Following a request for a recommendation on Twitter for speech to text transcription options I waded in perhaps a little too eagerly before reading the context of the post request for recommendation for responding.

Transcription from audio for a text record and extracting text for uploading as caption are similar by not the same.

I immediately recommend Headliner. I love services that evolve and extend their usefulness. I first used Headliner to generate overlay audio waveforms to present podcasts for viewing when uploaded to video services.

Last year I worked on a spoken word project requiring captions to accentuate particular words and phrases. It was also audio and needed audio visualisation. I went to Headliner to generate a selection of waveforms, Headliner calls these audiograms, to demonstrate the options and discovered the transcription for captions feature.

After an exchange on Twitter with Headliner we scheduled a video call for me to share my Headliner experience.

Using the power of Calendly I had a great chat with Mike Sands from development at Headliner.

The generation of transcripts I’ll deal with tomorrow but for closed captions which is where headliner can facilitate and excel it’s a player in the field for affordable Rich featured captioning.

It also takes SRT file and can export SRT files. SRT are text format files that time code each line for a duration to appear on screen.

Here is an example of a few lines for an SRT file

00:00:47.769 --> 00:00:51.002

Potato? Potato?

00:00:52.584 --> 00:00:54.030

Potato?

00:00:54.409 --> 00:00:56.365

Potato?

00:00:58.498 --> 00:00:59.883

Oh, hello.

00:01:02.233 --> 00:01:04.216

You haven't seen a potato anywhere, have you?

00:01:06.389 --> 00:01:07.611

Potato?

00:01:08.381 --> 00:01:09.528

He ran off.

SRT buffering was my you could be the golden goose opportunity. Completed videos are provided from artists for live screening or on demand viewing. But… the festival may wish to insert a pre show bumper to brand the experience. That add time to the start of the video file and thereby changes the time code for the start of the captions. You can see this from the time stamps in the example from Shona Reppe’s Potato Needs a Bath digital experience - https://www.shonareppe.co.uk/potato-digital.html

For the 2021 SparkArts Festival a bumper lasting just under 47 seconds was inserted at the start. To off set the start of the captions was a trial by fire. every time code through the entire SRT file needs adjusting. The example shows less than a minute of the show in lasted 30 mins.

This conversation revealing this step in a process is an opportunity. I had to download and install sub shifter could Headliner keep me in the platform.

If you want to try out headliner hears a link for a free trial. After you can use the free features or pay for a month or for a year.