incredibly excited and then giving them the tools they see in class, after they leave.

>> Our team? Very fun, very funny, intelligent people, and just very cool and flexible.

>> I would describe the team as weird and wonderful.

>> Everybody’s really fun. Everybody’s really quirky, and everyone’s just a blast.

>> We love each other so much.

>> Nobody else cares …

>> Everybody cares.

>> … except me!

>> It’s like being part of a big family.

>> It’s kind of like coming to work with your friends every day.

Transcript credit: Michelle Coffey

Credit: Phone Arena

Dual output live captioning

January 19, 2014/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

Carla was sitting in London today, chatting online to our realtime captioner, Jeanette, in Kansas. Jeanette was about to dual output live captioning for a religious service to a television station in Arkansas and asked if Tina wanted to watch. You bet!

What is remote dual output live captioning?

Remote captions means the captioner is listening to a speaker in a different location and producing web-accessible captions. We use the internet and VOIP (typically Skype) to do this.

Jeanette called the Arkansas TV station over VOIP so she could hear their audio. Her computer equipment and CAT software connects to a modem or network through the internet and captions are embedded in the television’s signal which captions are then visible to the viewer watching a TV with a decoder built into the TV set. In the UK this is known as subtitles. In the US this is known as closed captions.

Today, Jeanette was using a dual output setup for live captioning. This means the captions can be streamed to different devices at the same time.

Jeanette was sending a signal to the Arkansas station from Kansas to send three lines of text to TV. The captions were also accessible for those watching TV via the internet; PLUS, this same live broadcast could be viewed as a live text stream by anyone in the world with an internet-connected device!

The idea of dual output allows a TV station to offer added value by streaming captions to those in emergency situations. For example, in the event of an emergency and the electricity goes off making live TV impossible, families can turn on their handheld devices and can still see internet TV and get the emergency closed captions. Isn’t that awesome?

Even more awesome, Carla is in London, watching live TV captions from an Arkansas TV station, originating from a captioner in Kansas. Doesn’t that just blow your mind!

Contact us if you would like to find out more about making your services accessible through remote dual output live captioning, email us at bookings@121captions.com

Captioning – on a bus!

December 1, 2013/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

Have you ever seen captioning on a bus?

Our captioner Michelle tells us about a day in her life, captioning for everyone around her ….

We all know that every day in the working life of a captioner is different, and can be a challenge, and then there are days like Tuesday 26th November!

It began like any other day, with a booking for a regular client at a conference they were holding to discuss accessible tourism in Ireland, interesting! But then I was told we wouldn’t be needed till after lunch as the morning was being spent on an ‘accessible bus tour’ to some of the accessible sights of Dublin…hold on a minute though, if I’m there for access for the deaf/hard of hearing tourists, and I’m not needed, then how accessible is this tour going to be for them? So I asked how they’d feel if we tried to make the tour bus accessible? Without hesitation, we got a resounding yes – if you can do it, let’s go!

On the morning of the job I arrived at their office with laptops, screens, projectors, extension cables etc, I could see the perplexed expressions as they tried to work out how best to explain to me that they wouldn’t be able to plug in my extension lead on the bus, or indeed my projector! But once they were confident that that wasn’t my intention, and that I did really have some clue about what we were about to embark on, everyone relaxed 🙂

And I have to say, it was by far the most fun job I’ve done. Three double-decker Dublin buses pulled up outside the office, everyone was given a name tag and allocated a bus. The idea was that as the buses travelled between destinations the facilitator would lead the discussion and debate onboard and then in the afternoon all three busloads would feed back their information to the group at large.

As our bus was now equipped with live captioning (CART – Communication Access Realtime Translation), the occupants of the other buses could see what we were discussing, or joking about! The tour very quickly descended into a school tour mentality (we were even given some snacks) with lots of good natured joking, and one of our blind facilitators even scolded me for shielding my screen from him which meant he couldn’t copy my answers to the quiz 🙂

It soon became apparent that our driver was quite new to the concept of braking in a timely fashion and had probably never passed a pothole he didn’t enter! This being the case, I was finding it increasingly difficult to stay upright myself, and my machine, so with that in mind, the guys and gals on our bus decided to take bets on when the next bump in the road, traffic light etc would cause me and/or my machine to slip! It really lightened the mood, everyone had a laugh and it brought home to people in a very real and tangible way, that accessibility for everyone is not just a soapbox topic – but it became something that everyone on our bus played an active part in (even if some of them were “accidentally” bumping into me to get an untranslated word, and a laugh). But it showed that access matters, and that it should matter to us all!

What I didn’t know before that morning was that not only were we doing a tour on the bus, but we also had two stops; one at a brand new and very accessible hotel and one at a greyhound race track. Initially it was suggested that I would stay on the bus and not transcribe the tours, but where’s the fun in that? So, once we got off the bus, the bets turned to how many different positions they could get me to write in; standing; sitting; balancing on a bed; squatting; machine on a table, machine held by another tour member in the lift! – it was a truly interactive tour 🙂

And to finish the day off we went back to Guinness Storehouse for our panel discussion and debate about accessible tourism in Ireland (and free pints of Guinness of course).

All in all a brilliant day. An important topic discussed, debated, delivered and demonstrated in our different locations – the best job ever 🙂

CART services for the Emergency Services

June 2, 2013/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

Demonstration of CART services

We are being kept busy with conferences, exhibitions, and trade shows. This week – on the same day! – our team exhibited at the Deaf Unity 2013 Deaf Learner’s conference and at the first Deaf Awareness Day in Hertfordshire. In Hertfordshire, one of our captioners, Orla, captioned the day’s presentations. She explained how she writes what she hears in shorthand into her steno machine, then her laptop converts this into English. Orla’s captions were streamed to a large screen for everyone to read. She also gave a demonstration of remote captioning CART services on her iPad – the latest in CART technology. CART is Communication Access Realtime Translation, a verbatim capture of what is said in real time.

Steno machine

Contact us to find out how you can have realtime captions streamed to you anytime, anywhere. Our captioners reporters are NRCPD and NCRA registered, providing high quality captions with no droppage of service. We offer the highest quality remote CART services in the UK.

A delegate’s thoughts

On Tuesday 28th May I went to a Deaf Awareness day organised by Hertfordshire County Council. The police and the fire brigade both gave presentations, as did several senior members of the council’s Social Services department. I am a Police Community Volunteer with Hertfordshire Police, so I was sitting at a table with 5 police officers. I was wearing a black suit to try and blend in with their uniforms and it was surprising the number of people who took it for granted I’d be a police officer rather than a deaf volunteer! It was a very wet day but it was a well attended day with deaf people, and those working with them, present.

There were lots of displays for all sorts of deaf charities. I was delighted to see a table with leaflets about CART services and had a chat with the smartly dressed lady running it, Orla from 121 Captions. Orla captioned the presentations and gave a very professional and competent service with the minimum of errors. Many people at the event were very interested in what she was doing because they hadn’t seen CART services before. I would certainly seek out 121 Captions again if looking for captioning services.

Delegate, Deaf Awareness Day, Hertfordshire

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