To make it easier for people with vision or hearing impairment to find their designated TV or computer programs, Quickplay media will start making closed captioning options available for its live and On Demand multiscreen content.

QuickPlay provides premium media content and distributes it to IP-connected devices in different platforms. It offers end-to-end services to deliver Live TV, TV and Video on Demand to devices that are connected. It has successfully delivered multiscreen solutions for AT&T, Bloomberg (News - Alert), Rogers and Verizon.

On October 8, 2010 President Obama passed into law the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). The act is designed to give people with disabilities more access to modern communications devices, as the previous laws were created when broadband, mobile devices and digital content was not available or a social norm in our society.

Applying closed captioning to multiple digital devices is complicated, and according to the Quickplay, it creates “increasing complexity in the ingestion, management and delivery of content with high-quality closed captioning.”

The variation in standards creates conflict with today’s mobile devices made by manufacturers that support different operating systems. To provide a system that is compatible for viewing in Android (News - Alert), iOS and Windows devices the company created its own OpenVideo media solution.

OpenVideo takes the closed captioning data and simplifies the ingestion process, and normalizing it for player support and compatibility so it can be viewed across the different platforms. It adds DRM, device profiles and packaging information by running the content through standard encoding and media transformation process.

The new closed captioning service gives the user a simple choice of turning the service on or off, just like standard television with this type of option.

 “Closed captions not only greatly enhance the mobile video viewing experience for people with hearing impairments, but they drive up overall viewership numbers. QuickPlay is dedicated to ensuring that our customers meet regulatory requirements. More importantly, we help them do it in a cost effective way that enables them to continue to offer a high-quality of service to their subscribers,” said Kavi Maharajh, QuickPlay’s VP of Product and Research Development.