On April 23, 2005, Jawed Karim posted a video of himself online. Although Me at the zoo was not the first video to be uploaded to the web, nor were its 19 seconds exceptionally remarkable, the footage would make history by being the first entry on YouTube.
Since then, billions of videos have been shared on the platform, with an estimated five hundred hours of video being uploaded to the site every minute. By all accounts, video content is taking over. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, video will generate 80% of worldwide internet consumption by 2019, up from 67% in 2014. This astounding mass of footage originates from social media, news, education, and entertainment.
One thing is clear: video content has never been more popular. With this massive amount of content growing larger by the minute, a powerful captioning solution makes all the difference in reaching all viewers without limitations.
Ensure content is mobile-friendly
As of November 2018, 48.2% of all global web traffic is being generated through mobile devices, with no signs of slowing down. The implications here are clear. Creating content that is not optimized for mobile is not an option.
Captions allow viewers in noise-prohibitive environments to easily consume video content. If listening is impossible due to ambient surroundings, people can still follow along, thereby removing a potential barrier and making it easy for people to interact with the media.
Provide accessibility for all
Over 350 million people worldwide are affected by a hearing impairment. Adding closed captioning for the hearing impaired ensures that millions of potential viewers don’t miss out on valuable content. They allow content creators to cast a wide net and catch anyone who may be interested, by making information available to non-native speakers as well as those with hearing impairments. It’s a simple and highly effective way to make sure that anyone who wants to consume content can do so with no barriers.
Captions provide the opportunity to appeal to as many people as possible and attract new audiences. Everyone absorbs information differently. While some prefer visual or auditory methods, for others there’s nothing quite like the written word.
It’s also the law. A number of federal bodies and regulations, such as the FCC, ADA, and CVAA, require media producers to meet certain accessibility standards, making captions a must-have for many organizations.
Increase Video SEO
Video captions provide great SEO benefits. Search engines can’t crawl audio or video files, they work exclusively through text. That’s why captioning is necessary for increasing visibility and strengthening an active online presence. Including text-based content increases rank and visibility on search engines and allows audiences to locate content that interests them.
Repurpose compelling content
If a particular topic or theme is resonant with audiences, why not capitalize on the opportunity to create other forms of engaging content on that subject? Adding video captions makes it possible to transform videos into blog posts, SlideShare presentations, infographics and more. It simplifies the process of creating new content and breathes new life into popular, SEO-friendly pieces, transforming them into other engaging collateral.
The solution: AI Captioning technology
AI-driven technology represents the ideal solution for organizations looking to profit from the many benefits of video captions. Incorporating sophisticated machine learning algorithms into automated speech recognition technology results in higher accuracy, as the solution can be trained for a specific domain and properly convert spoken terms or vocabulary that may be uncommon into text. Automating the majority of the captioning process also drastically reduces costs and boosts turnaround times.
The fusion of AI and HI
Although technology has reached the point of achieving high accuracy without the need for intervention, there is no substitute for human intelligence. The two go hand in hand. Highly skilled individuals are critical for monitoring and editing technical outputs. This process completes the technology’s learning cycle, as corrections are then fed back to the speech-to-text engine, allowing the technology to improve over time, boosting accuracy, lowering costs and reducing turnaround time.
Given the ever-increasing popularity and prevalence of AI captioning software, organizations must begin to view these developments as a key element of their strategies going forward. The future of content creation is intertwined with the advancement of AI and represents a new frontier in the cooperation of man and machine.
Verbit at the NAB Show
Interested in learning more about AI-driven captioning technology? Verbit’s smart solution harnesses the power of artificial and human intelligence to generate the most detailed speech-to-text files, providing over 99% accuracy and the fastest turnaround time in the industry. Stop by booth SU8906 to learn how organizations can provide equal access to content and increase user engagement.