Photo caption: DTV closed captions at the NAB '99 Convention

After a year of preliminary research, NCAM offered broadcasters their first opportunity to see closed captioning and descriptive narration on digital television. The demonstration took place in the HARRIS/PBS DTV Express exhibit at the April 1999 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas.

"DTV requires a whole new approach to delivering these important access services," according to Gerry Field, manager of NCAM's DTV Access Project. "It's rewarding to see the success of this project during its first year."

NCAM, working with corporate partners Ultech Corporation, Lucent Digital Video, and WCVB/Boston, provided the first captioned local DTV broadcasts in November 1998. In early April, NCAM coordinated the first delivery of descriptive narration on a national high-definition television (HDTV) broadcast of The American Experience's "Lost in the Grand Canyon" on PBS.


Media Access, Spring/Summer 1999:
The Phantom Menace Comes to NCAM | Accessible Digital TV | Enhanced Arthur 2000 | CD-ROMs, Useful for Everyone | MAGpie: Hot New Web Tool | Caption Center Links TV Viewers to the Web | MIT and Online Learning | From the Director | "Messages" at the Museum of Science

Priority Access: Serving NCAM Business Partners
NCAM Helps Prepare Business Partners for the Future | Millennium Partners | Collaborative Partnerships Increase Access | Equal Access: From the 1950s to the Future

Copyright © 1999 WGBH Educational Foundation

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NCAM | WGBH Educational Foundation