Novi, MI, October 8,2024 –ENCO formally debuts its first closed caption encoder this week at NAB New York, advancing ENCO’s leadership position as the broadcast industry’s first company to build a native solution across the entire closed captioning workflow. The homegrown DoCaption EN848 is now shipping and available separately or as part of ENCO’s award-winning enCaption system, giving customers an immediate on-prem or cloud option for fast, automated conversion and delivery of captions and translations.
TheEN848’s availability provides broadcasters with the opportunity to deploy the system over the IP network, with connectivity to enCaption for cloud-based captioning services such as those offered by ENCO’s partner VITAC. The EN848’s dual connectivity options also allow broadcasters to deploy redundant captioning workflows with immediate fail over from cloud to on-prem should the network temporarily go dark. ENCO will demonstrate the core functions and deployment options for the EN848 on Wednesday and Thursday at the Javits Center in New York City, where ENCO exhibits at Booth 907.
TheEN848’s core function is to reliably insert closed captions coming from any source downstream in compliance with global captioning standards. Long the industry’s leading voice for captioning software, the EN848 now positions ENCO directly upstream to bring the industry a truly native solution. ENCO has therefore paired the exceptional speed and accuracy of enCaption’s automated conversions with a reliable 1RU solution that keeps broadcasters in compliance as captions go live to air. The EN848 conforms to a broad range of closed captioning specifications, including the encoding and insertion ofCEA-608/CEA-708, and Teletext/OP47 ancillary data for standardized and legacy communication protocols.
TheEN848 is a direct result of ENCO’s 2023 acquisition of DoCaption, a genuinely strategic move that brought DoCaption’s engineering talent and proven ancillary data technology in house. The now singular ENCO engineering team developed theEN848 in collaboration, emerging with a software-defined, FPGA-based ultra-low latency SDI captions encoder and inserter that can be powered by human or advanced speech recognition (ASR) sources both on-prem and in the cloud. For on-prem workflows, the EN848 offers a specially engineered server to process ASR sources from enCaption systems.
“While compliance and reliability remain the core function of the closed caption encoder, the EN848 was developed with bigger aspirations in mind. The EN848 was purpose-built to natively pair with enCaption, removing the need for a third-party device and offer broadcasters a single source of support,” said Ken Frommert, President, ENCO. “We have updated DoCaption’s proven technology and packaged it into a turnkey 1RU solution that broadcasters can deploy in flexible ways that optimize redundancy, and quality and provide direct access to cloud services from companies such as VITAC.”
About ENCO
Founded in 1983, ENCO pioneered the use of computer-based, digital audio and program automation for radio stations and TV studios. The company has since evolved its award-winning product line to span all aspects of today’s automated broadcast and production workflows,including closed and open captioning, AI production tool sets, live virtual production, visual radio, audio compliance, instant media playout, remote contribution, and cloud-based web streaming. It also brings the benefits of its patented captioning and live audio/video playout innovations to professional AV environments including conference rooms, lecture halls, sporting arenas and event venues. For more information, please visit: www.enco.com.
