ATLANTA—PBS has installed Nexidia QC with automatic caption retiming in its Media Operations Center. Nexidia QC is Nexidia's software tool for automating quality control of closed captions, video description, and languages for broadcast and IP workflows. PBS uses Nexidia QC to verify caption quality and automate caption alignment before distributing content to PBS member stations and over-the-top (OTT) providers, or before publishing it to the Web.
"Before Nexidia QC, OTT files had to be spot-checked for caption sync at the five-minute point of each program and then manually tweaked to adjust the errors — a process that resulted in overtime and lost productivity," said Stephan Scheel, senior director, PBS media operations. "Nexidia QC was the answer to a wide range of QC issues. It replaces almost all manual efforts while giving us confidence that the captions are the best we can make them — resulting in greater productivity and reduced costs."
PBS has integrated Nexidia QC into all of its existing automated file QC and preparation workflows. Nexidia QC works seamlessly within PBS' AmberFin UQC environment, which handles the overall QC process and through which all of PBS' program submissions pass several times at various stages. Nexidia QC also integrates with PBS' Telestream Vantage automation system, which submits jobs to AmberFin UQC and also triggers individual QC passes for products going to iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, and other OTT services.
The company said one of the reasons PBS chose Nexidia QC was because of its ability to quantify whether programs distributed to PBS member stations meets FCC captioning quality requirements. This leads to reduced delay time, according to Nexidia.
Another PBS goal is to ensure that clips used by the online interactive teams meet the same requirements as the broadcast and OTT content and do not suffer from missing captions due to editing. To that end, PBS' Digital group is further exploring Nexidia QC both to make sure the right caption file is associated with a given clip and to correct timing and accuracy for files already in the cloud.
