Burbank, California—Mar 20, 2009
GDC Announces Closed Captioning Capabilities Added to its Entire SA-2100 Digital Cinema Server Line
As part of its on-going product improvement effort, GDC Technology (GDC) is pleased to announce that it has added Closed Captioning capabilities to its SA-2100 family of digital cinema servers. This will benefit cinema patrons who are hearing impaired as they can now read the captions individually (using specially designed equipment available on individual seats) while watching the movie at the same time.
Unlike open captioning where text is permanently visible which can be intrusive to the viewing audience, closed captioning allows individual caption-reading. This means others seated alongside do not watch, or even see, the captions. GDC has adopted the WGBH Rear Window Captioning System to display the caption. The adopted system is in full compliance of SMPTE 428-10 and SMPTE 429-12 standards. All GDC SA-2100 servers now accept digital content in the form of Digital Cinema Packages which include closed captions.
In a recent letter sent to studios and equipment suppliers, President and CEO of the National Association of Theatres Owners (NATO), John Fithian had this to say with regard to Closed Captions for the audibly impaired: To enable closed captions in digital cinema, NATO is working inside SMPTE to produce a uniform standard distribution format for digital cinema captions. In addition, NATO is working towards a standard interface for the digital cinema player so that 3rd party closed caption system can simply plug in without modification. The goal is to incorporate these new standards in digital cinema systems by early 2009, along with the DCI-mandated improvements currently scheduled.
GDC is among the earliest few digital cinema server companies to introduce Closed Caption capabilities to its range of servers, said Dr. Man-Nang CHONG, founder and CEO of GDC Technology. GDC respects The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities (hearing impaired included) in public accommodations such as movie theatres. We are proud of our efforts to bring the magic of digital movies to all patrons.
