An Update on Professional-Quality Video Captioning

I am really excited that Microsoft IE has taken another step forward enabling professional-quality closed captions for online video, to address evolving industry requirementsfor browsers and other software on Internet-connected devices. The IE team have just posted a blog that describes the latest milestone for Web-based accessibility -

“In February 2013, Microsoft joined industry stakeholders in the W3C Timed Text Working Group (TTWG) to deliver the TTML Simple Delivery Profile for Closed Captions (SDP-US) profile specification.  SDP-US is based on Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) (a caption interchange specification that has been used in the professional video industry for years) and clearly defines key caption format features like layout, style, timing and content requirements. Internet Explorer was one of the first browsers to include early support for HTML5-based video captioning via the <track> element with TTML and WebVTT file formats.

Professional-quality online video is a forthcoming reality, enabled by emerging Web specifications and powerful content delivery infrastructure. Captioning is an important building block for enabling professional-quality video, and Microsoft is actively working with industry partners to enable rich captioning experiences. If you are working on Internet video, we invite you to review the new SDP-US profile, join the industry discussion, start considering how your caption content can adapt to SDP-US, and let us have your feedback.”

Now part of the MS Open Tech alumni, I have been proud to work with the IE team and industry experts in driving this important interoperability milestone.

Monica Martin
Senior Program Manager
Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc.

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 03, 2013
  I am still learning my way around in ciber space this looks really impressive keep up the good work.