ENCO Unveils Full Captioning Workflow Solutions at IBC
DoCaption ancillary data products extend ENCO’s reach as ENCO formally unveils its first closed caption encoder, plus new enCaption5 enhancements including Linux OS based platform
Novi, MI, September 14, 2023 – ENCO, the premier global provider of radio and TV software solutions, comes to IBC with its strongest value proposition for broadcasters seeking a one-stop captioning workflow for their broadcast and media content. Along with new enhancements to its AI-based enCaption5 automated live captioning and transcription solution, IBC marks the debut of ENCO’s new closed caption encoder, the first product born through ENCO’s July acquisition of DoCaption. The 1RU solution uses DoCaption’s proven existing architecture, fanless design and redundant power supplies to provide broadcasters with a cost-effective closed captioning encoder with modular options to support regional captioning and subtitling standards. The 1RU captioning encoder inserts captions into live broadcasts from any live captioning source via existing captioning standards through an IP or serial connection. It can also integrate directly with ENCO’s own enCaption automated captioning system for a complete turnkey solution.
ENCO will also demonstrate the existing DoCaption range of powerful, software-defined FPGA-based off- the-shelf ancillary data solutions for signal encoding, conversion, transcoding, and monitoring. ENCO exhibits at Stand 8.C73.
“The introduction of our new DoCaption hardware captioning encoder provides an immediate turnkey solution for customers that need to build or replace closed captioning infrastructure,” said Ken Frommert, President of ENCO. “In the bigger picture, this product represents the endless possibilities for developing new products, features and applications in collaboration with DoCaption’s engineering team.”
The DoCaption engineering team specializes in developing embedded, integrated hardware and software solutions. With all hardware developed in-house, ENCO and DoCaption engineers can freely develop complete solutions with future media workflow opportunities in mind. ENCO’s new DoCaption closed caption encoder is a prime example of how developers have built an integrated captioning workflow solution to encode and present ancillary data for North American captioning standards (CEA-608 and CTA-708, formerly EIA-708/CEA-708), European subtitling standards (EBUTeletext OP-42/OP-47/ST-2031) and South American captioning standards (ARIB B37). The same modular architecture can support additional ancillary data applications, including SCTE 104 metadata insertion and frame-accurate scoreboard data encoding/decoding.
enCaption Enhancements
ENCO has revamped its HTML5 browser front-end user interface for enCaption5, offering a responsive design that streamlines functionality for customers. The design includes enhancements such as Calendar View for scheduling captioning events in addition to the existing List View option.
ENCO has also updated the enCaption software platform to enable deployment on Linux operating systems. Deploying enCaption software on Linux provides users another option for those looking to standardize on a single operating system. Also deployable on Windows, enCaption5 can now offer flexible live or file-based captioning and transcription that can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid on-prem/cloud workflow. enCaption’s open API supports seamless integration with media asset management systems and third-party developers, even enabling white-label 3rd party services.
As of IBC, enCaption can create transcripts and add closed or open captions to both live and pre- recorded content in 48 languages. Other features new to IBC audiences include accuracy improvements of up to 20 percent and improvements to speaker detection for seamless captioning of program material with multiple speakers. Improved data formatting for phone numbers, measurements, websites, and email addresses also drives better caption readability.
IBC Debut for enTranslate on-premises
With support for 34 languages, enTranslate is now available fully on-premises or in the cloud. enTranslate combines advanced speech-to-text conversion, machine translation and grammatical structure analysis to deliver captions in multiple languages simultaneously. enTranslate includes unit conversion, such as metric to imperial measurements, with the conversions automatically performed based on source and target languages.
enTranslate can be used for all broadcast workflows, including TV, radio, OTT feeds, or offline. Users can embed translated captions in short and long-form VOD content, including podcasts. For live radio applications, enCaption creates speech data and sends it to ENCO’s enTranslate engine for translation.
IBC begins Friday and runs through Monday, September 18 at Amsterdam RAI.
About ENCO
Since 1983, ENCO has led the way in computer-based digital audio and program automation for radio and television. The award-winning product range spans automated broadcast and production workflows, featuring closed and open captioning, visual radio, audio compliance, instant media playout, remote contribution, cloud-based web streaming, and live audio/video playout. ENCO's turn-key captioning solution using DoCaption caption encoders offers on-premises, cloud, or hybrid captioning. The RUSHWORKS family of products presents production, streaming, and robotic pan/tilt head users with additional support under the ENCO brand. Expertise spans professional AV settings, such as conference rooms, lecture halls, sports arenas, event venues, municipalities, and houses of worship. For more information, please visit www.enco.com.
