The offline process for captioning pre-recorded programming consists of two major phases. The first phase, captioning, is the generation of the data that will determine the content, placement, and timing of the closed captions. The second phase, encoding, involves the insertion of that data into the video signal while recording a new closed-captioned videotape.

Visual Audio Captioning is pleased to provide whatever level of service you require. If you are equipped to perform your own closed-caption encoding, we can provide caption files in formats compatible with the leading encoders. Or we can complete the entire process for you, delivering to you an encoded, closed-captioned master on virtually any tape format.

To get started, we will need your program master. If you are performing the encoding yourself, all we need is a dub of the master, preferably on Betacam SP with matching LTC and VITC timecode. We'd also like a script in the form of a Microsoft Word or text file. While not absolutely necessary, a script will reduce your cost and enable us to complete your job more quickly. If a script file is not available, a hard copy is still helpful.Your video, audio, and timecode will be digitized for use with our non-linear captioning system. The master is then shelved for safekeeping during the captioning process.

Offline captions can be displayed in either "roll-up" or "pop-on" modes. Roll-up captions appear as a continuously scrolling block of text that is usually anchored at the bottom of the screen. Pop-on captions appear on the screen one at a time as separate, distinct units of text. They can be placed in different areas of the screen to help identify speakers and avoid on-screen graphics. To see the captions, a viewer must have a television set with built-in decoder circuitry or a set-top decoder.