About Us

Since 1985, we have been the industry leader in captioning, subtitling & teleprompting software. To keep up with the newest technology, we have added DVD, Webcasting & V-Chip software to our list.

Founders

Dr. Dilip K. Som, Ph. D. Physics. Co-Founder, President & CTO

Dr. Som has been the world’s leading closed captioning software developer since 1986. He has earned a reputation in the captioning community as the “guru of captioning” for his vast knowledge of the captioning field.  

He has made innumerable software breakthroughs in the captioning field beginning in 1986 with the design, development and launching of the first PC based teleprompting/closed captioning software. 

His other “firsts” in the captioning field include:

• Release of the first commercially available captioning software in 1986

• Release of one of the first time-code based professional captioning software in 1992

• Release of Realtime Webcast captioning software with total synchronization between the captions and audio in 2003

Dr. Som earned his Ph. D. in Physics from the City University of New York. He co-founded CPC with Sid Hoffman in 1985. 

Sidney Hoffman, M.S. Computer Systems, M.A. Audiology. Co-Founder and Vice President

Sid has a over 30 years of experience in the captioning and teleprompting field. Sid earned a Master’s degree in Audiology (testing hearing and doing therapy with the hearing impaired), and a second Master’s in Computer Information Systems. 

While in graduate school, he moonlighted as a hands-on teleprompter operator, working on shows such as the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, and the soap operas One Life To Live and All My Children. 

As a teacher of the speech and hearing handicapped he realized the vast need for closed captioning for both the profoundly deaf and those with moderate and mild hearing losses. As a practical visionary, he has been instrumental in directing, developing and marketing CPC’s caption products, suitably combining his academic knowledge in Audiology and Information Technology to serve the hearing impaired community. 

Sid’s Master’s thesis (which was published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America) focused on the hearing problems of the elderly.

____________________________________

CPC Milestones 

1985-86:

• CPC develops the first IBM compatible teleprompting software (CPC-1000 SmartPrompter); and the first IBM compatible software capable of simultaneously displaying both teleprompter text and closed captions of the teleprompter text as it is being spoken (CPC-2000 SmartPrompter).

1987-88:

• CPC develops the first low cost, easy to use post-production captioning software (CPC-500 CaptionMaker)

1989-90:

• CPC begins a high quality, low cost captioning service.

1991-92:

• CPC greatly enhances the captioning capabilities of the CPC-500, including introduction of a time code simulation feature (CPC-600 CaptionMaker).
• CPC develops time code based captioning software (CPC-700 CaptionMaker).

1993-94:

• CPC interfaces the CPC-700 to the Chyron Codi character generator, giving it the capability to do broadcast quality subtitling in over 21 languages.
• CPC opens a multi-language subtitling service.
• CPC is awarded a General Services Administration (GSA) contract for closed captioning, subtitling and teleprompting systems.

1995-96:

• CPC greatly enhances the capabilities of the CPC-1000 SmartPrompter, with features such as proportionally spaced fonts and built-in spell check. New software is named the CPC-1000 SmartPrompter II.
• CPC's captioning and subtitling service is certified by the US. Department of Education and the National Association of the Deaf.
• CPC is awarded the first ever General Services Administration (GSA) contract for closed captioning and subtitling service.

1997-98:

• CPC introduces DVD subtitling and closed captioning software and service.
• CPC releases software for reinserting closed captions onto compressed video.
• CPC releases software for real-time captioning on-a-budget.
• CPC releases Windows 95/98/NT version of teleprompting software.

1999-2000:

• CPC releases V-Chip software to insert program ratings.
• CPC releases TV Crossover Link software to link TV programs to related Web sites.
• CPC releases Windows 95/98/NT version of captioning and subtitling software.

2001-02:

• CPC adds realtime captioning capability to CaptionMaker software
• CPC adds captioning capabilities to videos on the Web (Webcast-Video-on-demand)
• Breakthrough in captioning realtime webcasting - total synchronization of captions with the audio

2003-04:

• CPC releases MacCaption software - a complete captioning system on a CD. The World's first complete captioning software on Mac. 

2005:

• CPC was awarded Patent #6,895,166 for the world's first closed caption encoding software.
• CPC releases CaptionMaker-700NLE - a complete captioning and subtitling system on a CD. No need for an expensive closed caption encoder or subtitling hardware.

2006-07:

• CPC releases MacCaption-HD - a complete captioning and subtitling software for HD video on a CD. No need for an expensive HD closed caption encoder or subtitling hardware.

2008:

• CPC releases closed captioning software in Asian Languages for DTV broadcasting
• CPC releases subtitling software for Blu-ray Discs
• CPC releases captioning software for Flash
• CPC Releases version 4 of MacCaption and CaptionMaker which includes captioning/subtitling for

  • Google Video
  • iPod
  • iTunes
  • Quicktime (mov) with EIA  608 CC

  • Flash using Timed Text Authoring Format DFXP (.xml)

  • EBU data exchange format (.stl)