3 places live captioning should be used

September 3, 2020/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by garyireland

Live captioning delivers an inclusive experience for the deaf, hard of hearing, and those who have English as a second language.

As a person is speaking, a speech-to-text-reporter (STTR) types out verbatim what is being said, with the transcript appearing on a screen for everyone to read.

The simple solution never interferes with what’s being said, while at the same time helps keep everyone in the loop with what’s going on.

Below are the three main places where live captioning should be used. Read more →

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.

Tutorial: How to set up for remote live captioning

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

Say hello to Bill, a stenographer on our team. He writes what he hears in real-time, around 300 words per minute, and is very fond of his headphones. He likes to be known as our #1 Stenographer.

He’s also very particular. Bill has a list of likes and dislikes pinned to his noticeboard. We took a peek at his list and decided to share.

It’s great that Bill is so particular about his work. This ensures his clients get a great service.

He always asks for preparation material before an event, this means we need an agenda, PowerPoint slides being used, handouts, minutes from previous meetings, a list of presenter’s names, a list of acronyms, and any other contextual material to help the event go more smoothly for the stenographer and the client. Bill will look at all this material and add any new words to his dictionary.

Bill loves it when his clients reassure him that they are not using wifi. This means he will have a much clearer audio signal. You would be amazed how many people forget there is a microphone on the table, and rustle their papers, their sweet wrappers, click their pens, and whisper to one another. Bill hears EVERYTHING. If it’s a teleconference call, this is preferable as the microphone is very close to the speaker’s mouth so the audio is much clearer.

Management of the call is an important factor. If people mumble, or talk over one another, Bill can let the client know by writing in the caption stream, or in the interactive chat box. It is up to the client to read Bill’s message and to ask people to speak audibly or one at a time. Bill loves it when clients take charge of their meetings and make sure he can hear everyone clearly.

Last minute bookings aren’t a hot favourite, they make Bill spill his coffee – which is not a good thing, near his expensive stenographer kit. We all like to plan ahead as much as we can, so Bill doesn’t get grey hairs in his lovely beard.

We all love our office and it’s very comfortable; Bill has to have one of the best chairs in the office. We don’t mind, it means he is happy. With a box of doughnuts, of course!

Shh, shh… just relax and let the beard consume you…

If you’d like to find out more about setting up for live captioning, contact us at bookings@121captions.com

Remote live captioning with 1Fuzion

June 18, 2015/0 Comments/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

Dr Brian Murphy, Director of Access, Digital and Distributed Learning, Ulster University

Remote live captioning with a twist

Dr Brian Murphy of Ulster University is speaking to an audience of young deaf people in Belfast. A steno captioner is listening in from southern Ireland. As he speaks, his words appear on the large screen behind him, yellow text smoothly streaming across a black box, one word at a time. The event is Getting AHEAD: University for Deaf Young People. The captioning is 1Fuzion – a world first.

The Getting AHEAD event was for deaf young people and their parents. It provided them with an excellent opportunity to hear from deaf students who are already in University, from lecturers who teach deaf students and from support services. They had an opportunity to discuss fears and barriers to University, both real and perceived.

We were delighted to take part in this event, delivering access to English from a deaf-led company to our young deaf peers. Our director, Tina, is an alumna of Ulster University, graduating with BA Honours Business Studies with Japanese – so she was all smiles 🙂

What is 1Fuzion?

Traditionally, live captioning a public event means setting up a separate large screen to show the streaming text, and often a second projector as the first projector would be used to show PowerPoint slides.

Using 1Fuzion means you only need one large screen to show both remote live captioning and PowerPoint slides or video. This translates into a much easier set-up for you at conferences, events, and meetings. You only need to set up one large screen, one projector, and one laptop for the remote captioner.

This also means a better viewing experience for deaf delegates, as there is only one screen to look at – you won’t miss any slides and you won’t miss any captions. The captions are still the traditional 121 quality, streaming to you in 1 second, at up to 350 words per minute from an experienced stenographer.

A sign language interpreter and 1Fuzion remote live captioning working together for full access

How do I access 1Fuzion?

You simply download a one-time file onto your laptop, log in with your event number, then choose how and where you would like your captions to be displayed. If you decide to change how the live captioning looks on your screen, you can do this on the fly. It takes just 2 minutes to set it all up. It really is as easy as that.

Our captioning platform is truly innovative. No other captioning platform is able to offer remote live captioning on top of visual material on the same screen. We are very excited to be able to offer this to our clients as a complimentary feature of our remote live captioning service. 1Fuzion works with our remote electronic notetaking service as well.

To book 1Fuzion, simply let us know when you are booking your remote live captioning session, that you would like captions on top of your PowerPoint slides or YouTube video. We’ll send instructions on setting up with your 1Fuzion log in details.

Is there any more magic? 🙂

Yes! Our captioning platform offers multichannel delivery. This means that the basic text stream link is still available for our consumers and will function as always – so we can caption to YouTube, send Tweets, you can read on any device at the same time as 1Fuzion streams to your PowerPoint slides, and use the chat box and colored speaker ID built into our captioning platform!! Don’t forget – we can deliver remote live captions in over 21 languages. We have it all covered!

Which languages do you caption?

Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

How do I book live captioning with 1Fuzion?

Contact us at bookings@121captions.com for more information, a free demonstration, or to book. We look forward to hearing from you!

Captioning and subtitling Deaf Learners 2013 Conference

May 28, 2013/in Live captioning services /by Tina Lannin

We were a sponsor of Deaf Unity’s Deaf Learners 2013 Conference today. It was great to meet students and those interested in facilitating access to education for deaf learners with captioning and subtitling services.

We caught up with Rachel from Deaf Umbrella .. a tough feat, since both our schedules are so full and we’ve been trying to meet up for ages! We got to talking about the amazing Hearing Dogs and she roared with laughter when she heard the story of Smudge helping himself to the chocolate display while Jeanette was super busy lipreading the shop assistant 🙂

One of the sponsors, SignVideo, had their stall next to us – did you know they have classy new videophones and that you can use a laptop, mobile phone or tablet to access their sign video relay interpreting services? Technology is really opening up new opportunities for learning and work to sign language users.

Sign video relay interpreting

Our partner Positive Signs brought their expertise in delivering apprenticeship opportunities for deaf people in London. There was certainly a lot of interest! We hope to see more deaf learners take advantage of the fabulous opportunities offered through Positive Signs. The apprenticeships are offered with 121 Captions’ remote captioning and subtitling services. Think about what it feels like to be the only deaf person in the room at a prestigious city firm, and you have an interpreter next to you. Now think how it would feel to have instead, no interpreter next to you, but an iPad with an almost instant word-for-word translation of what is being said. It feels so liberating!

Deaf Apprenticeships

We were demonstrating our remote captioning and subtitling technology and today we decided to have red text on a white background – it was much easier on the eye than the traditional black or yellow text. You can change the colours of the captions to suit your viewer, as well as the background. If you would like to book a live demonstration, contact us.

Remote captioning and subtitling services suit everyone

As usually happens at such events, the service providers rallied together and we worked as a team to offer the delegates a successful event. James from SignVideo was our honorary IT expert 😉 and helped us to figure out the venue’s ethernet. We did not have full communication support available for hard of hearing and deafened people, so the team of sponsors thought on their feet, pulled together, and instantly provided us with a volunteer lip speaker – so a huge thank you, you were marvellous *claps wildly*. A huge thank you is also due to Nadine who was our BSL interpreter – she stepped in and interpreted into Sign Supported English. Nadine is amazing, she can listen to Arabic and translate into British Sign Language – we can’t wait to test her skills. We loved how the communication support providers pulled together to support one another today. Deaf unity at its best!

The 121 Captions captioning and subtitling team

On today’s agenda were …

David Chater, Department of Education spoke about breaking educational barriers and providing deaf people with access to information, resources and support that leads to sustainable achievements.

Liz Sayce OBE, Chief Executive Disability Rights UK talked about breaking work barriers and providing deaf people with employment support to find and keep jobs. She is working towards a world where everyone can get into gainful employment.

Asif Iqbal MBE spoke about his leadership journey and how he loves getting involved with community projects, supporting and empowering deaf people. I had a quick chat with him over lunch about Harrow Asian Deaf club of which he is President – it’s great to see some deaf awareness-raising in west London.

Rob Wilks, Deaf Lawyer and head of RAD Law centre spoke about equality for deaf learners and why the law is failing them. It has taken me years to get to meet him – finally! – as we used to write on each others blogs but I was in London and he was far far away in misty Wales!

There were four workshops facilitated by experts;

Jane Cordell, former deaf diplomat in the Foreign Office – As always, Jane spoke eloquently and emotionally about deaf equality in employment and education, and how to overcome barriers with confidence. *Just ignore all those negative thoughts!* – good advice, Jane! We were privileged to see for ourselves how she got so far in the Foreign Office and broke the glass ceiling for deaf people (we’re so proud of you!).

Penny Beschizza, Teacher of the Deaf and Dr Marian Grimes, Head of Centre for Deaf Education, City Lit talked about the need for good communication support for deaf learners.

Gary Morgan, professor of Linguistics at University College London told us about the linguistic needs of deaf learners in education – a fascinating insight into statistics and his personal stories.

John Hay, Deaf historian talked about deaf history & education.

Deaf Unity hopes to inspire change and empower the next generation of deaf learners through role models, networking and technology. We had some great role models on the day from deaf people who were able to give the benefit of their experience to others in the spirit of sharing. Deaf people working together can empower each other now, and in the future.

To find out more about our captioning and subtitling services, led by an ace deaf team, contact us.

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