Conference Summary: Audio Description – Celebrating Progress and Looking Forward
22 October 2015
This summary captures a day of brainstorming and exchanging ideas on the development of audio description (AD) convened by RNIB on 23 September at the Science Museum in London. Close to 70 participants, including broadcasters, film distributors, audio describers, academics, consultants and practitioners from the wider technology field, gathered to discuss and build upon the work that has been done over the past ten years; and to discuss the challenges and potential developments we are likely to see in the coming decade.
Summary of discussions
Keynote Address
Lesley- Anne Alexander, Chief Executive RNIB thanked those present for their commitment to the development of AD on television and film services. In the UK today, approximately 2 million people are struggling with significant sight loss and around 400,000 are registered as either blind or partially sighted. Lesley-Anne commented on the transformation of the television landscape in the recent years and called on all stakeholders to take the necessary steps to include AD on catch-up and on-demand services, saying that blind and partially sighted people cannot be condemned to watch television in an unrealistic way and it is not right that a programme with AD is available on TV but not on catch-up services.
Evolution of AD on television and film
The keynote was followed by presentations from Gareth Ford Williams, Head of Accessibility, User Experience & Design, BBC Digital and Phil Clapp, Chief Executive, UK Cinema Association on the developments of AD on television and film respectively.
Participants were reminded of some of the key milestones - first one from 1994, the year when the first small-scale trials of AD on television happened with BBC and ITV on a fairly small scale, about 160 homes trying the service for the first time and the release of the first film with AD in cinemas – Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone in 2001. Gareth explained that over 55 per cent all content that could have been described on BBC Channels last year was described.
In the coming years, choice would play an instrumental part in how AD delivery will develop especially considering the research that is going into connected homes - the way that services can be delivered across multiple platforms that will synchronise with each other.
There was call for efforts to increase awareness of AD, not just amongst AD users but also their family and friends by Phil Clapp. The number of cinemas that deliver AD has significantly risen since 2001 but there is still a lack of awareness of availability of AD in cinemas despite the industry's best efforts. Additionally, Phil highlighted the pressing need for ongoing staff training in cinemas so that staff are aware of the needs of people with disabilities.
Digital cinema technology has made the delivery of AD relatively straightforward and presents a brilliant opportunity to smaller exhibitors - independent cinemas, art-house sites and local council cinemas.
Panel Discussion 1: Lessons learnt over the last ten years
Chair: Anna Jones, Strategic Relationship and Advocacy Manager, RNIB
· Jorge Saavedra Senior Manager, Regulatory Reporting & Accessibility ITV
· Demir Yavuz, UK Technical Manager, Twentieth Century Fox
· Veronika Hyks, Head of AD, BTI Studios
· Marianne Matthews, Responsible Business Manager, BskyB
· Colin Palgrave, User of AD
The presentations were followed by an interesting panel discussion and the main themes that emerged from the discussion included:
· challenges related to delivery of AD on a growing number of channels even today
· late delivery of materials to AD production companies
· rapid changes in technology that impact how AD is delivered across services.
Jorge Saavedra from ITV, Marianne Matthews from Sky and Demir Yavuz from Twentieth Century Fox talked about how AD is planned internally in their respective companies. Jorge and Marianne represented the broadcaster's perspective and their efforts to describe a wide range of programmes from different genres for TV while taking into account the requests received from viewers.
On the other hand, Demir shared that Fox simply describes everything, every single film. The studio has described 190 films in the past 8 years. The distributor explained their approach to working on the AD track for the strikingly lavish James Cameron film, Avatar which benefitted heavily from the rich descriptions.
Colin Palgrave, a user of AD and Veronika Hyks from BTI were in consensus that synthetic speech for AD on drama and fiction was unacceptable and warned service providers against considering the option. Colin requested broadcasters to complete the job that they have started and said that the availability of AD is often the deciding factor for him whether or not to watch a programme or a film on TV. Veronika Hyks added that she would really like to see live events on TV being described in future, especially the important ones and offered to work with broadcasters who would be willing to experiment with this provision.
RNIB AD app trial in partnership with MovieReading
This session revealed the results from the RNIB AD App Trial.
RNIB launched a three-month user trial of the MovieReading AD App in the UK in February 2015. The aim of this user trial was to gather views and feedback on the use of app-based AD delivery system. Findings from the trial have established that overall, participants responded positively to the app and their first experience of using the app as an alternate means for accessing AD. The main benefit was being able to access AD on a personal device. Participants who watched films or TV programmes with family or friends commented that they enjoyed the option to filter the AD track through their phone or tablet thereby eliminating the need for their family or friends to listen to the track when they did not need or enjoy it. Participants also outlined other benefits such as being able to use a VOD service of their choice, at their preferred time and place which are all characteristics of an on-demand service.
The research report is now available on http://www.rnib.org.uk/adapp
Panel Discussion 2: Challenges in audio description over the coming ten years
Chair: Peter Johnson, Chief Executive, ATVOD
· Gareth Ford Williams Head of Accessibility, User Experience & Design, BBC Digital
· Stuart Campbell, Senior Live Operations Manager, Deluxe
· Elfed Howells, Director of Business Development, Emerging Media atDolbyLaboratories
· Steve Tyler, Head of Solutions, RNIB Solutions Strategy and Planning
The final session of the conference focussed on the developments in technology that are starting to change the way AD is produced and delivered across services and platforms.
Four themes emerged in this spirited panel discussion:
· making AD fun and immersive in the world of apps and second screens
· should we use the existing technology to deliver AD on connected platforms or should we wait for the ideal solution
· synthetic voices- do they present a potential or do they threaten the craft of AD
· why is AD bumped from a VOD service when it has already been broadcast with AD on linear?
Elfed Howells from Dolby felt that it was time to re-examine the user experience and used the term, accessibility 2.0 to make his point. He felt that the experience needs to be anchored in a more integrated environment and brought together the various aspects that could possibly work symbiotically - accessibility (descriptive audio, multiple languages etc), personalisation (user-modified audio) and immersive audio (AD coming from a particular direction). He went on to echo Gareth's thoughts from earlier in the day about synchronisation of different devices to make it easier to tell the story.
The second theme around using existing technology to deliver access features was brought to the table by Gareth who encouraged other service providers to consider using the technology that is available right now to deliver access services and not wait for the perfect solution. It was unprecedented when the BBC iPlayer launched AD as part of its service in 2009 and he said one of things that made it possible was the fact that they decided to mix AD with original track of the programme. These programmes were then listed under a separate category – audio description- in the iPlayer. He reiterated that the BBC would like to deliver AD as a separate audio track rather than a mix and they are constantly testing this. However, the mixed track gave them advantage of being able to launch AD in a timely manner.
The third theme was the use of synthetic voices for AD and Steve Tyler from RNIB pressed for the industry to embrace developments in technology. He talked about the changing nature of synthetic voices now available and reminded the industry that the accessibility community are the early adopters of new technology. The thirst for information is huge – people want to push the boundaries and do new things. If it increases access to even more content than we have now, is it worth putting on table? Steve also talked about the opportunity that synchronisation offers to end users and standards like Universal Control API that allow it to happen. He asked participants to consider speech synthesis in the wider context. Why not use the tools to produce something else? For example, synthesis to Braille, to reproduce the content on an electronic Braille display for those who rely on it.
The final theme of AD “falling off the grid” on its journey from one platform onto another was discussed and the reasons behind it. These being the commercial considerations, the difference in formats on video on-demand and linear, and being delivered with or without advert breaks. Stuart Campbell said that as an AD Provider his job is to make sure the process as efficient as possible. Issues of costs and flexibility of material were also addressed. Stuart also remarked that it is always useful to get involved with the development of VOD platforms as early as possible as it allows them the opportunity of planning AD delivery into the developing platform.
Concluding thoughts
Discussions through the day touched on meeting challenges by both, individual organisations and collectively as a sector for TV and film, but also across sectors. A need for further collaborations between stakeholders that would allow an exchange of information was echoed during the course of the sessions. Steve Tyler reiterated the need to reinvigorate the partnership between different parties and think about the accessibility challenges afresh with the technologies we now have.
Podcasts from the event
Insight Radio, the radio station of RNIB, recorded all conference sessions and they are now available to listen at http://www.rnib.org.uk/information-everyday-living-home-and-leisure-television-radio-and-film/television-radio-and-film
For more details, please contact
Sonali Rai
Audio Description Executive
020 7391 3270