A System of Spoken Subtitles for Estonian Television

Systems for automatic reading and broadcasting subtitles (spoken subtitles) are meant to eliminate the language barrier that TV-viewers with special needs (such as the visually handicapped and the dyslectics) may experience in watching TV films or broadcasts in foreign languages that are provided with subtitles. In such systems, a speech signal synchronised with TV subtitles is generated through a separate audio channel. The present article focuses on the questions that have arisen during the development and application of the system of spoken subtitles for Estonian Public Broadcasting: selection of a TTS system and of a synthetic voice, synchronization between the subtitles and synthetic speech utterances, and the marking of speaking turns. Such subjects as the editor interface of the system for automatic reading and broadcasting subtitles as well as the foreign names pronunciation database are also included.