First Meeting of Technical Working Group on Captioning
and Video Description - Part One
By Cheryl Heppner
May 2009
Editor: You may have heard that the FCC recently established a
Technical Working Group to explore issues with captioning and video
description with digital TV technology. Here with a report on the first
meeting of that group is Cheryl Heppner from NVRC. You are welcome to
share this report, but please be sure to credit NVRC (See credit at the
end of the article.)
This is part one of two parts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday I attended the first meeting of the new Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) Technical Working Group which is to
conduct an assessment of closed captioning and video description technical
issues associated with the switch to digital television and recommend
solutions to any technical problems.
The Bottom Line
First the good news. The industry representatives were open, receptive
and often very engaged as we raised various captioning issues and
concerns, and the FCC staff was very helpful at moving things forward. As
a result of this meeting, the working group has set up four subcommittees
to address closed captioning areas:
1. Development of a form to diagnose captioning problems
2. Lessons learned from solving captioning problems and "unsolved
mysteries"
3. Consumer focus group (to look at information available and improvements
to make complex things simple)
4. The HD connection (HDMI, Blu-Ray, other consumer equipment) - finding
explanations for what is going on and coming back with potential solutions
In addition, there seemed to be consensus by the industry reps that
they wanted a database or other mechanism to share information with each
other to more easily troubleshoot captioning problems.
Co-Chairs of the working group are Catherine Seidel, head of the
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and Julius Knapp, Chief of the
Office of Engineering and Technology. Several other FCC staff also
attended to observe. The turnout by members named by the FCC to
participate in the working group was high; in fact I don't know any reps
who did not participate in person or by call-in. All three consumer
representatives were there - me representing NVRC , Karen Peltz Strauss
for the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee, and Eric Bridges for American
Council for the Blind. The industry representatives were a broad
cross-section of those who have a role in solving captioning and video
description challenges -- broadcast networks, cable companies, trade
organizations, captioning and video description providers, television and
consumer electronic equipment manufacturers, and captioning equipment
manufacturers.
The Opening Act
Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps gave remarks at the opening of the
working group meeting. He called the establishment of the working group "a
no brainer" and traced its impetus to numerous requests by the FCC's
Consumer Advisory Committee and consumer organizations. His presentation
was followed by words from Michael Jacobs of the Consumer and Governmental
Affairs Bureau, Cathy Seidel and Julius Knapp. They encouraged the
identification of issues and proposal of solutions, creation of a clearing
house for information, and an open process to diagnose problems.
DTV Help Center Report
Chris Soukup of CSD reported on the activities of the Digital TV Help
Center launched in February 2009 under a contract with the FCC to assist
deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind and speech-disabled consumers as well as
hearing relatives and friends of these consumers. The DTV Help Center
offers many ways to get help. Since opening, it has amassed these
statistics:
- Unique web visitors: 130,000
- On-the-ground outreach: 22,720
- CSD Electronic eNews: 12,592
- Outreach calls: 10,880
- Remote installations (English): 851
- Remote installations (Spanish): 74
- FaceBook Fans: 1,177
- MySpace Friends: 434
- Social Networks: 547
CSD's DTV Help Center has been documenting captioning issues and
capturing information such as whether those with problems use cable,
satellite or over-the-air broadcasts and what type of television is used.
The top complaints identified are:
1. Captions out of sync with the audio - 65%
2. Captioned text is garbled - 64%
3. Captions in the wrong place, mid-screen or cut off on sides - 46%
4. Captions overlapping or overwriting on each other - 40%
5. Captions jumping around screen or flashing on and off - 33%
6. Captions filling up the screen, not just 1-3 rows - 31%
In addition, 40% of consumers report that problems happen on individual
or occasional programs and 37% report problems happen on certain channels.
Here's part two
~~~~~
(c)2009 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of
Hearing Persons (NVRC), 3951 Pender Drive, Suite 130, Fairfax, VA 22030;
www.nvrc.org. 703-352-9055 V, 703-352-9056 TTY, 703-352-9058 Fax. You do
not need permission to share this information, but please be sure to
credit NVRC.
