MAGpie 2

Editor: WGBH is announcing the availability of a beta version of MAGpie 2.0. MAGpie is their free captioning and audio description multimedia software. Anyone who produces videos can use MAGpie to add captioning and audio description for the blind. Here's the scoop from Mary Watkins of WGBH's Media Access Group. Additional information on WGBH, including contact information, is provided in the WGBH Listing in our Resource Directory.

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MAGpie 2.0 is now available!

Free, do-it-yourself caption- and description- authoring tool for digital multimedia developed by the CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM)

Boston, MA, May 7, 2002. A public beta version of the Media Access Generator (MAGpie), NCAM's free captioning and audio-description software for digital multimedia, is now ready for downloading and testing. Funding for MAGpie 2.0 is provided by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education, and the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF).

MAGpie is the ideal authoring environment for multimedia specialists, publishing companies or service providers who want to add captions, subtitles and audio descriptions to their work. However, others will also benefit from its use. Research performed by WGBH has demonstrated that caption authoring is a valuable classroom activity. Children who produce caption files for short video clips tend to write more, and their writing skills improve rapidly. MAGpie is friendly to those who are new to multimedia, educators and even to young users.

MAGpie 2.0 is Java-based. It will run on Windows 95, 98, NT4, 2000 and XP, and on Macintosh OS X. There is currently no support for earlier versions of the Mac OS.

You can download MAGpie 2.0 from the WGBH website. You will be asked to fill out a brief form, after which you will taken to the MAGpie 2.0 public beta Web site. Here you will find downloading and installation instructions, a complete MAGpie demonstration project containing captions and audio descriptions, documentation about using MAGpie 2.0, plus a list of new features, a list of known bugs and problems, and instructions for subscribing or unsubscribing to the MAGpie listserv. Please note: Screen reader support currently is incomplete. NCAM is working on this problem and will announce an update when a new version of the software is ready.

The Media Access Group at WGBH has offices in Boston, New York and Los Angeles, and includes DVS, which has made television, film and video more enjoyable to viewers who are blind or visually impaired since 1990, and The Caption Center- the world's first captioning agency- founded in 1972. The third branch of the Media Access Group, the CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media, is a research, development and advocacy entity that works to make existing and emerging technologies accessible to all audiences. Members of the Group's collective staff represent the leading resources and experts in their fields.