We provide English, Spanish and French closed captioning services for all types of programming. No video captioning project is too large or too small. Our captioning is done in-house from start to finish—from transcription to encoding—allowing us to offer our clients fast turnarounds, strict quality control and extremely competitive rates. Our closed captioning services have been evaluated by the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), and Video Caption Corporation has been approved as a vendor for the DCMP’s Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. The DCMP is the only organization which evaluates the quality of captions produced in the United States, and fewer than 10% of closed captioning companies have met their strict standards. We offer closed captioning solutions for all distribution channels. Whether your program is going to broadcast or YouTube, Streaming VOD or government agency website, we can provide you with whatever you need to meet your accessibility requirements.
Our Process
The secret to our success is the skill and dedication of our US-based professional caption editors, combined with the expertise of our technicians and our state of the art technology. Our process begins and ends with our people. Unlike many other closed captioning companies, our captioning is done in-house from start to finish – from transcription to encoding. Our professional caption editors are highly trained US-based employees who pride themselves on getting it right, regardless of the complexity of the subject matter, the accent of the speaker or the presence of background music. All unfamiliar terms are diligently researched for proper spelling.
Our caption editors are not merely ‘cleaning up’ and timing a transcript that has been generated offshore or by voice recognition software. All of our video captioning is fully reviewed – not only by the primary caption editor, but also by a senior editor in a separate QC review. All caption encoding, whether to tape or digital files, is performed by our experienced technicians. Our captioning process is designed and proven to deliver high quality closed captions, no matter how challenging your program may be. Learn more about our Closed Captioning Process.
Fast Turnarounds
Using state-of-the-art workstations, we can assign multiple editors to work on the same program simultaneously, providing the fastest guaranteed turnarounds and highest quality in the industry. We can deliver most projects on a same day turnaround, with little or no advance notice. If you need your closed captioning done fast and done right, don’t wait – Contact Us Now.
Closed Captioning Rates
We offer some of the most competitive rates in the industry for high quality, FCC compliant closed captioning services. The cost of your closed captioning project will depend on several factors, including the following:
- The length of your program.
- The native language of your program.
- The language of the closed captions to be created.
- Your desired caption style.
- What you would like back from us as deliverables.
- Your preferred turnaround.
- The overall size of your project.
We do our best to keep the cost of high quality closed captioning affordable for organizations of all sizes and types. Our friendly and knowledgeable sales associates will be happy to discuss your closed captioning project with you and recommend the most cost effective solution for your particular needs. Learn more about our Closed Captioning Rates.
Quick Quote
All Delivery Formats Available
We can embed closed caption data into your digital video file, simplifying your workflow and allowing you to save time and money when working with those stations that accept program delivery in digital file formats. Our experienced technicians can work with virtually any digital video format, including common file types such as Apple ProRes, H.264, MXF, MPEG-2 Program Streams, and MPEG-2 Transport Streams, as well as more specialized formats such as DG Fast Channel’s SD deliverable. Not sure what file type you require? Just provide us with your station’s contact information and we’ll be happy to confirm their delivery specifications, transcode your master video to the appropriate format, if necessary, and even upload your captioned master to the station at no additional charge!
We also offer various caption data files which can either be imported directly into Final Cut, Premier Pro, Avid or Vegas (so that you can do your own caption encoding), or delivered to those stations which accept standalone caption files. For the web, we can provide you with a range of caption data files and embedded video options to meet any need.
In addition, we can encode closed captions to all standard definition tape formats, as well as professional high definition formats such as D-5, DVCPRO HD, HDCAM, and HDCAM SR.
We can also render open captions to virtually any tape or digital file format you might require.
Premium Customer Service
Never underestimate the value of high-quality customer service! Our friendly and knowledgeable sales and customer service representatives are there for you throughout the process. Whether they’re letting you know about a problem we’ve found in your video, or accommodating a last minute request for a change in your deliverables or delivery date, our customer service team will do whatever it takes to make sure that your project is delivered to your complete satisfaction, and without any unnecessary drama or stress.
Closed Captioning Styles
The choice of closed captioning style is typically made on the basis of distribution channel (e.g. broadcast, streaming VOD, or online) and occasionally on the nature of the programming. In addition to the FCC’s new rules on closed captioning quality, many networks and streaming VOD platforms have their own particular caption style and formatting requirements. Our workflow can easily accommodate any unique style requirements or preferences you may have.
Video Caption Corporation offers all of its video captioning services at competitive rates. Regardless of caption style, all of our closed captions are accurately transcribed, carefully timed, free of typos, and will never cover your onscreen graphics. All unfamiliar terms are diligently researched for proper spelling, and we apply multiple-level quality control reviews to each file. Because our video captioning service is done in-house, we can provide you with an extremely fast turnaround when your schedule demands it.
We offer the following captioning styles:
Traditional Pop-on
Preferred by deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, and now effectively required for most programs going to broadcast.
Fully FCC compliant for all types of programming, Traditional Pop-on style video captions include speaker identification of all off-screen speakers and typically use screen placement to identify all onscreen speakers. Traditional Pop-on style captions also include descriptions of music, sound effects, and the attitudes and emotions of the speakers (e.g. yelling, whispering or crying). They are the ideal choice for entertainment programming going to broadcast, where you commonly have multiple characters on screen simultaneously.
Center Placement Pop-on
The only choice for most online captioning and the best choice for certain types of programs going to broadcast.
Center Placement Pop-on style captions are exactly what they sound like: one or two lines of dialogue displayed at the bottom center of the screen. Due to the technical limitations of early web video players, most web captioning is displayed as bottom center, and by convention typically does not include speaker identification or descriptions of music, sound effects or speaker attitudes or emotions.
For broadcast, Center Placement Pop-on style captions were introduced as an economical alternative to Traditional Pop-on style and popularized by certain ‘automatic’ caption providers who lacked the technical ability to generate Roll-up style captions. Because of the lack of screen placement, speaker identification, and descriptions of music or sound effects, Center Placement Pop-on style captions are more efficient to produce and therefore more cost effective.
In an attempt to comply with the FCC's recent prohibition on closed captions interfering with onscreen text, a few of the ‘automatic’ closed captioning companies have begun offering a feature that purports to analyze your video to detect scenes containing textual graphics and at those points place the captions at the top of the screen. Even when it works, this can leave the closed captions covering a speaker's face or some other important feature of the video.
While Center Placement Pop-on style captions may not be appropriate for most types of programming going to broadcast, they can be a viable and economical option for some. If your program has only a single speaker onscreen at any given point, this caption style can work for you. To the extent there are lower thirds or other onscreen graphics, our professional caption editors can easily and reliably move the captions to the ideal location on the screen.
Roll-up
The original economical caption style for those on a budget.
Once ubiquitous, Roll-up style closed captioning is now rarely seen on pre-recorded programming. For technical reasons, it was never an option for most web video. Now that the FCC has determined that accurate closed captions must include speaker identification, the double chevron (‘>>’) used to indicate a change in speaker is no longer sufficient. While captioning companies could, of course, add the speaker's name following each double chevron, the time to do this plus the resulting additional caption load time (which would increase the difficulty in accurately timing in the captions), would defeat the purpose of producing an economical captioning solution.
Like Center Placement Pop-on, Roll-up style captions are still an FCC compliant option for broadcast programs where there is only a single speaker onscreen at any given point. However, unless you have a yen for retro caption styles, we recommend that you go with Center Placement Pop-on. At the same price point, Center Placement Pop-on style video captioning can more easily be converted into subtitle files, providing a cost effective path to eventual distribution of your programming in multiple languages. The same rationale holds for those who are planning to distribute their program on DVD. In the absence of a cost advantage, it just makes sense to preserve your options in an ever more interconnected world.
Our Clients
We’ve been providing closed captioning services since 1997 to a broad range of organizations, including broadcasters, corporations, independent producers, post houses, schools, libraries, churches and government agencies. Wherever there is a need for high quality closed captioning at reasonable rates, we are there to meet it! Learn more about Our Clients.