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Jim Hall Joins Visual Audio Captioning as Real-Time Captioning Technology Specialist Visual Audio Captioning, Incorporated (VAC), is pleased to announce that Jim Hall has joined the VAC management team. Effective September 20, 2006, Jim became the Real-Time Captioning Technology Specialist at VAC. Jim brings 19 years of real-time closed captioning industry experience to VAC and will expand VAC's real-time captioning service capabilities beyond VAC’s current real-time service offerings. Jim graduated from the Orange County College of Court Reporting in 1978 and he became a California Certified Shorthand Reporter (CSR). Jim worked for two years in California as a freelance reporter, before moving to Virginia. He continued to work as a freelance reporter in the Virginia and Washington D.C. areas. Jim began working as a real-time closed captioner in 1990. In 1996 Jim was promoted to a supervisor of real-time captioning. Jim supervised the U. S. House of Representatives captioning team and worked on the development of and support for in-house software products. Jim has developed a steno theory for Spanish real-time, and successfully implemented the theory, hired, trained, and supervised a staff of captioners doing Spanish to Spanish real-time captioning. In joining Visual Audio Captioning, Jim brings a vast amount of real-time captioning experience, ten successful years of management, as well as experience with new technologies and business areas new to VAC. Tammie Shedd, VAC President, said, “Mr. Hall is an invaluable addition to our management team. He has the background, knowledge, and skills to open new horizons for us as a company, while maintaining the primary corporate focus on providing services of the highest quality and value. He is a tremendous asset to our management team.” Jim resides in Herndon, Virginia, with his wife Mary. They have three children, Sallie, Trevor, and Molly. VAC was founded in 1999. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, VAC currently captions more than 26,000 annual hours of live programming and several hundred pre-recorded programs per year. "Expansion of VAC's captioning capabilities is in pursuit of VAC's commitment to making television programming accessible to everyone and to helping its clients meet the FCC requirements for both English and foreign language captioning. VAC will continue to provide the highest-quality products and services for which it is recognized,” said Ms. Shedd. Inquiries should be directed to Jerry Shedd at 703-280-0041 or jerry.shedd@visualaudiocaptioning.com. National Court Reporters Association Presents Distinguished Service Award to VAC President Tammie Shedd Visual Audio Captioning is proud to announce that its President, and co-founder, Tammie Shedd, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) at its annual convention on August 4, 2006, in New York City. The Distinguished Service Award is the highest, most prestigious award presented by the association. It encourages and recognizes work amounting to distinguished service by individual members of NCRA for the benefit of the reporting profession. That may include work as a member, committee member, director or officer of the Association, for the Journal of Court Reporting (JCR), in state or local association affairs, or in the field of public affairs or public relations. Ms. Shedd has served as a leader in the court reporting and closed captioning industries for twenty-eight years. She has authored articles, training manuals, books, newsletters, and other publications on real-time closed captioning. Ms. Shedd has given 16 presentations to the NCRA and various state and local court reporters associations since 1986. The following is a list of committees on which Tammie has served or currently serves: Chair, Sports Advisory Group, NCI, 1988-1999 Chair, NCRA Certified Real-Time Reporter Committee, 1991-1996 Member, NCRA Core Committee, 1991-1994 (Council on Reporter Education) Member, NCRA CAT-CART Committee, 1986-1987 (Computer Aided Transcription/Computer Aided Real-Time) Chair, NCRA Technology Group, 1994-1996 Member, NCRA TAC Committee, 1996-2004 (Test Advisory Committee) Chair, NCRA Customized Certifications Standards Task Force 2000-2001 Member, NCRA Customized Certifications Standards Task Force 2001-2002 Member, NCRA Captioning Task Force 2001-2002 Member, NCRA Captioning Community of Interest 2003-2005 Member, NCRA Council of Academy of Professional Reporters, Real-time Certification Committee 2002-2004 Chair of above 2004-2006 Member, NCRA Nominating Committee 2005-2006 Member, Accessible Media Industry Coalition, 2003-2005 Member, Accessible Media Industry Coalition, Real-Time Captioning Quality Standards Committee, 2004-2005 Member, Accessible Media Industry Coalition, Bylaws Committee, 2003-2004 Member, Accessible Media Industry Coalition, Budget Committee, 2004-2005 Ms. Shedd continues to contribute to the industry through her participation as a member of various NCRA committees as well as through the continued growth of Visual Audio Captioning. About Visual Audio Captioning (VAC) - VAC is a small woman and minority-owned business headquartered in Fairfax, VA. VAC was founded in 1999. It offers real-time closed captioning services, and prerecorded closed captioning and subtitling in both English and Spanish. VAC performs over 26,000 hours of closed captioning per year. Inquiries should be directed to Jerry Shedd at 703-280-0041 or jerry.shedd@visualaudiocaptioning.com. Visual Audio Captioning, Inc. (VAC) announces that they will begin captioning an additional 1,014 hours per year of local news and public information programming in four metropolitan regions as a result of receiving a new grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DoEd). Effective October 1, 2003, the U.S. DoEd will provide up to $110,000 annually for three years to be combined with public sector funding for the captioning. These new captions will serve the Tucson, Arizona; Little Rock, Arkansas; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Cleveland, Ohio, areas. The captions will be available to 3,772,400 households including a vast number of households with deaf and/or hard of hearing persons. None of the programs funded by this grant have ever been previously captioned. VAC, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, currently captions more than 11,000 annual hours of live programming as well as prerecorded programming with 23 caption studios. The Federal Communications Commission rule that requires captioning on television programming will reach a new benchmark January 1, 2004. This new benchmark equates to a mandated increase in captioned programming of fifty percent over the current requirement. "Through this grant VAC will make captions available to television markets that previously did not have captioned news and public information programming, and will expand the amount of captioned news and public information programming in other markets." said Ms. Shedd, President of VAC. "VAC is proud to expand the availability of captioned programming and to make television media more accessible."
Visual Audio Captioning, Inc., is proud to announce that it is among 24 companies that have formed a trade association called the Accessible Media Industry Coalition (AMIC). AMIC is comprised of companies devoted to making television and other audio/visual media programs accessible to all viewers. The coalition was established based upon initial meetings of several of the founding members of AMIC, members of their respective consumer advisory boards, and with the support of the U.S. Department of Education, which helps fund accessibility services. During these initial meetings the participants focused on the quality of products and services used to make media accessible to all. In September 2002, 22 companies and their consumer advisors met in Fairfax, Virginia, at a Caption Quality Initiative (CQI) conference. A significant recommendation from the CQI meeting was that a trade association be formed. AMIC's Mission Statement is as follows:
AMIC has the first of its 2004 semi-annual meetings scheduled for February 21, in Los Angeles, California, and is planning the second meeting for the summer. Jerry Shedd, VAC Vice President, says, "It is both professionally and socially rewarding to be among the pioneer members of an organization promoting the quality and accessibility of media. The benefits of AMIC's work may be immeasurably valuable." VAC, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, currently captions more than 11,000 annual hours of live programming as well as prerecorded programming with 24 caption studios. The Federal Communications Commission rule that requires captioning on television programming will reach a new benchmark January 1, 2004. This new benchmark equates to a mandated increase in captioned programming of fifty percent over the current requirement. For more information on VAC or the AMIC, please contact Jerry Shedd at 703-280-0041 or via email to jerry.shedd@visualaudiocaptioning.com.
Visual Audio Captioning, Incorporated (VAC), is pleased to announce that Jeff Helminiak has joined the VAC management team. Effective May 1, 2003, Jeff became the Manager of Offline Captioning. Jeff brings 19 years of captioning industry experience to VAC, expanding the company's business focus beyond real-time captioning and into offline captioning, subtitling, and DVD captioning. Jeff's experience in the captioning industry began in 1984 as a Caption Editor for the National Captioning Institute in Falls Church, Virginia. Over the ensuing 14 years he served in a steady progression of supervisory and managerial roles in NCI's Offline Production department, leading to his appointment in 1995 as Director of Offline Production, Eastern Region. In this capacity, Jeff oversaw departments in Vienna, Virginia, and New York City, which annually produced closed-captioning and foreign language subtitles for over 2,000 hours of broadcast television programming, home video releases, commercials, and music videos for clients such as ABC, ESPN, PBS, MGM/UA, Warner Home Video, and Turner. In 1999 Jeff became Manager of Henninger Digital Captioning, a division of Henninger Media Services of Arlington, Virginia, one of the nation's largest post-production companies. The first two years of his leadership saw a 60% increase in captioning business for HDC, serving clients such as Discovery Communications, National Geographic, and a variety of independent producers, corporations, and government agencies. In the fall of 2001 Jeff was named Operations Manager for Henninger's flagship Arlington facility, where, in addition to his captioning responsibilities, he directed a large staff of video editors, film colorists, and operational and support personnel. In joining Visual Audio Captioning as Manager of Offline Captioning, Jeff states, "I am excited to be part of an emerging organization that is poised for tremendous growth and places such a high premium on providing services of unsurpassed quality and value. Furthermore, I'm looking forward to renewing my professional association with Tammie Shedd, an individual whose commitment and professionalism I have long admired." Jeff resides in Fairfax, Virginia, with his wife Macy and their two children, Zachary and Elena. He possesses a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Tammie Shedd, VAC President, said, "Mr. Helminiak is deeply respected for his knowledge and management abilities by people who work in the captioning industry, as well as clients of the captioning industry. I am thrilled that he is bringing his expertise to VAC, and I personally look forward to working with Mr. Helminiak again." Mr. Helminiak's captioning and broadcast industry experience as well as his managerial experience over the past nineteen years make him well-suited to lead VAC into the offline captioning business and through the new FCC benchmark. VAC, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, currently captions more than 8,000 annual hours of live programming. The Federal Communications Commission rule that requires captioning on television programming will reach a new benchmark January 1, 2004. This new benchmark equates to a mandated increase in captioned programming of fifty per cent over the current requirement. "Expansion of VAC's captioning capabilities is in pursuit of VAC's commitment to making television programming accessible to everyone and to helping its clients meet the FCC requirements. VAC will continue to provide the highest quality products and services for which it is recognized," said Mrs. Shedd.
On December 9, 2002 Visual Audio Captioning (VAC) announced CEO Jerry Shedd will focus his efforts full-time on the management and growth of this four-year-old corporation. As co-founder and CEO of VAC, Mr. Shedd has been an integral part of the development of VAC since its inception in 1999. His main focus has been on business development and management. Mr. Shedd worked for 24 years at ManTech International Corporation. As a Vice President of a ManTech subsidiary, he was responsible for business development and project management. Mr. Shedd managed projects dealing with design, development, manufacturing, and support of communications equipment and military-related training. VAC, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, currently captions more than 8,000 annual hours of live programming. The Federal Communications Commission rule that requires captioning on television programming will reach a new benchmark January 1, 2004. This new benchmark equates to a mandated increase in captioned programming of fifty per cent over the current requirement. Mr. Shedd's experience with VAC during the past four years combined with his 24 years of business management and product development at ManTech make him well-suited to lead VAC through the new FCC benchmark as well as through the technological changes facing the captioning industry. "VAC is committed to making television programming accessible to everyone and to helping its clients meet the FCC requirements. VAC will continue to provide the highest quality products and services for which it is recognized," said Mr. Shedd. Home | Services | About VAC | Contact VAC | Captioning 101 | e-mail
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