Web Based Semi-Pro Subtitle Creation Tool Revealed At IBC

The announcement made by Screen Subtitling Systems, OOONA and Cavena at NAB earlier this year that they had entered a tri-party, technical collaboration may have been considered by some as a surprise but the early fruits of the partnership demonstrated at IBC were well received.

OOONA who developed their Online Subtitling Toolkit made it very clear at the launch of their web-based portal that they firmly believe a fundamental element of such an offering was to avoid reverse engineering and instead offer legitimate file type output.

As a result, Wayne Garb, OOONA's Managing Director, approached the likes of Screen, Cavena and EZTitles to discuss a partnership which would guarantee files created by the toolkit were in all respects from the original vendors.

Garb explained that many problems encountered with subtitle files can be completely averted just by using legitimately generated files and that is what sets the Online Subtitling Toolkit apart.

With this principle in mind and with a determination to develop a semi-professional online subtitle creation tool the alliance was finally formalised in April at NAB with a demonstration of a Beta version at IBC as a target.

The target was met and indeed a Beta version of the collaborative semi-pro offering was on both the Screen and Cavena stands in Amsterdam for IBC attendees to see.

Working closely with translation and subtitling service providers worldwide and on a one-to-one basis with professional translators/subtitlers, Ooona who is the lead company on the project formulated a gap analysis and established precisely what professionals really required.

What makes this semi-pro tool special is quite simply that it is available on the web, offering the obvious benefits of not requiring the need to download software.

One very clear requirement requested and a major advantage built into the 'Subtitle Create' tool is the ability to change the view of the user interface from within the tool to suit individual needs.

This feature allows the user to change anything from something as simple as the background colour of the UI to determining their own hotkey configuration and personalising the layout of UI by dragging-and-dropping each element.

The latter can then be saved under the user profile as layout defaults offering for instance one tool layout more personally suitable for QA and another for, let's say a translator adjusting timing.

The semi-professional 'Create' tool from the Online Subtitling Toolkit is still in development with further features currently under wraps to be revealed with a first full release predicted for Early 2017.

There is however a free trial version available at www.subtitlestoolkit.com where those trialling the product are encouraged to leave feedback.

www.subtitling.com

This article is also available to read at BFV online here, page 24.

(JP/LM)