Link Electronics is partering with Aberdeen Broadcast Services to provide a real-time, dual stream translation and captioning service designed to be easier to use.
“Using advanced Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Automated Machine Translation (AMT), and AI, the service is fast and efficient, with low latency,” the announcement states. “Aberdeen measures contextual accuracy – not just word-for-word transcription, but how well the system understands meaning, speaker intent, and phrasing in real time. Through years of testing and refinement with human editors, Aberdeen’s ASR delivers over 98% contextual accuracy.”
A wide range of languages are available, and the service is accomplished over IP connections for ease and economy. In addition to embedding captions and translations, the cloud-based service can simultaneously send out real time translations with authentic voice dubs and captions to personal devices for in-person audiences. With 24/7 captioning support, this service is designed to be an affordable translation and captioning option for events like religious services, municipal meetings, school and university classes, corporate events, school board meetings, conferences, and other events.
How it works
The broadcast stream is sent through an SDI connection to a Link Orion caption encoder, which then relays the audio via an IP connection to the Aberdeen ASR cloud server. Using advanced AI with ASR and AMT technology, Aberdeen’s cloud server processes the audio to generate synchronized captions and translations in the primary and secondary languages, returning them to the Orion encoder over the same IP connection. The Orion then embeds the caption data back into the SDI stream with either open (burned in) captions or closed (encoded) captions. The combination of Aberdeen’s capability to push out a primary and secondary translation and captioning, combined with the Orion’s ability to receive them and encode them on CC1 and CC3 is designed to make the process seamless.
Aberdeen can also send real-time captions and translations to personal devices for in-person audiences. While the Link encoder handles embedding captions within the video stream, the real-time audio dubbing is powered separately through Aberdeen’s cloud server. Since the audio stream is already routed through Aberdeen’s ASR/AMT cloud for captioning and translation, those same translations can simultaneously generate natural voice dubs that are accessible to in-person or remote audiences on their personal or mobile devices (via browser or QR code). So, the same pipeline feeding the encoder for captions also powers browser-based subtitles or audio dubs without additional hardware or apps.
“Using the exact same workflow as using a live writer, ASR delivers high accuracy, and contextual awareness with significant savings,” the announcement continues. “Routing the audio stream through AMT produces real-time subtitles in multiple languages, natural sounding audio dubs with voice options for gender and tone, and synchronized playback that matches the tempo of the original speaker. Whether the user prefers to read or listen, they experience the content clearly, on their own device in their preferred language, in person or remotely, with no apps or log-ins.”
Aberdeen Broadcast Services can utilize various ASR engines to suit the project at hand. For example, if content is better suited for one engine due to its technical nature or language, that engine will be used. All engines can be “trained” with customized dictionaries of terms and names unique to an event, which significantly help with accuracy.
“Aberdeen has unique capabilities but we’re most impressed with their customer focus, which mirrors ours,” says Link Sales Manager Tricia Mcrae. “They listen to and respond to their customers. Whether customers are captioning frequently or sporadically, the Aberdeen team makes it easy for their customers. With 24/7 support provided by knowledgeable US-based personnel who know captioning, customers are assured of success with their captioning and translation projects.”
“After years of testing to ensure the technology delivers exceptional contextual accuracy, it’s exciting to be part of bringing automatic real-time captioning and translation to Link encoders,” says Ryan Houlton, Chief Marketing Technologist for Aberdeen Broadcast Services. “Link’s hardware is remarkably dependable and built with broadcasters in mind, which makes this integration seamless and ready for real-world use.”
For additional information on Link Electronics’ partnership with Aberdeen Broadcast Services visit Aberdeen Cloud Captioning • Link Electronics
