[Athen] DocSoft

Sean J Keegan skeegan at stanford.edu
Wed Feb 18 21:45:47 PST 2015


Hi Marcie,

Sorry to hear about your negative weather temps - we have been in the mid-70s this week. Of course, being February, this is not necessarily a good thing...(send rain west!)

We have used a DocSoft:AV appliance as a backend solution for our captioning platform, but only for synchronizing transcription files. We have a separate server that handles accounts, a web interface, business logic, etc. The idea was to make it simple for people who did not know much about captioning. Users would upload a video, select a transcriber, and hit "Go." A transcription company would then create a text file and upload this back into our captioning platform. At that point, we used the DocSoft:AV appliance to synchronize the text file with the audio content of the video.

Overall, I would say this has worked well and the system saw good use. A challenge, though, is that our front-end system now requires a major upgrade to keep pace with new formats and use cases (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, etc.). Given the price points of external captioning vendors, it doesn't make much sense for us to keep the system in its current incarnation. When we first started, a 1 or 2 business day turnaround was anywhere from $3-$5 per minute; prices are much cheaper now. Additionally, many users now find YouTube to be a preferred platform to distribute video content.

I am in the process of revising how we are using the system and I think we may move to a model that Greg outlined in which users can upload audio and obtain back a transcript file for further editing (particularly if a profile has been trained). At this time, we also provide the option for users to upload an accurate transcript and video to obtain back a synchronized text file and we want to continue this solution. That said, I have to evaluate if there is sufficient volume to justify the full cost compared to using external vendors.

To answer your questions more directly:


> Who “handles” this service? (I.e. Does your disability services office

> manage the DocSoft portal, or does IT?)

We managed the service internally as this was a project using gift funds. However, the system was designed to run independently and users were billed directly by the transcription vendors, so I (mainly) just made sure the servers were running and resolved any complaints due to turnaround delays.



> Who is editing the transcripts?

We did not rely on the transcripts produced by the DocSoft:AV appliance. We used external vendors to create transcripts. The DocSoft:AV system was used for synchronization purposes. For transcripts produced by the DocSoft:AV system, the users fixed those.


> Is there ever a time when you outsource? If so, what is the reason (I.e.

> Video is 30 minutes or 1 hour)

My opinion is that for content that is over 30 minutes and/or needed immediately, then it may be better to outsource. That said, it also depends on the speaker's speech profile (e.g., has a thick accent, talks too fast, does not enunciate, etc.), if a speaker profile was created, the original audio quality (i.e., was it recorded with a lapel microphone), and so on.


My opinion - I do think there can be a model for the appliance to support a captioning program. However, that does require some centralization of captioning within the campus and, I believe, that depends on your institutional culture.


Take care,
Sean



----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Kraus" <greg_kraus at ncsu.edu>
To: "Access Technology Higher Education Network" <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 7:14:02 AM
Subject: Re: [Athen] DocSoft

We have Docsoft and have been using them for a couple of years, but
only in specific contexts. Docsoft does not do a good job of
converting speech to text. You can set up user profiles and train
those profiles, but at the end of the day the translation will be
substandard and generally unacceptable for use.

Docsoft does do a good job of synchronizing an existing transcript
with a video, so if you can provide an accurate transcript, it can
give you back a caption file with the time stamps in there.

Another issue to consider is how much will you spend on the
maintenance costs for DocSoft versus how much would you spend if you
outsourced the synchronization part of caption creation. Syncing
captions costs roughly $1.00/minute. If you don't send enough work
through DocSoft to make the synchronization a cost savings, is it
worth keeping the maintenance agreement?

Greg
--
Greg Kraus
University IT Accessibility Coordinator
NC State University
919.513.4087
gdkraus at ncsu.edu
http://go.ncsu.edu/itaccess

On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 10:03 AM, Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker)
<hunziker at email.arizona.edu> wrote:

> Hi all,

>

> Great questions Marcie... We are looking at various solutions as well. So,

> please reply to the list - thanks!

>

> Dawn

>

> ~~

> Dawn Hunziker

>

>

> On Feb 18, 2015, at 7:16 AM, Dimac, Marcie <mdimac at kent.edu> wrote:

>

> Morning y’all!

>

> It was –7 here yesterday, yes that is a negative sign. Brrrr.

>

> I would like to put a feeler out there for all folks who are currently using

> DocSoft captioning services for any of their captioning needs. A little

> background:

>

> We own a license to DocSoft (have for years) but have never actually put it

> to use. I’d like to get some information on how other Universities are

> implementing DocSoft campus-wide.

>

> I attended ATHEN and got some great info there – but am also looking if

> anyone can share the following info:

>

> Who “handles” this service? (I.e. Does your disability services office

> manage the DocSoft portal, or does IT?)

> Who is editing the transcripts?

> Is there a particular workflow that has worked for you that you would be

> willing to share?

> Is there ever a time when you outsource? If so, what is the reason (I.e.

> Video is 30 minutes or 1 hour)

> Any other information that you think might be helpful for me as we try to

> get some traction on this initiative!

>

>

> Thanks, stay warm!!!!

>

>

> Marcie Dimač, M.A. Ed.

>

> Coordinator, Assistive Technology

> Student Accessibility Services

> Kent State University

> Ground Floor, Rm. 23

> DeWeese Center

> P.O. Box 5190

> Kent, Ohio 44242

>

> Phone: 330-672-3391

> Fax: 330-672-3763

> Email: mdimac at kent.edu

>

> www.kent.edu/sas

>

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