Closed Captioning in Real Time

Marc Okrand

The line-21 captioning system was developed in the 1970s as a means of delivering hidden subtitles (closed captions) to hearing-impaired television viewers. A more recent development is the ability to generate captions in “real time” during live broadcasts, using experienced court reporters and a computer-aided translation system that converts shorthand code into captions almost instantaneously. More than 70 hours of nationally broadcast programming are captioned weekly with this technology. This article describes the creation and broadcast of captions in real time, including equipment, staffing, and procedures.

Print ISSN
Published
1991-06
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J01672