[LTA intro music]
LiveTextAccess.
Training for real-time intralingual subtitlers.
This is Unit 1. Understanding accessibility.
Element 3. Embedding accessibility in working environments.
In this video lecture, we show a testimonial by Veerle Haverhals,
a real-time intralingual subtitler from Belgium,
about how to prepare yourself
for an online job assignment.
My name is Piero Cavallo
from the Internationale Hochschule SDI München, in Germany.
I have prepared this video lecture
in collaboration with Rocío Bernabé Caro, also from SDI München,
and the European Federation of Hard of Hearing, in short, EFHOH.
On completion of the training sequence, you will be able to advise customers
about how to best set up
an accessible real-time working environment
for persons with hearing loss
in the trained working contexts and settings.
To achieve that,
we will show testimonials and interviews of professionals.
The agenda is very short.
First, I am going to introduce our invited speaker, Veerle Haverhals.
Then, I will illustrate the topics of the video.
Finally, we will end this video lecture with a summary.
First of all, let me introduce you Veerle Haverhals.
Veerle Haverhals is a real-time subtitler from Belgium.
She works for the Belgium broadcaster VTM Nieuws.
She uses respeaking to provide real-time subtitles.
Let me give you some information before watching the video.
In this testimonial,
Veerle will explain how to best prepare for an online assignment.
The preparation can differ according to the additional information
that the real-time subtitler has.
Then, Veerle will highlight the differences
between an online and an on-site assignment.
Ok, let’s watch the video now!
Hello, everyone.
Welcome to this overview about how to start a respeaking assignment
using speech-to-text technology, in this case, Dragon,
when you are working remotely.
My name is Veerle Haverhals.
I'm a full-time respeaker
for the Belgium private television company VTM Nieuws,
DPG Media, and freelancer on top of that,
in the wonderful world of live subtitling.
Recently, I've worked with the University of Antwerp
to develop the ILSA course.
When I work remotely,
I basically have two different situations:
the job with a lot of information and preparation time,
and specific technical settings,
or the job without any information and basic technical settings.
For the job without any additional information,
the start-up is rather easy.
I would set up my own computer, a laptop in my case,
and add an extra keyboard and mouse, to work in the most easy way.
Normally, I would add a second laptop
so I can make a different connection to get into the meeting or conference
I would have to subtitle remotely.
In this way, I'm sure to have my full-screen of my own device
to correct my subtitles and to keep a good overview.
But this is not always necessary, of course.
It depends also on the technical settings.
For a job without any additional information,
I would go screen my mails I received prior to the assignment:
names, if there is a website, or the potential name of the event.
And I would make a list of all the names of participants I can find,
and indicate all the potential speakers.
All those names, I put them into Dragon and I would train them separately.
This to make sure [that]
I can have all the names and family names in an easy way,
written correctly, with a speech command, when needed.
Depending on the technical agreement, I would dial in as agreed with the team,
mostly 15 minutes before starting.
During those 15 minutes, we will do a quick check of the subtitles,
and I would quickly test my Dragon input again.
I would also make use of those 15 minutes of time,
if possible for the team on the other side,
to ask for any additional data or information.
If there is none,
15 minutes later, I just jump into the conference or meeting.
In those conferences and meetings,
I would always be very much looking at the presentation screen,
to make sure I capture all the titles and abbreviations in the correct way.
And, as a lot of information was not available before starting,
you will have to go with the flow and do your best.
Working remotely, but with a lot of information:
at least one day before starting,
I would check all the PowerPoint presentations for additional notes,
I would print all the PowerPoint presentations and read them all,
indicate all the vocabulary I might need and train them in Dragon.
On top of that, I would of course ask for a list of speakers,
participants, organisations,
and any information that would be needed for the job.
When I would work in a live subtitling environment,
such as with the Text on Tap,
I would normally do a test with the technical team
at least one day before starting.
In this way, they can adjust the subtitles to their own settings.
And, where possible, they could build in a delay,
so my subtitles would be almost synchronised
on the live presentation.
Working in this way would completely depend on the client,
and the type of event or conference.
When you are in an internal meeting,
you would most probably work via Zoom or Teams.
In Zoom you can provide the subtitles directly,
if someone is giving you the Live Captioning role - CC.
In Teams, you would be able to work with a Text on Tap link,
and you share it just with the particular person
who needs the live translation or live subtitling.
When you work rather in a conference setting,
where your subtitles would be used in a broader way,
for a large audience,
the technical team could create the overlay
and broadcast your result for everyone.
So this is always important when you start your assignment:
to also create the best technical environment
to ensure the best result for the persons following your work.
When you can work on location, it is a completely different experience.
You much more get the feeling to belong to the project or to the event,
because you get more in contact with the people and the subject.
In that way it is often more rewarding to work on location,
also in order to get direct feedback after your assignment.
When I work from home,
I’ve now learned to schedule a moment of feedback,
also when working remotely,
because it is always important to listen and learn about the clients' needs
for any potential next time.
When working on location, you need much more time to prepare beforehand.
I mean, explaining to your client what is actually needed
in order to provide the best output.
This means that you need to agree on beforehand on the location of your desk,
if it would be possible to be in the conference room or outside.
As a respeaker, if I would be in the conference room,
my favourite spot is on the second row on the left side.
In this way, I have a good view on the scene and presentations.
But I would also need enough space around me
to put my papers and preparations.
In some settings, it is not possible.
I would also need to know in advance if I would be in the conference room,
because when working like this, I would need my stenomask to dictate,
in order not to annoy the people around me
with my respeaking.
Also, I would need the mask to stop interference
from audio from the room.
The advantage of being in the conference room
is that you can feel the rhythm and the public’s reactions.
But at the same time,
you would most probably have to capture the audio
directly from the conference room as everyone else.
In many cases,
it would be better for the quality to sit in an interpretation box, or close by,
and to work with an additional screen and separate audio input.
In this case, I would plug in my own headset with a mini-jack
into the audio system,
and I would follow the events on the big screen,
where I would ask to simultaneously broadcast my subtitles.
This is a way to double-check my subtitles on my own laptop screen,
but also as the end result on the big screen
and how the audience would actually see it.
Sometimes, there is a difference between the two,
and so it is always good to be able to have that double check.
In order to prepare everything for being on location,
normally, I start suggesting the best working environment
two weeks before the start of the events.
Very often, when the client understands the needs of the respeaker,
I would need to come one day prior to the event
to do the technical test on site,
mostly with Text on Top.
Together, I would check with them the background,
to ensure visibility of the subtitles, but also check the PowerPoint,
names being broadcasted,
or additional videos that might be displayed,
to ensure the best position and visibility of the subtitles.
At that moment, I would also make an agreement
on what to do when there is a moment of silence,
who will take the subtitles away from the screen,
or if I can simply write two dots, during that small break.
This is all about the fine tuning, of course.
But it really helps to be at the event one day before the start,
to ensure all the technical issues are solved.
The only thing that is left at the moment,
is time to study the topic,
making the word lists,
studying the PowerPoint presentations, checking the event website,
and training everything in Dragon.
When everything is ready in a technical way,
I would normally be present one hour before the actual start.
This is giving an additional moment to prepare the subtitles, look and feel.
Another possibility, as I experienced over the past months,
is to plan the entire technical setting of the subtitles in an online way,
with Text on Tap and the video editor of Text on Top.
And to have a good talk with the technical team
to make sure all screens and audio inputs have been provided.
So basically, when you would be in the room,
you would need to work with a microphone that is noise-cancelling,
and when you are not working inside the room,
you can work with your normal headset.
In my headset, I have the possibility to have two inputs:
to have my microphone on my laptop,
and to have my audio plugged in
into the audio system of the technical team.
So the technical team doesn’t need to provide an extra headphone for me.
Also, having two headphones on your head... [shakes head]
When everything is ready, I would be installed with my equipment,
having my shortlist of names and names of organisations in front of me
and all printed material close to me, so I can quickly grab it when needed.
Just before starting,
I would most probably do a last check of broadcasting the subtitles,
and then waiting and counting down for the moment
to dive into the next challenge.
The summary.
To briefly sum up,
we can say that in all cases preparation is fundamental,
both when working online and on-site.
Even if you have enough information,
you have to make sure to prepare yourself for the assignment.
For example, you would read through the e-mails,
the presentations, and so on,
make a list of the participants and the speakers
and train your software to make sure the names are spelled correctly.
It is also important to always check that everything works as it should.
This means that, before starting the assignment,
you would check if the internet connection works fine,
the subtitles are shown correctly,
your subtitling software works well, and so on.
Finally, we have seen that working on-site
can be a nicer experience because you feel more involved
and rewarded,
but it can be more tiring,
because you need more time to prepare for the job.
Exercises.
The exercises for this video lecture
are in the Trainer’s Guide and the PowerPoint file.
[LTA outro music]
LTA - LiveTextAccess.
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
SDI - Internationale Hochschule.
Scuola Superiore per Mediatori Linguistici.
2DFDigital.
The European Federation of Hard of Hearing People - EFHOH.
VELOTYPE.
SUB-TI ACCESS.
European Certification and Qualification Association - ECQA.
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Erasmus+ Project:
2018-1-DE01-KA203-004218.
The information and views set on this presentation
are those of the authors
and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion
of the European Union.
Neither the European Union institutions and bodies
nor any person acting on their behalf
may be held responsible for the use
which may be made of the information contained here.