|
CPC in the News
For
Release 4/19/04 - 9:00 am
NAB Booth C-10332
Contact: Sid Hoffman
Phone: (301) 738-8487
E-mail: shoffman@cpcweb.com
CPC
Software’s Automatic Voice/Closed Caption Synchronization
Slashes Captioning Labor Cost & Turn-Around Time
Las
Vegas, NV, April 19, 2004 –
CPC’s
CaptionMaker®
& MacCaption™ closed captioning software can now automatically break and
accurately time closed captions at the click of button. This automates the
labor-intensive job of having a captioner listen to the audio, manually break
the text into captions, and then synchronize the captions with the dialogue.
This exciting new feature was introduced at the opening day of the NAB
(National Association of Broadcaster’s) Convention in Las Vegas, NV
at booth #C-10332.
To
caption a video, you need to have a text file of the audio. Up until now, a
captioner would listen to the audio, and manually synchronize the captions with
the audio using time code. This is a painstaking and time-consuming job. With
CaptionSync™ automated captioning software from Automatic Sync Technologies,
the captioner simply connects to the internet and uploads the script and the
corresponding audio file to a file server. Within minutes, a time stamped
script file will be displayed on the computer. After reviewing the CaptionSync™
file and making any last minute changes, the file is ready for to be combined
with the video as captions or subtitles utilizing CPC’s Windows based
CaptionMaker and Mac based MacCaption software.
By
utilizing the CaptionSync™ process, CPC captioning software users are able to
create a file that is more tightly synchronized than the traditional method,
while dramatically increasing their productivity.
“Delivering
automated caption results will allow CaptionMaker & MacCaption users to be
even more productive.” said Dr. Dilip Som, President of CPC. “Quality,
speed, and cost effectiveness are very important to CPC customers, and
CaptionSync delivers on all accounts.”
"Automatic
Sync Technologies is pleased to partner with CPC to offer automated captioning
to users of CaptionMaker & MacCaption - we believe they will see tremendous
productivity benefits from this new offering." said Dr. Kevin Erler,
Founder of Automatic Sync Technologies.
About
CPC
Since 1985, CPC has been the industry leader in captioning, subtitling &
teleprompting software; and has operated an award winning caption and subtitle
service since 1989.
CPC
can be contacted at sales@cpcweb.com 800-977-6678, www.cpcweb.com,
www.caption.com
About
Automatic Sync Technologies
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Automatic Sync Technologies (AST) is a
leading provider of automated captioning technology. AST uses leading-edge
speech processing and pattern identification technology. AST can be contacted
at www.automaticsync.com.
###
For
Release 4/19/04 - 9:00 am
NAB Booth C-10332
Contact: Sid Hoffman
Phone: (301) 738-8487
E-mail: shoffman@cpcweb.com
MacSubtitle™
- A Complete Subtitling System on a CD
With Automatic Voice/Subtitle Synchronization
Las
Vegas, NV, April 19, 2004 –
CPC’s new MacSubtitle software subtitles a multitude of video formats, from
videotape, to DVD’s, to video-on-demand - without the need for a hardware
character generator. Customers will realize substantial cost savings, since
they will not have to purchase a hardware character generator, which typically
costs thousands of dollars. Features include multi-language capability, border
around characters, translucent backgrounds, proportionally spaced fonts,
kerning, and line spacing.
MacSubtitle
can also automatically break and accurately time subtitles at the click of
button. This automates the labor-intensive job of having a subtitle editor
listen to the audio, manually break the text into subtitles, and then
synchronize the subtitles with the dialogue.
This
exciting new software will be introduced at the opening day of the NAB
(National Association of Broadcaster’s) Convention in Las Vegas, NV at
CPC’s booth #C-10332.
To
subtitle a video, you need to have a text file of the audio. Up until now, a
subtitle editor would listen to the audio, and manually synchronize the
subtitles with the audio using time code. This is a painstaking and
time-consuming job. With this new technology, the subtitle editor simply
connects to the internet and uploads the script and the corresponding audio
file to a file server. Within minutes (depending on the size of the file), a
time stamped script file will be displayed on the computer. After reviewing the
CaptionSync™ file and making any last minute changes, the file is ready for
to be combined with the video as utilizing CPC’s Mac based MacSubtitle™
software.
“Delivering
automated subtitles will allow MacSubtitle users to be even more productive.”
said Dr. Dilip Som, President of CPC. “Quality, speed, and cost effectiveness
are very important to CPC customers, and CaptionSync delivers on all
accounts.”
About CPC
Since 1985, CPC has been the industry leader in subtitling, captioning, &
teleprompting software; and has operated an award winning subtitling and
captioning service since 1989.
CPC
can be contacted at sales@cpcweb.com 800-977-6678, www.ccaption.com
###
NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2003
Contact:
Sid Hoffman
301-738-8487
info@cpcweb.com
www.cpcweb.com
Photo
with web address: A
screen shot of MacCaption
MacCaption™
- The World’s
Only Complete Captioning System on a CD
(No caption encoder
hardware required)
Sept. 22, 2003, Rockville, MD
While others were relaxing at the beach this summer, the CPC programming staff
pulled multiple all-nighters to take their industry leading Mac based
captioning software to the next level.
The
result is MacCaption, the world’s only captioning software that not only
imports, formats and time stamps caption text, but also encodes the text as
closed captions onto all video formats using software only. MacCaption is
the world’s only closed captioning software that does not require a hardware
encoder – which means you do not go down a generation when encoding captions.
Dr.
Dilip K. Som, CPC’s Director of Research and Development stated:
“MacCaption not only formats and synchronizes captions with the video, but
also encodes the captions onto the video, so that you do not lose a generation
in the encoding process. Going down a generation is an inherent problem with
hardware encoders. Our clients also save money because they do not have to
purchase a costly hardware closed caption encoder. Plus, the MacCaption
software encoder is compatible with more video formats than almost any hardware
encoder.”
Over
the summer CPC enhanced virtually all other capabilities of MacCaption by
taking almost all features of its industry leading Windows-based CaptionMaker®
software, and incorporating them into MacCaption. As one innovation led to
another, they found that they could not only incorporate these features into
MacCaption, but they could make the user interface to these features even
easier than they imagined, because of the inherently user friendly interface of
the Mac. MacCaption runs on the Mac OS X.
The
MacCaption icon-driven software is so intuitive that it lets even first time
users caption videos within an hour of installing the software. Plus,
experienced captioners will find that their efficiency soars due to the
elegantly simple user interface.
Software
enhancements include:
- Caption
preparation time has been cut down by 33%.
- Caption
positioning and synchronization with dialogue has been vastly improved.
- Drag
and drop DV and MPEG closed caption encoding is better than ever.
- The
unique push – pull caption formatting feature that users of CPC’s
Windows CaptionMaker software rave about has been incorporated into
MacCaption.
Since
1986 CPC has been the leader in closed caption software development; and since
1989 CPC has operated an award winning captioning service.
###
NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2003
Contact:
Sid Hoffman
301-738-8487
info@cpcweb.com
www.cpcweb.com
Computer
Prompting & Captioning Co. (CPC)
Acquires
the CCaption Technology from Leapfrog Productions
Rockville,
MD-- July 24, 2003—CPC announces the acquisition of the CCaption and
CCaptionPro closed captioning software technology from Leapfrog Productions.
The technology includes CCaption for Windows and Macintosh, as well as
CCaptionPro, Leapfrog Production’s latest closed captioning software
application for Macintosh OS X.
CCaption
allows users of Avid and Media 100 editing systems to directly add closed
captions to their video material and CCaptionPro is a general purpose caption
editing software program that adds closed and open captions to Digital Video,
adds closed captions to DVD MPEG-2 video and generates subtitle files for DVD
authoring packages such as DVD Studio Pro.
“We
are excited about adding CCaption to our existing software product line” said
Dr. Dilip Som, the President of CPC. “CCaption and CCaptionPro allow users to
directly add closed captions to video material without the need for special
purpose hardware encoders, and expand our captioning software offerings to
include the Macintosh line of computers.”
CCaption
and CCaptionPro compliment CPC’s existing software applications, the PC based
CaptionMaker® family of software that easily allows users to add subtitles and
close captions to video material for both post-production and realtime
captioning.
Since
1985, CPC has been the leader in closed captioning, subtitling and
teleprompting software development. CPC also operates a closed captioning and
subtitling service.
###
For Immediate Release
Phone: (800) 977-6678
Contact: Sidney Hoffman
E-mail: shoffman@cpcweb.com
Emir
of Qatar’s Speech
Open Captioned Live By CPC
Washington,
D.C. May 9, 2003
–CPC provided live, English language open captioning of last night’s highly
anticipated Arabic language speech of His Highness, The Emir of the State of
Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani.
The
Ambassador of the State of Qatar in Washington, and the U.S. Ambassador to
Qatar were in attendance, as was Richard Hass, the Director of Policy and
Planning at the State Department. The
speech took place at the elegant Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington,
D.C.
Speaking in Arabic – Captioning in English
As
the Emir spoke in Arabic, the
CPC-600 CaptionMaker® system was used to simultaneously output open captions
in English of what the Emir said.
These captions were projected onto giant screens in the auditorium, so that
attendees could both see the image of the Emir, and English language captions
of the speech he was giving in Arabic.
How the Captioning was Accomplished
The
mechanics of the captioning were elegantly simple. An English language
translation of the Emir’s speech, was imported into the CPC-600 CaptionMaker®
software.
Then,
as the Emir spoke, a captioner who understood both Arabic and English, simply
followed the text in English. The captioner pressed the Plus key on the
computer keyboard to output each line of English text as captions as the Emir
spoke that line of text aloud in Arabic. The only requirement of the captioner
was that he understood both Arabic and English.
The
English language text was output from the captioner’s notebook computer into
an open caption character generator. The character generator combined the text
with video from a video camera that was taking the Emir’s picture. The output
of the character generator was then projected onto giant screens, which showed
the live video of the Emir, with the English language captions.
The
English language captioning was essential, since most of the audience did not
understand Arabic.
CPC – The Captioning Source
Since
1985, CPC has been the leader in closed captioning, subtitling and
teleprompting software development. CPC also operates a closed captioning and
subtitling service.
###
On June 30, 1997, beginning at 6:00 a.m.
Eastern time, CPC provided real-time, English language open captioning of the local China
Central Television and World Television Network Chinese language broadcast of the historic
Hong Kong handover to China. The broadcast originated in both Hong Kong and Beijing, and
was shown in the United States on Cable TV's International Channel. The English language
open captioning allowed non-Chinese speaking viewers in the U.S. to experience the
turnover from a Chinese perspective.
|
 |
ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAPTIONS OF LOCAL CHINESE LANGUAGE
COVERAGE
The Los Angeles studio of the International Channel
received live satellite feeds of the local broadcast from both Hong Kong and Beijing.
Simultaneous translation into English was done in the International Channel's Los Angeles
studio. The voice translation was sent, via telephone, to the real-time captioner located
in Portland Oregon. The real-time caption data was then be sent, via modem on a second
phone line, to a captioning encoder at the Los Angeles studio of the International
Channel. The encoder combined the captions and the live video for broadcast out to viewers
as open captions.
OPEN CAPTIONS AVAILABLE TO ALL VIEWERS
English language open captions was provided to all
viewers of the broadcast, regardless of whether they had a closed caption decoder or not.
In fact, open captions are simply closed captions which are viewable without a decoder.
(Closed captions require a decoder to be seen, and are targeted to a hearing impaired
audience).
EIGHT HOURS OF OPEN CAPTIONED COVERAGE AVAILABLE TO
7.5 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS
The handover was broadcast on June 30, 1997 from 6 a.m.
to 2 p.m. Eastern time (6 a.m. Eastern time is 6 p.m. in Hong Kong). The International
Channel has 7.5 million subscriber households across the U.S. and Latin America.
Russian Presidential Election
Captioned With CPC Software
|
CPC provided the software to open
caption the Russian news program Vremya News, which broadcast first-hand coverage of the
Russian presidential run-off election. Vremya News was available nationwide in the United
States on the International Channel.
The CPC captioning software was used by the International
Channel to provide English language open captions, so that non-Russian speaking viewers in
the U.S. had the opportunity to follow and comprehend Vremya News. This provided Americans
with a first-hand perspective of the Russian electoral process.
|
 |
This innovative use of captioning allowed viewers to
understand a broadcast that would not be comprehensible if not for captions.
Traditionally, captioning is aimed at hearing impaired viewers, and captions are in the
same language as the program’s dialogue.
The broadcast was open captioned meaning that all viewers
were able to see the English language captions. This is in contrast to closed captions,
which require a decoder in order to be seen.
CPC provided realtime captioning for Taiwan's first ever
open
democratic election. The International
Channel
broadcast the election live from Taiwan
to the United States.
As the International Channel received the broadcast
satellite in Los Angeles, it was then rebroadcast over a satellite to Alexandria,
Virginia, where a translator relayed the English translation over a phone line to a
steno-captioner in Oregon. The steno-captioner transcribed the English translation into
live captions and transmitted them via a modem to the International Channel's studio in
L.A.
Washington, D.C. July 27, 1995: The Korean War Memorial was
dedicated this afternoon, and Computer Prompting & Captioning Co. (CPC) was there,
providing simultaneous English subtitles of Korean President Kim's speech as he spoke in
Korean. This allowed the largely English speaking audience of 100,000 to understand the
speech as President Kim spoke.
CPC also subtitled other segments of the dedication ceremony,
which was presided over by U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON. The subtitles were displayed on a
number of giant Jumbotron screens, enabling the huge audience to see the subtitles and
follow the speech.
CPC is a major provider of live and post-production
captioning and subtitling services, and has been producing captioning, subtitling and
teleprompting software since 1985.
In February, 1995 CPC expanded into new offices in Rockville,
Maryland to accommodate the growing volume of business. The new space has greatly
increased CPC's closed captioning and subtitling capabilities, and houses an expanded
software research and development department.
CPC becomes one of only 15 companies to have their
captioning and subtitling service approved by these agencies.
Washington, D.C., October 5, 1994: Computer Prompting &
Captioning Co. (CPC) was presented with the prestigious "Distinguished Vendor of
Accessible Technology Award" before an appreciative audience at the Washington, D.C.
headquarters of the United States Department of Commerce. The award, presented on behalf
of Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, cites CPC for its "...exemplary
contribution by providing and supporting captioning and teleprompting software... [and
its] results driven technology in the Federal workplace". The U.S. Department of
Commerce Director of Information Resources Management, Reed Phillips added, "[CPC's]
desire to provide and support quality products for the deaf and hard-of-hearing has
sustained their leadership role in this arena of accessible technology."
The coveted award is made on a competitive basis, and
sponsored by 13 Federal agencies. It is given annually at a U.S. Department of Commerce
ceremony.
Rockville, MD., May 10, 1995: CPC (Computer Prompting &
Captioning Co.) was presented with the prestigious Small Business Administration (SBA)
"Administrator's Award for Excellence" at the 28th Annual Joint Industry/SBA
Procurement Conference and Awards Banquet. President Bill Clinton wrote: "I am
delighted to have this opportunity to recognize the many contributions made by small
business and, in particular, your special accomplishments." The highly coveted award
is given annually, and pays tribute to small businesses with outstanding records as prime
contractors to the Federal Government.
DIRECTV International, a unit of Hughes Electronic Corp.,
is using the CPC-700 CaptionMaker® to insert foreign language subtitles over its
worldwide satellite TV networks. DIRECTV International viewers are equipped with special
digital decoders that allow them to view a program in its original form with no subtitles,
or with foreign language subtitles at the viewer's discretion.
When President Bill Clinton visited France recently,
President Jacques Chirac of France was amazed at how easy giving a speech could be. So
when President Chirac visited the U.S. in the beginning of February, President Clinton
presented Chirac with a teleprompting system provided by CPC. The CPC-1000 SmartPrompter
II can prompt in French, one of the 20 languages available.
- The Washington Post
(February
1995) |
