Video: Captioning in 2021: What a city settlement this spring means for captioning this summer!

In March 2021, a major US City we’ve been hearing news from all year settled a lawsuit that required them to add professional human captioning to the fully AI captioning workflow they had added in 2020. This lawsuit was related a massive news story that we ALL know about, but because of the more newsworthy elements of that story, VERY FEW of us know about the smaller story of the city being required to add human captioning to the newly purchased AI workflow. Nonetheless, this precedent should change the plans of all stations which were previously spec’ing solutions that could ONLY support AI. To be clear, due to this settlement, ALL cities and PEG operations now need to consider the risks and costs related to building a system that can accommodate a demand for human captioning if a complaint occurs and it is then IMMEDIATELY required. One of the biggest problems that can befall your station or city in 2021 is an ADA complaint, whether it is informal (lucky you! you can solve the problem for just the cost of immediate implementation) or an actual, formal ADA complaint (aw dang! now you have to pay lawyers, which often costs more than the solution you are still forced to implement). The second half of the session will outline a “2021 Smart Captioning Plan”, which combines one of SIX options for AI captioning with hardware that can also immediately accommodate human captioners. Attendees who follow the steps in the 2021 Smart Captioning Plan” can have the cost benefits of AI captioning without the risk of having to completely rebuild with new hardware the moment the first complaint is received.

Daniell Krawczyk is a 20-year, Public Access NERD, with PEG time served at Grand Rapids, MI and Lowell, MA, and over a decade working at PEG-focused companies: PSG/TelVue, LiveU, and Tightrope. Four years ago he saw the need for unbiased help comparing all of the captioning options that cities might need to solve accessibility requirements and he founded Municipal Captioning Inc as a specialty consulting and integration firm which quotes every available commercial solution, human and AI. Like a multibrand car showroom which has everything from luxury cars brands to economy car brands, we can let you test drive and compare all of the price points and provide discounted pricing for all configurations (24/7 to Pay by the Hour). In addition to focusing on helping cities and counties with captioning, Daniell is spending 2021 celebrating the 50th birthday of Public Access TV (1971-2021).