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How will chat engines help the process of subtitling in the future?

 

Subtitling is an essential aspect of video production, and it is crucial to get it right to ensure that viewers can understand the content fully. However, subtitling can be a time-consuming and often challenging process, especially when dealing with foreign language content or intricate technical jargon. This is where chat engines come in handy.

Chat engines are advanced computer programs that can analyze text and understand the context and nuances of language. They can be used to automatically generate subtitles for videos, making the subtitling process more efficient and accurate.

One of the most significant benefits of using chat engines for subtitling is the speed at which they can produce subtitles. Traditional subtitling methods often require a human to manually transcribe the spoken dialogue, which can take hours or even days. However, chat engines can generate subtitles in real-time, significantly reducing the time and effort required to create subtitles.

Furthermore, chat engines can also help to improve the accuracy of subtitles. As they analyze text and understand the context, chat engines can accurately translate foreign language dialogue, even if it contains idioms or colloquialisms that might be challenging for a human translator to understand.

Another benefit of using chat engines for subtitling is the potential cost savings. Traditional subtitling methods can be expensive, especially if you need to hire professional translators or transcriptionists. Chat engines, on the other hand, are cost-effective and can be integrated into your existing subtitling workflow, saving you time and money.

Of course, chat engines are not without their limitations. They may struggle with complex technical terms or names that are not in their database, and there is always the risk of errors or inaccuracies. However, these limitations can be minimized by using chat engines in combination with human oversight, which can catch any mistakes and ensure that the subtitles are accurate.

In conclusion, chat engines are a powerful tool that can help to streamline the subtitling process, improve accuracy, and reduce costs. As video content becomes more prevalent, the demand for subtitling will continue to grow, and chat engines will undoubtedly play a significant role in meeting this demand.

This opinion was produced by ChatGPT in answer to the question; Write an opinion piece on the question: ‘How will chat engines help the process of subtitling in the future?’ Is it accurate, or is it just regurgitated marketing speak?

The team at Yella Umbrella have been experimenting with real world problems that Chat Engines could help solve for professional subtitlers. The first of these was the task of text summarisation.

You’ve just translated an English template into German and some of the reading speeds are too long due to those pesky longer German words. So now you need to rephrase the German to say the same thing in the time available, as set by the original dialog timing and the reading speed rules you need to meet. Traditionally this was a task for a skilled translator, maybe now chat engines could help out?

We interfaced ChatGPT to Stellar and provided a Rephrase option. When asked to rephrase a subtitle in a set number of characters the Chat Engine responds with a shorter text that should match the timing constraints.   So how well did it work?

 

English

German (Google Translate)

Rephrased German (Chat-GPT)

 

The original German translation was over length by several characters, when asked for a shorter version ChatGPT  came back with a reasonable alternative which roughly translates as ‘Come back next year, audience guaranteed!’

 

While this is still very much an experiment we could see a workflow with alternative, sorter, translations provided when the initial translation is over length.

Would you use these new AI tools to speed up your work, or do you see them as a distraction?

We will be showing these new ideas, along with all of the Nebula and Stellar tools, at NAB in Las Vegas from 15th to 19th April on stand N2562M.

Let us know your thought and ideas on other ways these new AI services could help you.

 

Come and hear them at NAB or Contact Us to arrange an online demonstration.

From Mr. Neb and
everyone at Yella Umbrella.

NAB 2023 – N2562N

 

 

Microsoft Azure and IBM Watson Voices added to Stellar

 

 

Yella Umbrella announces the addition of Microsoft and IBM computer voices to the Stellar Timed text and audio tools. Microsoft and IBM bring an additional 440+ voices in 140 languages or dialects to the existing 400+ voices from Amazon, Google, Acapela and Cereproc.

The continued improvement in the quality and controllability of computer generated (synthetic) voices over the last few years has been astonishing. It is now possible to control the style, speed and pitch of synthetic voices, and, in some cases, to have detailed control over prosody and intonation.

Synthetic voices can now be used for audio description, spoken subtitles and in some cases voice-overs and dubbing applications.

Yella Umbrella are committed to providing the best tools for media localization and access services.

 

Come and hear them at IBC or Contact Us to arrange an online demonstration.

 

From Mr. Neb and
everyone at Yella Umbrella.

IBC 2022 – Pods P01 & P02 – in the walkway between Halls 7 & 8

 

 

Cloud based Task Management System added to Stellar

 

Yella Umbrella will be demonstrating the new cloud based Task Manager as part of their Stellar toolset. Used in conjunction with the Stellar timed text and audio tools, the Task Manager provides the delivery, assignment, security and tracking of subtitling, audio description, voice over and dubbing Tasks.

Create a Task, with video, audio, text files and instructions and assign it to any user of the Stellar software, anywhere in the world. Task Manager support high level digital encryption (DRM) second factor authentication (SMS or email) and customised media spoiling.

Task Manager can track the progress on any task by any user, and all work done is synchronised to cloud storage, in real time.

Centralising the storage, distribution and tracking of all Tasks leads to significant time saving and cost reductions. No more emailing files or use of file delivery software. Automatic media ingest and upload options available to further speed up the process of starting a new Task.

Task Manager can be provided either as a shared cloud system from Yella Umbrella or as a private cloud system for larger customers.

More Information Here.

Come and have a look at IBC or Contact Us to arrange an online demonstration.

 

From Mr. Neb and
everyone at Yella Umbrella.

 

 

Release of Stellar Automatic Subtitle Alignment

 

With so much media moving from a broadcast environment on to streaming service there is a huge challenge to repurpose subtitles originally created for broadcast to forms suitable for a streaming platform. Often the video has been edited to remove ad-breaks or to add or remove colour bars, slates, headers or bumpers. Any change in the video run length or timing requires a matching edit in the associated subtitle files, of which there may be many different language versions. This process is known as Conforming.

As well as subtitle file format conversion Stellar from Yella Umbrella now provides automated realigning (conforming) of the subtitle file to match the new, edited, video. Using Speech to Text web services from Amazon and others, Stellar realigns the subtitles to match the dialog detected in the new video edit. Subtitles can be moved or deleted, any edits that can’t be done automatically will flag as errors.

When moving a complete archive from broadcast to streaming there can be tens or hundreds of thousands of subtitle files to conform. Stellar greatly speeds up the process so reducing costs and improving productivity.

Contact Us to arrange an online demonstration.

 

From Mr. Neb and
everyone at Yella Umbrella.

 

 

Release of Stellar Auto Gap Detection for AD Scripting

 

One of the challenges when writing Audio Description scripts for a program is finding the gaps in the dialog, into which audio descriptions can be inserted. In some genres this can be a real challenge as there are few gaps and a lot of dialog.

Historically the script writer would have to work through the program listening to the program and inserting descriptions where there is space and working out how much description can fit into the available gap.

Yella Umbrella have added a new Gap Detection function to their Stellar timed text and audio tool set. Auto Gap Detection uses web based Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to detect the program dialog, find the gaps and create empty text boxes on the timeline, ready for the script writer.

The script writer can then work through each text box in turn knowing the position and the amount of time available. As the script is written Stellar indicates the word count available at the speaking speed (words per minute) that is required by the client. This helps work out the best description that will fit into the time available.

Stellar also provides all the tools for a voice artist to record the descriptions, or to use a wide range of Synthetic Voices to create the description audio. The resulting audio track can then be delivered as an audio track, mixed with the program audio or video or as a Pro Tools project file.

 

 

Contact Us to arrange an online demonstration.

 

From Mr. Neb and
everyone at Yella Umbrella.

 

 

Release of Stellar V6.0

On Sunday 7th August, Yella Umbrella released Stellar V6.0,  a major update for our Stellar AD, Dubbing and  Subtitle Timed Text editing tool.

 

We have added a range of new features for subtitling authoring, translation and QC to Stellar. These changes make Stellar a web based subtitling tool with all the feature of existing PC and Mac subtitling applications – and more.

Use Stellar to create subtitle files from scratch or convert existing files from all formats. Use Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) tools to speed up the authoring process, choose from all the major ASR suppliers in a wide range of languages. Translate subtitles with the option of machine translation assistance.

Check and QC subtitle files using an advanced Rules engine built into Stellar. Speed up the QC process with advanced autocorrection tools for a range of common errors.
Define the file requirements Profile in detail and share these with your users via a central store. Profiles allow you to define all the style and QC rules for a client and have all your users work with the same rules, automatically.
Use new Layouts and hotkey maps to customise the look and operation of Stellar so your users can have the familiarity of their current subtitling software, but with all the benefits of the latest web based tools. Improve productivity and reduce retraining time.

See more on how the changes may effect you Here.

For a full list of the changes see the Version History

All the new features are covered in the Help Manual.

 

Contact Us to arrange an online demonstration.

 

From Mr. Neb and
everyone at Yella Umbrella.

 

Yella Umbrella have added new Speech-to-Text services to Stellar.  The AD, Dubbing, Subtitle and Timed Text editing tool that runs in a browser.  Yella Umbrella have just updated Stellar to support automatic speech to text (also known as Automatic Speech Recognition or ASR) services from Amazon, Google and Speechmatics. These are in addition to the existing services from Apptek and Rev.ai. Language support has increased to 63 languages plus 13 dialects of English making automated speech to text a realistic option in most regions. With accuracy rates reaching 90+ % on clear dialog, ASR is a realistic productivity tool in many localisation and access service workflows. As well as being used for directly generating draft subtitle or script files ASR, can be used in more imaginative ways. Stellar now supports automatic gap detection (finding gaps between dialog) to speed up the process of writing Audio Description scripts. All ASR services produce subtitle files using either their own on Stellar’s subtitle splitting algorithms. From 24th November all current users will have access to these new services. See here for pricing information: Full details on this and all the other changes can be found Here.   Keep safe From Mr. Neb and everyone at Yella Umbrella.