RTVE and Vicomtech perfect automatic subtitling

More than half of TVE's subtitlers participate in joint tests for six months within the framework of Impulsa Visión Empresas, RTVE's sandbox.

The units of Accessibility and Accessibility Support Engineering of RTVE and the address of Speech and Natural Language Technologies of Vicomtech, centro tecnológico de investigación aplicada y referente especializado en Artificial Intelligence, Visual Computing & Interaction, han efectuado pruebas para mejorar la calidad y la productividad en el campo del automatic subtitling, within the framework of the I Call for Impulsa Visión Empresas focused on the Accessibility of Audiovisual Content.

The platform THE WRITER generates subtitles for pre-recorded audiovisual content automatically, and is based on a mixed approach that combines algorithms and artificial intelligence. Specifically, it is now capable of transcribing the audio of multiple audiovisual contents into text, as well as capitalizing, scoring and segmenting said transcriptions.
The quality of subtitles in different TVE programs and the post-editing efficiency of automatic subtitling have been evaluated. Furthermore, the tests have served to collect suggestions for improvement made by the TVE units that have participated.

Tests in the field

As a differential fact of the procedure used, it should be noted that there has been the collaboration of 57% of TVE subtitlers, who have individually post-edited four different audiovisual contents, without prior knowledge of IDAZLE.

The results have been very promising. On the one hand, it has been found that IDAZLE provides a clear and intelligible transcription, and the average quality evaluated is 4 points out of 5. This implies that, on average, it only needs post-edit between 10% and 25% of the transcribed text. And, on the other hand, it has been proven that the average subtitling time is reduced by almost half in relation to manual subtitling, and the average productivity is doubled.

IDAZLE has potential for improvement ahead, both in perfecting the platform and in the training and training of its users. RTVE and Vicomtech will continue collaborating to achieve a solution that becomes a reference within Spanish radio broadcasting and, at the same time, is perfectly valid for any entity that needs to subtitle recorded audiovisual content.

Impulsa Visión Empresas is RTVE's initiative aimed at consolidated entities that wish to collaborate with the Corporation in a practical way, testing their innovative projects and products in the technological field of the audiovisual sector in RTVE facilities and equipment.