From auto captions on Instagram stories to voice-to-text on phones, the words “automated captions” and “auto closed captioning,” also known as ASR (Automated Speech Recognition) and AI captions, are becoming mainstream vernacular. This might cause confusion over what exactly they are, what the advantages and limitations are, and why companies are choosing the National Captioning Institute (NCI). We are here to explain!

What are automated captions?

Quite simply, automated captions are captions produced using speech recognition technology with no human intervention. This contrasts with the “human” approach in which trained captioners receive the audio, add punctuation/edits on the fly, and physically input the captions using their voice or stenography. With automatic caption generators, the equipment/software itself deciphers the audio and transmits captions accordingly.

What are some advantages to automated captions?

One of the biggest draws to a live speech-to-text product is its low cost and ease of use. At NCI, we can set up automatic captioning on our end or deliver our proprietary NCIStream device to your site, both at a fraction of the cost of standard captioning.

NCI is also the first company to offer a hybrid human/ASR captioning solution. If a particular show would be better suited for a live captioner, we can easily have one scheduled. This flexibility is unique to NCI and a huge advantage to clients with the highest quality captioning needs. Also, unlike other ASR products, NCI is not married to one speech recognition software. Through market research and testing, we are continually looking to improve our quality.

Are there limits to automated captions?

Certainly, but automated captioning continues to improve as technology advances. Automatic Speech Recognition’s biggest indicator of success is audio quality. Clear, crisp, uncompressed audio is ideal for high-quality captions. Programs that have music or other loud background noise or frequent cross-talk would be better suited to a human captioner.

What does The National Captioning Institute have to offer?

Glad you asked! Our automated captioning solution is called CaptionSentry, the premier real-time ASR captioning service for English and Spanish programming that blends cutting-edge artificial intelligence with NCI’s unparalleled human expertise. The number of companies offering an ASR solution for real-time closed captioning is rapidly growing. These companies are selling a product; CaptionSentry is a service.

• CaptionSentry utilizes state-of-the-art speech-to-text technology to transform real-time audio into nearly verbatim closed captions with unrivaled word for word accuracy.  CaptionSentry also offers versatility; whether clients want to be hands-on and in control of activating the ASR or they prefer to have it managed off-site, NCI allows the client to select the option most complementary to their workflow.  This easy-to-use service will be of tremendous value to all content providers.

• With accuracy rates typically ranging from 94% to 98%, CaptionSentry is the best ASR product on the market.  To determine verbatim accuracy, NCI uses a proprietary program that compares a verbatim transcript against the ASR-generated captions.  Latency can be as low as two seconds if an NCIStream device is placed onsite.  If the client prefers not to have a device onsite, latency is still only three to four seconds.

•  As the demand for closed captioning continues to increase, clients have turned to NCI’s CaptionSentry to cover hundreds of hours of programming per month. NCI is constantly improving its service to take advantage of advances in technology and in response to customer feedback and captioning needs.

•  Whether you want to be hands-on and in control of activating the ASR or you prefer to have it managed for you off-site, NCI allows you to select the option most complementary to your workflow. Contact us for more information about NCIStream, the IP closed caption delivery system that accepts caption data from human captioners, NCI’s CaptionSentry ASR, or both. Not interested in installing the NCIStream hardware at your broadcast location? No problem. As long as you can provide audio that meets ASR specs, our team of specialists will schedule and monitor your ASR captions so you can direct your focus elsewhere.