Swedish Cinema Uses Audible Magic Content Recognition to Synchronize Audio Descriptions and Spoken Subtitles with Movie Sound Tracks
April 08, 2015 12:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time LOS GATOS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Audible Magic, the leading provider of automatic content recognition software solutions announced that Cybercom Group of Stockholm, Sweden has licensed its technology for Sweden’s “Available Cinema” project, making movie experiences more accessible to those with sight and reading impairments.
Available Cinema, a government project managed by the Swedish Film Institute in cooperation with the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority, enables audiences with any range of vision impairment or dyslexia to enjoy pre-recorded audio descriptions of the screen action and spoken subtitles. A mobile app provides narrative through the user’s earphones, using Audible Magic’s audio fingerprinting technology for frame-accurate synchronization with the movie soundtrack.
Lisa Wacklin, project manager for Available Cinema at the Swedish Film Institute says, “It’s a huge change. In the past, audio descriptions were performed live and limited to about 150 movie screenings per year. Now they will be available for more than 150,000 screenings every year in Sweden.”
Cybercom created the Disabilities Platform, consisting of a software development kit, which can be easily incorporated within a mobile app, and separate tools to enable movie post-producers to package ‘fingerprints’ of the movie soundtrack with audio descriptions for app users to download from Sweden’s Cinema Guide server. The Swedish Film Institute intends to make the Disabilities Platform available internationally to movie distributors, broadcasters and organisations representing the vision and reading impaired.
“Working with Cybercom on this project has been truly rewarding,” said Mike Edwards, General Manager EMEA for Audible Magic. “Witnessing the delight of users at the launch is an experience I will not forget.”
“It is a very successful project with great cooperation between our companies,” said Cybercom project manager Magnus Månsson.
Audible Magic is the trusted leader in automatic content recognition (ACR) fingerprinting technologies. The company offers a broad range of hosted solutions as well as hardware and software products that identify audio and video content, synchronize actions between media devices, trigger user interactivity and generate usage reporting. Audible Magic’s customers and partners span technology and media industries and include industry leaders such as Dailymotion, Deluxe Media, Ensequence, Intel, Sling Media, Sony Music and SoundCloud.
Cybercom is an IT consulting company that assists leading companies and organisations to benefit from the opportunities of the connected world. The company’s areas of expertise span the entire ecosystem of communications services. Cybercom’s domestic market is the Nordic region, and in addition the company offers global delivery capacity for local and international business. Cybercom was founded in 1995 and has been quoted on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm exchange since 1999.
The Swedish Film Institute works to promote film across the board – from idea to finished product, during launch in Sweden and around the world, and by preserving films for posterity in their archives.
The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) monitors the electronic communications and postal sectors in Sweden. The Authority provides leadership on consumer and competition issues, efficient utilization of resources and secure communications.