How to Choose a Captioning Service
There are many reasons to caption online videos. Accessibility compliance is probably one of the most common, 尤其是那些受《百家乐软件》或类似州法律约束的学校和组织. Broadcasters are subject to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, 根据2010年的《百家乐软件》，这些法案现在涵盖了广播节目的互联网传输.
Beyond compliance, 字幕是向说(和读)多种语言的观众开放节目的好方法. There are a host of other ways that captions can add value to existing video.
Outsource or DIY?
Less than 10 years ago, 对于许多有一些字幕需求的制作人来说，开始自己动手(DIY)是合理的. Online video platforms were much less mature, so most workflows were strictly tailored for one streaming server and player. Captioning was also more player-dependent. So adding captioning to the mix didn’t seem as onerous, even if it was a lot of work.
Today the DIY route may appear economical at first, but there can be hidden costs when it comes to scale, sustainability, and accuracy.
“我们遇到了一些试图自己这么做的大学，其中一些坚持了下来,” says Kevin Erler, president of online captioning company Automatic Sync Technologies. “Most have discovered that it’s harder than they anticipated.”
Josh Miller, VP of sales and development at captioning vendor 3Play Media, 一些企业客户表示，他们曾尝试自己配字幕，“以为自己只有几段视频。, (but then) it’s a bigger part of their job.” Those companies discover that “quality and turnaround become serious issues.”
For other organizations, the DIY route just isn’t practical at all. “I was quite sure I didn’t have the technical know-how, nor the time,” says Jeff Brownson, 俄勒冈州聋人和听力障碍者服务项目的沟通协调员. “We have some extremely competent vendors in the area. 所以对我来说，这就是把它交给那些真正知道自己在做什么的人, and doing it in a professional way.”
为在线视频提供字幕服务的公司越来越多，这使得外包成为一个切实可行的选择. Additionally, 大多数主要的在线视频平台和内容分发网络(cdn)都支持开箱即用的字幕, 通常包括字幕供应商可以利用的api，以进一步简化工作流程.
Therefore we see an expanding number of organizations across the enterprise, government, and education outsourcing their captioning needs. 在本文中，我将概述您应该了解的有关标题的事项，这些事项将有助于您选择供应商并与之合作.
The Uses of Captions
给视频加上字幕有很多好处，如果你关注的是合规性，这些好处并不总是显而易见的. For instance, 视频字幕为他们打开了更广泛的观众，他们可能不认为自己是聋人, but who otherwise have hearing difficulties.
“I’ve seen estimates that 20 percent of web users have hearing loss,” Brownson says. “随着越来越多的网站使用视频作为传播手段，对字幕的需求也在增长.”
Captions also make it easier for other viewers. Erler解释说，英语作为第二语言的观众“通常在他们注意到语言的细微差别之前就能理解书面文字.”
Brownson says, “There are advantages for hearing users, who can re-read [captions or transcripts], to help make sure they comprehend” the material.
SEO should not be overlooked, either. According to Miller, “将文本与视频联系起来符合互联网基于文本的模式.” Especially on platforms such as YouTube, captions serve as a transcript that opens much more of a video’s content to search.
米勒表示，他们要考虑的问题是:“我们如何通过添加字幕来增加价值? 它是内容消费的工具和推动者，对听力受损者和所有人都是如此.”
Carol Studenmund, founder of LNS Captioning in Oregon, has seen her clients experience that value-add. “We’ll start working with a city government and it’s all about compliance. Then they start getting our [caption] files,” she explains. “他们喜欢打开档案，发现每次在市议会上提到‘过河’的时候. Captions are used to review what happened.”
Know Your Needs
字幕供应商应该引导您了解为您的应用程序提供最合适的服务所需的信息. 但就像选择任何服务一样，你对自己的需求了解得越多，你的情况就越好.
“A client should know why they’re captioning,” says Studenmund. “It’s good to know who the audience is.” For instance, 米勒说，他想知道客户是否有员工需要住宿，或者这是否是合规问题.
According to Erler, 其他常见的需求包括提供视频搜索或为语言翻译创建文本.
It’s in the Transcript
Good captions start with a good transcript, which can also be used for translations and multilanguage support. 所以你需要决定你是提供自己的转录还是让供应商转录你的视频.
A caption transcript starts with a verbatim text of the speech in the video. 然后这必须与时间同步，这样玩家才能在适当的时候显示字幕, consistent with the soundtrack.
If transcription is already part of your workflow, 大多数字幕供应商将能够使用客户端提供的纯文本文本，并将其与视频同步. Otherwise, most producers likely will need transcripts. Given that this is the most labor-intensive part of the captioning process, most producers are best off leaving it to the specialists.
有一个常见的误解是，语音识别软件可以用来创建字幕文本. 这种观点之所以流行，部分原因是YouTube为一些视频提供了自动字幕.
However, 任何看过令人困惑的机器生成的字幕，或者收到无意中搞笑的谷歌语音文本或不恰当的Siri回答的人都应该明白，为什么语音识别本身不足以创建文本.
“Does quality matter? 还是因为你想让搜索和导航服务面向真正成熟的用户? Is content your brand?” Miller asks. “If so, you wouldn’t want too many mistakes” in your captions.
Computers, Humans, and Turnaround
It’s important to know how quickly videos need to be captioned. 一些制作人，尤其是那些处理合规问题的制作人，在没有字幕之前不能或不会发布视频, while others have more flexibility. 专业的转录员可以比普通的本科生更快地生成准确的转录, intern, or editor.
生产商应决定是否需要当日周转，或是否可以接受等待1个或更多工作日. Also, not all vendors offer live captioning, so that’s an important upfront question.
Although speech-to-text recognition is not yet adequate by itself, some companies are using this technology, aided and checked by humans, to speed the captioning of on-demand videos. Automatic Sync takes this approach. “We’ve tried to focus on picking a balance between the two, using human skill when necessary, using automation everywhere else,” says Erler.
3Play uses a similar strategy. 根据米勒的说法，“我们使用语音技术，首先通过语音识别. We have our own editing platform where somebody corrects the draft.与此同时，“我们的立场是，你们永远无法移走那个人。.”
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