Which software a dubbing studio use for subtitles and closed captioning workflow?

Question

Many video production and dubbing studios offer services of closed captioning, subtitles and so on. Their audience is generally big broadcast networks.

I was wondering, what kind of software this professionals do they use and which is their workflow?

I don't think they use programs like premiere with this weird interface:

Do they use even common free prosumer software like the ones used by subbers who create srt files like Subtitle Edit ?

Given they have to produce this for many series episodes, do they use custom heavy automatition tools, or is possible use also manual tools?

How is possible learn something about the topic?

Where I can start if tomorrow someone would ask me to work inside a company that have some big networks as customer and need to produce for them closed captioning and subtitles ?

Answer 1

Most episodic (network and cable) TV is captioned by service bureaus who use proprietary software. Some of the big players are VITAC, NCI, and WGBH, and there are several more. They all provide various levels of service, and some rely more heavily on automation / voice recognition etc than others. This is all offline captioning and the goal is accuracy in copy, placement and timing.

The other main thread (and skill) is live writing or real-time captioning, which is done with stenowriters (chord typing) as used by court reporters. These are always delayed by some time because of the need to hear, interpret and input. It's almost always done remotely, with the caption writer networked into a local encoder. The same bureaus usually offer both live and offline.

To learn more, check out the links above -- and google for more -- then maybe contact the providers that look interesting to you.

Answer 2

Everywhere I have worked uses proprietary software, but many professionals use Swift: http://www.grassvalley.com/products/swift_create