“It used to be, we were never certain about the equipment we had, or how good

the marketing would be to attract the audience who needed our assisted listening gear. It would fall into disrepair. Few people would show up for the open caption movie. Now I can train someone and know that we will get users – it is noted in every ad – so the training sticks. The studios are getting better, our booking team is getting better. We all are delivering a product that we can be proud of.”

Currently Available – “Personal” Closed Caption Solutions

The list of “personal caption” equipment is filled with logical extensions of digital, file-based technology, combining with LED-based technologies and wireless IP-based delivery. As with consumer equipment generally, the available technology is available through more companies and items are becoming smaller and more reliable. The equipment is different from typical consumer gear though, because the same piece of equipment has to be rugged enough to stand up to hundreds of different people using the same item and go through many more cleaning and recharging cycles. 

The original innovator group in the field is the technology labs at WGBH television in Boston, Massachusetts. They provide captions and descriptive services under the trade name DVS Theatrical (since the DTS disk systems, and presently). Under the trade name MoPix, they also make the Rear Window system, working with film and now with digital media servers. The system displays reversed text on an LED display mounted on the rear wall of the auditorium, which is mirrored at the users seat. 

The upgraded version of the Mopix reflective panel still uses a bendable support arm and a piece that the user places into a cup holder at their seat. Once the patron is seated, the panel is manipulated so the user can read the movie’s text (or translated language) that streams from the LED display. Because the reflective panel is also transparent, the letters seem superimposed upon the movie. 

Two recent personal caption systems, from two different companies, use a small LED panel surrounded by a plastic housing that keeps stray light from adjacent patrons. Both use a similar gooseneck suspension system as the Rear Window, with a base that fits into the seat cup holder. Once adjusted to a seated position, these system allow a greater latitude of head movement compared to the Rear Window panel, which must maintain a fixed reflection angle from the rear display to the viewers eyes. Since their radio signal can reach the entire auditorium, they also avoid the need for the audience member to sit in a “sweet spot” that avoids too much of an angle, or letters that are too small, too large or too slanted.

The Doremi CaptiView system uses an encrypted ZigBee wireless signal that can be received from any seat in the theater. The system can run on any one of up to 20 frequencies to avoid clashes between adjacent auditoriums. The glass in front of the OLED display gives 3 lines of text to the viewer. The system is simple to set up at either the customer service center or by the user in the auditorium. 

Doremi has offices in the international centers and a sophisticated representative system in most major markets. They also have sold the majority of digital cinema servers (media players) in the market.

The USL CCR-100 (Closed Caption Receiver) is designed and marketed by USL, Inc., once called Ultra Stereo Labs, and which has received multiple technical Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in their 30 years. This personal caption system can be deployed separately or packaged with their Assistive Listening Devices’ emitters. Infrared LEDs are pointed at the screen then bounce into the audience and have an advantage over wireless radio frequencies – their frequencies stay contained in a room and therefore don’t need the addressing steps required during setup.

The USL systems also follow the SMPTE standards interface protocols which allows easy attachment to all SMPTE compliant media servers.

A non-technical disadvantage that these systems have, besides using the seat’s cup holder instead of a cup of liquid refreshment, is found without too much searching on the internet. With all three systems, some users, especially young adults and teen-agers who want to fit in without calling attention to their ‘otherness’, object to carrying around what is called “a large flag” or a box with a gooseneck and cup holder attachment.

The latest piece of equipment introduced to the market solves this problem and others by putting the display system into a pair of glasses. Sony is now distributing their Entertainment Access Glasses, which uses holographic display technology to place an image of the letters into a space between the picture and the viewer, as if it were on the screen. 

This system also picks up its signal anywhere in the auditorium using a wireless signal, 1 of 7 channels of an encrypted ZigBee variant. 7 channels allows a multiplex system to be laid out so that the same channels doesn’t overlap and therefore won’t cause interference between movies.

There are two major advantages of the holographic system for the client: First, the ‘floating’ image can be adjusted so that the viewer can maintain focus on the letters and the screen at the same time; Second, the glasses are built to hold a separate 3D lens. When used for a 3D movie, the captions are not blocked by the darker polarizing filter attached in front of the glasses, which keeps the light level of the text at the user’s setting. The alternative of looking through filters into a text system makes the reading problems even more difficult. 

The elimination of the focus/refocus problem is a major evolution in personal captioning. The problem of moving the eye’s focus every few seconds from the text of a close display, (30-45 cm or 10-18 inches), then to focus on the distant picture screen, (3-6 meters away or 10 – 18 feet or more) is quite tiring. The glasses system better imitates the open caption system. They allow for broader head and body movements since the person can still see the image of the florescent captions onscreen whether below or even over the picture. They have the added comfort feature that the glasses themselves have adjustable click points that hold the lenses at different angles. 

There was brief excitement about potential devices that would allow people to put the caption text on their smartphones, which works well at sports stadiums and museums. But there are security and copyright concerns of streaming text to them. Plus, there are problems with the light that they propagate in a room that is supposed to be dark, especially since there is no holder that places the unit at eye level. Finally, since these devices can also record sound and picture, they are not welcome in a theater.

Like everything involving stereoscopic 3D movies, using these personal caption systems is a work-in-progress and different users will have different experiences. As post-production, screen and projector technology evolves to reflect more light to the eyes – bettering the 3D experience for everyone – the different caption systems will have to be examined or perhaps evolve further. 

Creating captions and subtitles for 3D is still a laborious task, the prime example being the open captions of the Na’vi language translations in Avatar. They were meticulously hand crafted with hundreds of hours of post-production to keep the words readable and on the constantly moving focal point in the “depth” plane of the action. The holographic placement of the text in space appears to have some benefit in viewing 3D movies, although the studios are only beginning to release captions for this format so there isn’t much comment on this yet. The technical standards that will make this easier and less expensive have not been written yet, so this is many years out.

No system is perfect, as interviews and internet comments point out. While the box-on-a-gooseneck system allows more latitude than the mirror system, the user still must keep their head fairly still to keep the readable image in the box placed near the dark portion at the bottom of the screen – taller people complain that they have to slouch as the goosenecks are not long enough for a good position – and others point out that goosenecks eventually droop as well. 

There are some internet comments that the glasses system take some time to get used to since the text image moves when the glasses move, especially when laughing. But more than one internet commenter has mentioned that it also took a moment to get used to the image still showing when they stepped out of the auditorium for a bio-break – but then saw it was an advantage since they could still pay attention to the movie’s words while ordering popcorn.

To add to their customer’s quality experience, exhibitors have installed digital equipment at each screen at a cost that is 3 to 4 times what film projection systems cost in the past. Studios and distributors have made great efforts and added production costs to add quality, and timely access materials to each movie. To attract more and varied customers the entire cinema market has evolved their facilities that now range from boutique high-end comfort zones to large-scale restaurant/bookstore/multi-thousand person service and entertainment palaces. Audio technology has left stereo behind, and added 4 new audio formats to fill the large rooms with more immersive sound. In this grand metamorphosis, caption systems for the deaf and hard of hearing is another success.

Small and large manufacturers have responded with great variety, but always with an eye to high quality. Every feature on each vendor’s product advantage sheet is relatively expensive given the relatively small cinema market. For accessibility equipment in particular, long-term durability is still the primary usability concern as the need for cleaning and battery charging and breakage drives up both costs and potential disappointment. 

In addition, every survey among cinema personnel and users point to the greatest satisfaction when the staff is constantly and consistently trained. They must be prepared to not only deal with a technical problem as it happens. They client service team must be aware of each individual’s need and be comfortably able to non-verbally describe the equipment’s set-up and use to a customer who can’t hear them well. They must practice making certain that a customer is comfortable with the equipment that they are receiving. Being able to communicate well when there is a problem is then just a natural extension of that ability. 

Access equipment adds complex requirements for the same reason as does every component in the digital cinema chain – the constant push against the upper limits of affordable quality, in order to deliver the director’s intent to the audience. At different price points and at different levels of technical achievement and personal comfort, all of these personal caption systems further achieve the director’s intent by creating a means for deaf and hard of hearing people to enjoy movies and other entertainment with family and friends.