The Enco enCaption4 platform enables broadcasters to cost-effectively meet regulatory requirements and growing consumer demand for captioned content while providing automated closed and open captioning for live and pre-recorded content in near real time.

The latest version of enCaption4 offers better accuracy while shortening the delay between spoken words and the corresponding on-screen caption display. Augmenting this elevated accuracy, the new update expands the array of sources from which enCaption4 can learn new vocabulary and names. Already able to access newsroom computer system scripts and rundowns using the MOS protocol, enCaption4 now offers additional forms of newsroom integration. The system can also pull information such as sports team rosters and news articles from third-party websites, growing its dictionary to continuously improve its word recognition and spelling precision.

On-premises enCaption appliances have typically output a serial or IP-based data stream of the generated captions to third-party closed caption encoder hardware, which in turn encodes the data into an SDI output signal with embedded captions. Eliminating the requirement for a separate encoder, Enco’s new optional closed captioning encoder card can be installed directly within the enCaption4 system. This simplifies the signal chain and minimizes equipment maintenance.

Two new enCaption4 configurations enable entirely cloud-based automated captioning deployments for customers who don’t require baseband signal I/O. A new dedicated enCaption4 configuration for NDI-compatible workflows generates captions from an NDI input stream and keys them directly over the video as an NDI output. Meanwhile, a streaming-focused enCaption4 cloud package accepts encoded IP streams as inputs and outputs captions in WebVTT or raw data formats for display through web-based media players, mobile or OTT apps.