We are World Captioning Pioneers

Live Captioning

breaking news graphic from news show with closed captions

 

Real-time (live) captioning is the method of captioning in which captions are simultaneously prepared and transmitted at the time of origination by specially trained real-time captioners.

REAL-TIME CAPTIONING

  • Real-time captioning (also known as live closed captioning) of live programming was first introduced by NCI in 1982. 

  • NCI’s live production staff is comprised of the most experienced and highly trained captioners in the industry. Real-time Steno Captioners and Voice Writers each use a different method to produce first-class quality that is synonymous with NCI.

  • NCI’s Real-time captioning services makes your live programming accessible not only for broadcast television, but across all online platforms including Zoom, Adobe, Webex, ON24 among others.  

 
 

Prerecorded Captioning

Family watching prerecorded travel show with closed captions in living room

Prerecorded (Offline) Captioning is the preparation of captions for recorded programming so that, at the time of air or media playback, the captions are a part of the media.

NCI’s Prerecorded Captioning 

  • NCI's closed captioning services for prerecorded national television programs were launched in 1980 in cooperation with ABC, NBC, PBS and the federal government. 

  • NCI's Offline staff is a veteran team of highly experienced personnel with a thorough understanding of captioning policies, procedures, systems, and established styles.  These include, but are not limited to:

    • Closed Captioning

    • Open Captioning

    • Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH)

    • Encoding of captions and subtitles to various media. 

  • FCC guidelines require more and more internet-based, mobile technology, and Over-The-Top (OTT) content to be captioned, and NCI continues to meet the ever-changing needs of our client base. 

Footage courtesy of Sauce & Liver Productions, LLC

Benefits:

  • With captions, your video programming can reach a much larger audience.

  • Millions of Americans benefit from captioned programming, including one out of ten people who are deaf and hard of hearing, people learning English as a second language, children learning to read, and adults improving their language fluency.

  • Captions help people to engage with television and other media in noisy areas such as restaurants, airports, sports bars, and health and fitness clubs.

  • Web-based content, sitcoms, dramas, movies, children’s programming, music videos, and commercials are among the thousands of hours of prerecorded programming that NCI already captions each year. 

Why NCI? 

  • NCI offers the best prerecorded captioning quality and service. 

  • All NCI offline caption editors have bachelor’s degrees in English or a related field and undergo extensive training. Each possesses excellent grammar and research skills, honed over an average of 21 years of captioning experience

  • Our dedicated team quickly masters the nuances of your programming – such as specific style requests, character names and plot lines – to ensure consistent quality. 

  • Our human team of client services coordinators provides personalized service, taking your order and answering any questions. 

  • Our vast library of captioned programming can be reformatted at a lower cost and fast turnaround times.

  • NCI also provides offline Spanish captioning services, including bilingual captioning of English to Spanish and Spanish to English captions.

     

    What this means for you is confidence that the work will be done correctly and on time at a competitive cost, along with an increased viewing audience, whether they watch on their televisions, computers or smart phones.

 
 

Subtitling and Translation 

image of laptop keyboard

Subtitling and translation involve the transfer of foreign-language dialogue into captions or subtitles for prerecorded programming.

NCI’s Subtitling and Translation:

  • NCI's worldwide network provides experienced subtitling, from Spanish-to-English and English-to-Spanish subtitling, and translation services in many other languages. 

  • NCI also provides Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH) services, which convey additional audio elements normally associated with closed captions, such as sound effects.

Benefits:

  • Subtitling and translation provide filmmakers and programmers the means to reach a larger audience, beyond native speakers of the language in which their material was produced.

  • SDH provides deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers the means to enjoy programming that originated in a foreign language.

  • Watching programming with translated subtitles can aid in and enhance learning a foreign language.

  • Subtitles facilitate following content while also listening to alternate audio tracks, such as director commentary on a DVD.

Why NCI? 

  •  NCI’s 40 years of experience and state-of-the-art technology is backed up by its professional pool of highly trained native translators.

  • NCI’s superior attention to detail and dedication to accuracy ensure that viewers experience the full impact of each spoken word. 

 
 

Transcription

Hands on keyboard of laptop

Transcription services include the creation of verbatim transcripts of programming, lectures, events, meetings and other media, along with as-broadcast scripts (ABS) and dialogue continuity lists. 

NCI’s Transcription Services: 

  • Verbatim Transcripts provide word-for-word dialogue of prerecorded entertainment programming, business videos, and educational lectures and events, including translation into other languages. 

  • As-Broadcast Scripts (ABS) provide speaker identifications, dialogue and time code. 

  • Dialogue Continuity Lists include additional information as needed, such as sound effects, onscreen graphics and video description.  

Benefits: 

  • As-Broadcast Scripts aid entertainment and media producers by providing a reference for a variety of uses, including future reformatting and translating into other languages. 

  • Transcripts provide educators the means to widely share lectures and events, beyond in-person audiences.  

  • Transcripts benefit businesses and the government with the means to share meetings, training, and instruction system-wide. 

Why NCI?  

NCI offers the best  prerecorded captioning  quality and service, and we provide the same standard of excellence with our transcription solutions, tailoring transcripts and continuity lists to clients’ exact needs and specifications quickly and efficiently.  NCI Transcription Services include translation from English to Spanish and vice versa.   

 

 

 

Live Captioning Translation

television control room with multiple monitors

 

Audio Description

young girl standing in waves on beach.
 

What is Audio Description?    

Audio Description (also known as  Video Description) provides  equal access to television,  recorded video,  and film programming for people who are blind or have low vision.  Through a detailed process that provides concise yet vivid descriptions of a program’s visual elements  during pauses in the dialogue, NCI Audio Description helps people who are visually impaired to “paint a picture” in their minds of those images that others may take for granted. The descriptions are combined with the original sound track on the SAP (Secondary Audio Programming) channel of televised programming or as a separate sound track on other media. 

 


Spanish Captioning

Young family celebrating a goal watching soccer game on tv in living room