Running the video production team for IDD, I am often asked to include subtitles with the videos we create. However, we don’t really have an efficient workflow for producing subtitles and I am often unable to fulfill the request. I know we need to improve our ability in creating subtitles—not only to meet the demands of our diverse student body (students with disabilities, international students, etc.), but also to allow for text-based video-searching, which will increase each video’s value as a learning object.
Recently, I have asked some of our Graduate Assistants (GAs) to assist in producing subtitled tracks for our videos using a share-ware subtitling application. When you factor in software training, transcription time, proof reading, etc., it takes a GA two hours and 20 minutes on average to produce one minute of subtitled video. Once a GA was experienced with the processes and comfortable with the software, he or she could produce one minute of subtitled video in 20 to 30 minutes.
Last year, IDD produced 128 hours of original video content. In order to caption all of the videos we produced last year, it would cost us $215,050. (GAs make $12/hour.) Even if we used only experienced GAs, our annual cost would still be $30,720 and require at least two GAs dedicated to subtitling.
This past summer at the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning in Madison, Wisconsin, I was introduced to a company named Automatic Sync Technologies. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas uses Automatic Sync as its exclusive partner in creating video transcripts and subtitles. Through a web-based interface, users upload their videos to Automatic Sync receive a subtitle track and a full transcript three days later. At this point, all the video producers have to do is associate the subtitle tracks with their original videos and they are done. Automatic Sync pricing is based on the volume of videos you submit. The more you submit, the cheaper it gets. Captioning our 128 hours using Automated-Sync would have cost DePaul $17,114, a significant savings even at our most efficient production capabilities.
Outsourcing our subtitling work to Automatic Sync or one their competitors seems like a no-brainer. It’s cheaper than doing it in-house, produces a more reliable product, and lets our GAs spend time working on other valuable projects.
If your university or organization has an efficient and effective way of producing subtitles for video, I’d love to hear about it.
Rick,
Just curious, did DePaul use Automatic Sync Technologies for captioning? If yes, what were the results? Were there any other companies you looked at for captioning?
We’re looking at different options for captioning our college videos.
Hey Deborah,
I have a colleague who is looking at all of the captioning tools. She is working on a pilot project and putting together the workflow. We haven’t chosen a dedicated vendor at this point.
Please remember that to respect your audience and their native language, you must not only “translate” but you must adapt, language. This includes understanding of phrasing, vernacular, culture and more. It is not something that can be done well via automation.