Subtitling and captioning are a great benefit for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences and are increasingly being used by second language learners and children. It has been proved that literacy levels improve with the use of subtitles, while ethnic minorities use subtitles to gain better access to information, improve their language skills and integrate faster in their countries of residence. Ethically and commercially it makes sense to include subtitles and/or captions on any DVD or home video release.
In Europe, the deaf and hard-of-hearing population is approximately 22 million, i.e. 1 in 7 people – and this percentage is expected to increase by 22% in the next 15 years. In the US this community already comprises 28 million. Obligatory captioning for broadcast has already reached 100% in the US, while subtitling and access issues in general are constantly brought to the forefront at the European Parliament. As a result, captions and teletext subtitles for the hard of hearing are increasingly broadcast in many countries, both in and outside the EU, even where no relevant legislation is in place yet.
For the hearing impaired and anyone in a noisy environment, captioning is essential to access news, entertainment and information. Closed captions can be hidden within normal television broadcasts, on videotape and DVDs. They are read by built-in decoders in all modern televisions and require an external decoder in older models. Caption files are especially constructed to transcribe all aspects of a programme’s audio content, including song lyrics, sound effects, music cues and character identification.
Having pioneered closed-captioning services in the 1970s, ECI’s American parent company, NCI, is a world leader in closed captioning, both off-line and real-time. Building on NCI’s experience, ECI’s dedicated team of captioners are trained in access issues, produce subtitles for the hard-of-hearing in several languages, as well as captions for cinema, DVD, home video and broadcast. We also provide captioning of live events using proprietary software, allowing you to project captions live for your audience to read.
We work in both PAL and NTSC formats and regularly undertake the entire process of creating closed-caption master tapes in both standard definition (SD) and HD. If you already have a designated encoding facility, we will create the caption file and deliver per their spec.