Live Text Access. Training for real time intralingual subtitlers.
Unit 6 - Velotyping. Introduction.
This video lecture has been created by SSML and Velotype.
Hello and welcome to this unit.
I am Wim Gerbecks, owner of the Velotype company
and intralingual real time subtitler for television
and for the deaf and Hard of Hearing.
This introduction is aimed at introducing you
with some of the topics that we are going to deal with
in the different elements that compose it.
I will first define Velotyping.
Then we will have a look into the product and process of Velotyping.
And finally I will introduce the skills of the velotypist.
The agenda.
Section 1 – Definition.
As you may already know, velotyping is a technique
by which it is possible to produce real-time intralingual subtitles
as we call them.
While I am sure you have already seen live subtitles in your life
or here in the different training materials of the LTA project
you may not know the details of the products and the processes.
Let’s start by defining velotyping.
Velotyping is a fast-writing technique
that allows to produce real-time subtitles by means of a Velotype keyboard.
To do so, the velotypist listens to the speaker
and simultaneously presses a combination of keys
instead of single keys
to more rapidly produce the words of a transcript
a reformulation or a translation of the same speech
that can be read by the HoH/deaf or foreign audience in real time.
This old picture shows how live subtitling with Velotype was done
many years ago at NOS in the Netherlands.
Section 2 – How does Velotype work?
Here you see how the keys of the Velotype are divided
among the fingers of the hand.
As you can see, the thumb
which is the most flexible finger of the hand
also plays an important role.
And even the mouse of the hands are being used for the big purple keys
On the left side of the keyboard
the initial consonants of a syllable or word are being produced.
In the middle the vowels
and on the righthand side the final consonants.
The big NoSpace key on the right
is being used for connecting syllables together.
This way on average 3 characters are produced with every chord of keys.
Section 3. The products of Velotyping.
Velotyping can be used to produce
TV subtitles, conference subtitles or Speech-to-Text Interpreting
parliamentary subtitles, and personalised access to any type of speech event.
This is an example of TV live subtitling.
In this case also with a sign language interpreter.
This is an example of conference subtitling, or Speech-to-Text Interpreting.
This is an example of parliamentary subtitling
not to be confused with parliamentary reporting
which is the transcript of what is said by MPs for a future access.
This is an example of personal access to daily events.
In this case two hard-of-hearing participants attend a meeting thanks to a live transcript.
This is another example of personalised everyday access to a daily event.
In this case an Italian deaf student is attending an English class.
The teacher speaks English and Italian alternatively.
Section 4 – the process of velotyping.
One other thing that you may not know
is that there are different types of approaches and workflows
involving Velotyping that we will see along the module.
In TV subtitling, the whole process between the speaker speaking
and the audience reading the subtitles consists of 5 steps
as you can see from this table.
In particular, the first step is the speaker speaking
which is not that banal as it may seem.
Because depending on who speaks the source text and how
several approaches depend.
Then the audio text is broadcast.
Step 2.
Here again broadcasting has an influence on the final product
because depending on when and where the video to be subtitled is broadcast
subtitles will be more or less delayed.
We will see this later in the module.
The third step is the velotypist listening to the video to subtitle
and trying to understand what the speaker says.
The fourth step is the velotypist repeating, reformulating
or translating what the speaker has said by typing a repetition
reformulation or translation on the fantastic keyboard called Velotype.
Step number five, the subtitles are finally sent on air
and the audience can read them with a delay that ranges between 1 to 6 seconds
depending on the workflow.
To facilitate its understanding we have divided these 5 steps into 3 groups
which we will call “texts”.
The first three steps can be grouped together and referred to as the Source Text.
The 4th step can be referred to as the Mid Text.
The last step can be referred to as the Target Text.
Section 5 – The skills of the velotypist.
As you have seen a velotypist has to do many things at the same time.
In this slide I sum up the four main macro-areas
systematising the skills a velotypist has to possess.
A velotypist has to possess psycho cognitive skills
metalinguistic skills, typing skills and editing skills.
In this Unit we will deal with all these skills.
The summary.
I hope this first video lecture on Velotyping was a good start.
We have seen what Velotyping is and some of the products and processes
of real-time intralingual subtitling through Velotyping.
Finally, I have introduced the skills of the velotypist
which will be dealt with into more details in the five elements of this unit.
See you soon.