Whether you ’ve encountered its unmistakable white text on black background at the gym , in a legal profession , or on the couch , you ’re familiar with unsympathetic captioning . Here ’s a brief story of the technology that has put up a ( mostly accurate ) transcript of television programming for more than 40 years , and made its meshwork introduction 35 years ago .
TELEVISION CAPTIONING BEGINS WITH JULIA CHILD
The res publica ’s first captioning agency , the Caption Center , was founded in 1972 at the Boston public television system stationWGBH . The station introduce exposed television captioning to rebroadcasts ofThe French Chefwith Julia Child and began captioning rebroadcasts of ABC News program as well , in an effort to make goggle box more accessible to the one thousand thousand of Americans who are indifferent or laborious of hearing .
CLOSED CAPTIONING MAKES ITS DEBUT
Captions onThe French Chefwere viewable to everyone who watched , which was great for members of the deaf and heavy of hearing community , but jolly distracting for other viewers . So the Caption Center and its partners begin developing technology that would expose captions only for viewers with a certain gimmick .
" The organization , called ' closed captioning , ' uses a decoder that enable watcher to see the written negotiation or narration at the bottom of the screens,“ reportedTheNew York Timesin 1974 . " On set without the decipherer , the publish subject is invisible . “
The technology , which converts human - generated caption into electronic code that is inserted into a part of the television signal not normally learn , was refine through demonstrations and experiment funded in part by the Department of Health , Education and Welfare . In 1979 , the Federal Communications Commission formed theNational Captioning Institute ( NCI ) , a non-profit-making organization dedicate to promoting and provide access to close captioning . The first closed - captioned programs were send on March 16 , 1980 , by ABC , NBC , and PBS . CBS , which wanted to use its own captioning system called teletext , was the aim of protest before agree to join its electronic internet chum in using close captioning a few years afterwards .
CC AND THE LAW
In 1990 , a law of nature — theTelevision Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 — was passed mandate that all televisions 13 inches or larger manufacture for sale in the U.S. contain legend decoders . Sixteen eld subsequently , the FCC ruled that all broadcast and overseas telegram idiot box programs must let in captioning , with some exceptions . The exception include ads that run less than five hour and programs air between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. grant to captions.com , nearly all of the commercials that aired duringthis year ’s Super Bowl XLIXwere captioned ( the cost of caption a 30 - s spot is about $ 200 , which is just a fraction of the approximately $ 4 million it costs to bribe the ad space ) .
PRERECORDED VS. REAL-TIME CAPTIONING
Real - time captioning , which was introduced in 1982 , provides a means for the deaf and hard of hearing community to enjoy live insistence conferences , local tidings , and sporting events on television as they pass off . Real - time captioning is typically done by court newsperson or likewise trained master who can type accurately at speed of up to 250 words per minute . While captioners for prerecord program typically use stock keyboards , a real - time captioner require a steno machine .
HOW A STENO MACHINE WORKS
A steno machine arrest 22 key and utilise a code base on phonetics for every Good Book , enable skilled shorthand typist to occasionally reach typing speed of more than 300 countersign per minute of arc . Words and phrases may be capture by pressing multiple key fruit at the same time , and with deviate force-out , a process known as harmonise . literal - time captioners , or stenocaptioners , regularly update their phonetic dictionaries , which transform their phonetic code into words that are then encode into the video recording sign to take form closed caption .
REAL-TIME CAPTIONING ISN’T EASY
For live newscast , closed captioners often receive the hand that appears on the teleprompter in procession , but not every anchor follows this playscript as religiously as Ron Burgundy . Whereas court newsman by and large are n’t concerned with linguistic context and can clean up the first draught of their transcript at a later time , setting matters for real - time captioners , who have one shot to accurately commemorate what is being said . Given the speeding at which they ferment , homonym can prove especially difficult for stenocaptioners , as can unfamiliar or unusual names .
According to Jeff Hutchins , a co - beginner of VITAC , one of the nation ’s leading captioning company , there ’s more to being a closed captioner than knowing how to type . " There ’s a certain pathology to the process that we recognize,“he toldTheNew York Timesin 2000 . " A young lady will issue forth in here , pretty good royal court reporter , very positive about her abilities , excited that she ’s going to get into captioning , and she will start the breeding procedure very fired up , frantic . in general we sleep with that in two to four week that she is go to be walking around with hunched shoulders , totally dejected , feel like , ' I ’ll never get this . ‘“
Stenocaptioners can make more than $ 100,000 a year , but the work is nerve-racking . In 2007 , Kathy DiLorezno , former president of the National Court Reporters Association , told thePittsburgh Post - Gazettethat the occupation is kindred to " writing defenseless , because a million people are reading your words . You ca n’t make a mistake . “
MISTAKES HAPPEN
While a faulty decoder or poor signal can produce captioning errors , more often than not they are the result of human fault , particularly during live computer programing . Though stenocaptioners prepare for broadcasts by updating their phonic lexicon with phonetic symbolization for name and places that they anticipate to hear , even the most inclined and accurate stenocaptioner can make a fault from time to time . For instance , all it takes is a single incorrect keystroke to typewrite the phonetic codes for two completely different countersign . fault are n’t limited to words , either . In 2005,American Idoldisplayed the wrong phone numberto balloting for contestants in the closed captioning of its broadcast . Media companies are experimenting with automatic computer error - correcting feature film , spokesperson - to - schoolbook technology , and innovative way to provide subtitle for multimedia on the net . Though captioning cover to become tatty , faster , and more prevalent than it is today , the occasional mistake will likely always stay .
This stake originally appeared in 2009 .
