Nexidia has launched Nexidia QC, a software tool for automated closed caption and video description verification, closed caption alignment, and language identification for broadcast and IP workflows. Nexidia QC is designed to overcome the challenge of ensuring content is being created, edited, and distributed in the right languages with the correct captions at the right times. It automates manual processes, thus reducing operating expenses, and automatically identifies errors to avoid fines and improve quality for viewers.
- "The digital assets broadcasters work with are becoming more and more complex, especially on an international level, where an asset might have mezzanine files for 20 different languages," said Drew Lanham, senior vice president and general manager of Nexidia's Media and Entertainment division. "Language and caption quality impacts the entire delivery chain.“
- Nexidia QC verifies quality automatically to ensure that the right caption file appears against the right media in the right language, and that it is properly timed from ingest to playout and beyond.
- In order to verify the video description, Nexidia QC analyzes the program audio and the secondary audio program (SAP). The software compares the program audio tracks against one another, identifying all segments in which the audio is not identical and returning a video description coverage score. It also identifies the primary spoken language of the program audio and the SAP.
- To check for closed caption compliance, Nexidia QC starts by identifying the primary spoken language of the program audio and the caption text. If the languages match, the application verifies that the caption text matches the program audio and whether the caption timing is correct. Nexidia QC determines the level of caption coverage for the program based on the difference between the segments with accurate caption information and the voice activity, and returns the closed caption coverage score.
- In addition to checking closed caption accuracy, Nexidia QC can repair misaligned caption files. Nexidia QC compares the time codes of the words spoken in the audio track to the time codes in the caption file. Adjustments are made to the time codes in the caption file so that the captions are aligned with the spoken words, returning a new caption file ready for distribution.
- Nexidia QC will be demonstrated at the 2013 NAB Show in booth S117LMR.
