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There are a number of captioning options for your content provided by UCL and a few approved external services.
Creating captions and transcripts for pre-recorded content
We can recommend automatic speech recognition (ASR) captioning and/or transcribing tools and services for prerecorded media that are either free or low-cost and produce fairly accurate results.
- Paid options
The use of听automated speech recognition (ASR) is now prevalent in听the creation of captions,听particularly where cost or urgency in production time means the use of a manual captioning听process is considered uneconomic. This is generally the situation where there is a听high volume or significant length in time of video听content and especially relevant when delivering听live broadcasts, where in essence, the use of ASR technology may enable captioning that previously would be unviable.
Generally speaking, the use of ASR systems that are underpinned by different听AI systems these are听constantly learning and improving, so it is thought that over a period of听time their performance will become听enhanced. Unfortuantely,听there is much confusion as to the average听level of听accuracy听whne creating captions using ASR, and it is probably听less than 80% in most cases, therefore听using this method you should always allow time to review and correct as necessary.
UCL has a number of suppliers who can offer captioning through听the ASR process. UCL听staff听have tested the following products.听You will generally need to sign up for an account and it is noted that most of the offers are for personal rather than business or educational accounts.听
Note 1: For captioning there is currently no UCL preferred service or software as every user听will have different requirements. For translation and transcription there is a UCL Framework which can be found here...听(UCL credentials听required to login).
Note 2:听Users who are short on time and/or who require a high level of accuracy should strongly consider paying for human created /听corrected听captions and transcripts. The process uses听people rather than software, and 'paid for' captions and 'transcripts'听are typically 99% accurate and can have quick turnaround times.Product URL Comments AI-Media "Perfect the accessibility of your recorded content with captions for recorded media. Recorded captions come from our deeply established position in the industry, informed by our in-house practice guidelines and standards, and our deep roots in accessibility."
Note: this is not a DIY service.
Verbit: UCL Education Media听has access to Verbit and offers users a low cost "paid for" option within Mediacentral. This service听delivers Automatic Speech Recognition captions, these will need correcting by the uploader, but are generally available within a couple of hours after the initial request听
We are currently in discussion听with Verbit听to be make this available upon request听with听other applications. However for the time being, if you鈥檇 like to use Verbit, please contact us directly.
- Free options using UCL provided systems
Free options make use of ASR 听technology and although the technology is continually improving, ASR produced captions and transcripts will normally contain errors, and will need reviewing and editing by the user.
Be aware that for media files which have low audio or poor speech quality听which is hard to detect, accuracy levels can drop significantly, meaning the user might have to heavily edit the files. It is reccommended that for each mimute of video you should allow at least 2 minutes to correct any听errors.
Internal platforms / applications
Service Information Lecturecast: Any media uploaded into UCL Lecturecast which meets a 90% confidence score threshold ( very good audio) will now have ASR-produced transcripts and captions applied automatically. Files can then be edited and downloaded using the built-in editor.
Microsoft Stream Best for closed captions. Uploading a media file to Stream allows you to create, edit and download .SRT and .VTT files, which are the two most widely used closed caption file types.
听Note: if you need both captions and transcripts via Microsoft, we would recommend first creating the captions file via Microsoft Stream and then, once checked and edited, copying the contents into Microsoft Word to format into a transcript.听
Microsoft Word Online: Best for transcripts. All UCL users are now able to make unlimited usage of the in-built 'Transcribe' feature and edit the results directly in Word. Please note that this feature is available in the online version of Word only. .
External sites (YouTube,听etc.)
If your media file is already hosted on an external site, it is worth checking to see what captioning and transcribing options the site might offer. For example, YouTube allows users to generate ASR-produced captions for any video, which can then be edited using YouTube Studio. .
Captioning for Live Events
Please note UCL Educational Media do not caption live events, if you require听this kind of service then staff across UCL have found that听commissioning the services of an external provider trialed by the Digital Accessibility team听is听very successful.
- Paid options
Supplier URL Details听 121 Captions 121 Captions听can be found in听MyFinance, please contact them directly or discuss with the ISD Digital Accessibility team. Also ensure you give plenty of notice to ensure they have听availability on the day of your event and request a quotation. For further information听.听
121 Captions听provide听live captioning service who are expert providers of verbatim realtime captioning onsite and remotely to your tablet or laptop.听This uses a stenographer service which will capture every word as it is spoken with 99% accuracy. This makes events more accessible to those with hearing loss or second language speakers with a high-quality service. Users can get a transcription of the event.
The company clients include conference organisers and students with hearing loss and they caption events all around the world in different time zones. All that is needed is an internet and audio connection to you.
- Free options for online events using MS Teams or Zoom
Service / Application Information MS Teams Allows users to produce live captions during meetings and generates a post-meeting transcript.听.听If recorded, a video of the meeting will then be saved to Microsoft Stream. So if you need to edit the captions afterwards, see the instructions above for Microsoft Stream. Zoom Allows users to听听during meetings, either manually or automatically. Post-meeting transcripts are available for users with the appropriate license.听.听If recorded, a video of the meeting will then be saved to Lecturecast. So if you need to edit the captions afterwards, see the instructions above for Lecturecast
Human created captions
Educational Media has been trialling various methods of captioning, most of these are AI services which offer both automatic captions and human created captions. We are working with UCL Procurement to evaluate and then provide reccommended suppliers for human created captions.
听External services for creating (almost) perfect captions
- External suppliers on MyFinance
Product URL Comments AI-Media "Perfect the accessibility of your recorded content with captions for recorded media. Recorded captions come from our deeply established position in the industry, informed by our in-house practice guidelines and standards, and our deep roots in accessibility."
Please note that this is not a DIY service.
Verbit: UCL has trialled听Verbit to offer users a "paid for" option within Mediacentral, this service offers the option of听'Human Created' which are 99% accurate听or ASR captions which will need editing. We are working alongside other UCL teams to provide Verbit services in other applications听upon request.听
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