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The Newsletter of COTIS
The Confederation of Transcribed Information Services
To promote the provision of information in alternative formats to print
Editor - Linda Pearce, Email:
ontrack@cotis.org.uk .
Project Office, 67 High Street, Tarporley, Cheshire, CW6 ODP. Tel: 01829-733351
(Answerphone)
Reg Charity No: 299024 © Issue 40 - January 2002
Welcome to 2002. It promises to be a very busy year for COTIS, as we aim to have the Accreditation Scheme for audio up and running this year - it is well on the way. Development work is being undertaken in conjunction with other organisations on the braille scheme. On Track will bring you all the details you need - watch this space (as they say!). In the meantime, the committee wishes members a very fruitful and peaceful year.
Linda Pearce
Sir John Wall, President
Wendy Davies (RNIB), Chair
Linda Pearce (RNIB), Treasurer
Colin Antwis (Fieldsman Trails), Project Co-ordinator
Mandy Thompson (RNIB)
Glenn Critchley
Ruth Frampton (RNIB)
Lesley Kelly
Marian Davis (Vision Support)
Winnie Morrell (NFB)
Sir John Wall expressed strongly his wish to stay involved with COTIS, especially because, as a tape user, it is essential that quality is maintained and improved. Following another good COTIS year, he is happy to remain as President - at least for another year.
Apologies for absence were received from: Deane Houston, John Proudler, Linda Downey, Jessica Finch
The minutes of the previous AGM held on Tuesday 23 January 2001 were agreed without amendment.
Wendy confirmed her retirement from Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) in December 2001 after 20 years with them, but wishes to continue promoting the aims of COTIS, as an individual member.
With our dwindling resources, it was asked whether there was enough left to continue our work. Should we look at what lottery, European and Trust funds may be available. However, certain bodies do require match funding, which could be a stumbling block to COTIS. It was agreed that future consideration be given to raising subscription rates (something that hasn't been done for a long while) - perhaps in banded membership categories.
The Accreditation Scheme needs to be self-financing with a registration fee structure that matches its importance.
Thanks were extended to Sheila Jones and Lisa Plumb for support throughout the year.
Three committee members were standing down, but were willing to stand again. Winnie Morrell, Deane Houston and Ruth Frampton were nominated en bloc, proposed by Wendy Davies and seconded by Linda Pearce.
Two new committee members were welcomed: Glenn Critchley, proposed by Sheila Jones, seconded by Colin Antwis; and Marian Davis, proposed by Colin Antwis and seconded by Linda Pearce.
All were elected unopposed.
Names of those co-opted to the committee were: Sheila Jones, Administrator and Colin Antwis, Project Co-ordinator.
Further information to be posted on the web site. Information from Wendy to be sent to Glenn Critchley.
Everyone was thanked for attending.
Welcome to two new committee members: Glenn Critchley and Marian Davis.
Glenn has been helping COTIS with its website for some time and gave
us an insight into his background in a previous issue.
Marian introduces herself here.
I am the Operations Manager of Vision Support Trading Limited - the commercial arm of the charity, Vision Support. Vision Support Trading is a niche supplier of transcribed media including braille, large print and audio, both on cassette and in a digital format, to a range of organisations in the utility, financial services and telecom sectors.
Before this, I was office Manager for Vision Support for five years, with responsibility for administrative and transcription aspects, prior to the formation of the commercial arm. Previous employment includes over 15 years in the financial services sector.
I am married with three grown up daughters and live in North Wales.
| SIR JOHN WALL, COTIS President |
WENDY DAVIES, Chair |
| LINDA PEARCE Treasurer |
COLIN ANTWIS co opted (non-voting) |
| RUTH FRAMPTON | LINDA DOWNEY |
| DEANE HOUSTON | LESLEY KELLY Secretary |
| JOHN PROUDLER | WINNIE MORRELL |
| SHEILA JONES co opted (non-voting) |
GLENN CRITCHLEY |
| MARIAN DAVIS | |
Have you paid your subscriptions yet for the year 1 September 2001 to 31 August 2002? If not, please pay as soon as possible, as after 28 February 2002 you will no longer receive the benefits of membership. The rates remain at £6 for an individual and £12 for an organisation. Cheques should be made out to COTIS for the appropriate amount and sent to the treasurer at the Tarporley address. This is an exciting time for COTIS as we are getting close to achieving a major objective - the introduction of the Accreditation Scheme. Help us to continue with this vital work.
by Colin Anwtis, committee member.
It is quite surprising that there are no standards in existence for what is a basic human right - the provision of information in alternative formats.
For many years the attitude has been (and still is in many quarters!) 'you get what you get and be thankful'. At last, and due largely to the Disability Discrimination Act, the provision of accessible information is much higher on everyone's agenda. Now 'good enough' will not do. Information provision in whatever format must be simply the best!
Technology has moved us swiftly from the typewriter to e-mails, with, in between, a variety of formats to satisfy everyone's preference and give choice.
COTIS are establishing, with the co-operation of users, an Accreditation Scheme, initially for audio, followed by braille, large print, moon and electronic formats. Transcription organisations will become accredited annually by submitting a piece of work, and a register of such organisations will be made available to Service Providers.
This will ensure that across the UK (a European dimension must follow), a common standard will exist that Service Providers can specify when commissioning material.
COTIS, being an independent charity and not a transcription agency, is ideally placed to facilitate such a scheme and also act as a link to organisations who can advise on, and produce material as an alternative to print - produced every which way.
For information regarding membership, guidelines or the Accreditation Scheme phone: 01829 733351, fax: 01829 732408 or email: administrator@cotis.org.uk .
by Colin Garratt, RNIB Audio Development Engineer.
RNIB has an analogue Cassette Library with over 22,000 titles. As the organisation moves to recording in the digital format, RNIB has been experimenting with different software to see how analogue recordings can be offered in a digital format and also to the DAISY (Digital Audio Information Systems) standard. With this system and using a DAISY player or computer with suitable software, the user will be able to navigate through the recording at the touch of a button.
The procedure begins with an analogue recording, which has tone index signals to mark the navigational sections of the recording, being input into the computer. In the recording used, chapters and pages were tone indexed (a double tone for chapters and a single for pages). These tone indexed segments (called chunks in this article) have to be located, and several different methods of achieving this were tested.
The first trial was with scanning software from Richard Stead and SoundForge (a recording and editing package). It was found that the scanning software had various problems, not only with crashing when using the editing window, but also with the upgraded pointer tag editor. Unfortunately, the edit window problem, which appears to be linked to Soundforge headers, is not yet rectified. More development will be needed before this software has all the necessary requirements for our use.
The second trial to mark and break the audio files into chunks used Cool Edit Pro. The major problem we found with this software was the time taken to process each side of a cassette. Also the reaction of a noise gate to make the system cope with low level recordings had to be increased.
The third trial involved first loading one complete cassette, ie both sides A and B into the computer. Then each individual tone indexed chunk was cut out and pasted to a new window. This gave an indication of the timing of each process.
Two methods were tested to enable any system to identify all tone index points. One was to leave the tone indexing as it had been recorded, but to increase the audio only so that the tone indexing level was at least 12 dB lower than the audio. The second method, which seemed to work better, was to remove the tone index signals as much as possible using a notch filter set to 62 Hz. This meant that the tone index signal was then at minus 38 dB. The tone index signal level was therefore reduced to about the same level as the background noise and enabled the scanning software to define silence much more accurately. This was achieved using external analogue equipment.
Further experimentation is needed to make sure that RNIB has the right combination to produce on demand digital recordings to the DAISY standard from our existing analogue cassette masters, and the intention is to investigate EDAT and Otari systems. The following section shares our experience in detail in the hope that this will encourage others undertaking similar experiments to join in the discussion. Comments about specific products should not be taken either as overall endorsements or rejections - they are merely an honest account of our experience on the day, not a comprehensive evaluation.
1. Scanning software by Richard Stead has great potential, but it requires some development before it can be fully utilised as an authoring tool. In common with all other software solutions, some hardware devices are required such as PCs, external filters, amplifiers etc. This software will produce an HTML with a SMIL file and also generate a NCC (Navigation Control Centre) file, which means all the ingredients to produce a DAISY title can be generated at source. One other advantage is that all of the chunked audio files are automatically numbered in the correct order.
2. Cool Edit is an 'off the shelf' audio recording/editing package that has the facilities of the first option, but requires skilled operators and has a bottleneck at the chunking procedure. However, it is a very stable and good quality software package. All hardware devices as previously mentioned will be required.
3. Singulator software by Aipl is a very inexpensive software package that can be utilised with hardware devices such as notch filters to detect tone index points. This software costs $29 and has the relevant algorithms to detect background noise, such as tape hiss, clicks etc. The package is designed to transfer vinyl and cassette to CD for the domestic market. It also will number the chunked audio files in the correct order and will produce stereo and mono files.
4. Hardware requirements. There are a few cassette decks on the market which have auto reverse and double speed facilities. The auto reverse means that reversal software can be disregarded, as can the inherent time lag that this would incur. Most cassette decks with double speed dubbing mute the phono or balanced outputs when in this mode. However, a modification to the Yamaha double cassette deck used allowed the playback to be heard at double speed. This means not only that the tape is running at twice the speed, but also the EQ is corrected to account for the increased nano Webers of flux (nWb/m) produced after the increase in speed. The output, therefore, is almost at the same amplitude as real time.
5. Hard disk recorders, solely to digitise the audio, are available to complement the previously mentioned software packages. A DAR OMR8 recorder, which has 8 channels, allows 8 cassettes to be digitised in 88 minutes. Another possibility would be the Yamaha multi-channel hard disk recorder with up to 24 channels, or devices similar to this, eg Mackie, etc.
6. PC based hard disk recording using software such as Cool Edit or even low-tech singulator (Aipl) software. A mini-man or similar sound card allowing multi-channel recording coupled with cassette decks, such as the Yamaha, would allow similar outputs as PCM.WAV. However, file numbering may cause a problem if Cool Edit is used. All devices would have to detect the tone indexing. The method found most effective is to use a notch filter set at 62 Hz between the audio analogue source and the sound card or input device. This removes tone indexing and allows large pauses between each audio segment.
7. The previous set-up could be used with a full sized mini disk unit (eg SONY) replacing the PC. Then the mini disk would automatically chunk the audio file every time there was an audio gap longer than 2 seconds.
1. Visually impaired people who have lawfully obtained a copy of a published work, whether bought or borrowed, may make whatever transcription, copy or format changes they require to enable personal access to the work, including speech synthesis, Braille, Moon, large print, single voice recording (speech), electronic file, provided the work is not readily commercially available in a suitable format.
2. Visually impaired people may ask another person or organisation, including schools, libraries and charities, to create an accessible copy on their behalf, provided that any such copy is made for the personal use of the visually impaired person concerned only. This includes use for the purpose of work or study.
3. A non-electronic copy e.g. single voice recording (speech) or a Braille copy may be borrowed or exchanged among visually impaired people as if it were the print original itself.
4. Electronic copies may be created and stored on a computer system for as long as required to enable personal use of the work while the original is retained. They may not be made accessible or passed on to a third party or posted on an Intranet, in newsgroups or on the World Wide Web. If the original is lent, sold or given away, then any accessible copies and associated electronic files must be deleted or transferred with the original.
5. Visually impaired people must respect the literary and artistic integrity of the work including any copyright notices and any moral rights the author may have in the work. They must not in any way adapt, edit, alter, amend or distort the work, other than as required to enable full access, without the prior permission of the author or his or her designated representative.
6. The copyright remains with the copyright owner. Rightsholders retain the right to exclude the use of certain formats in special circumstances and permission must be sought for such use from the relevant rightsholders.
[From February 2002, see the RNIB website (www.rnib.org.uk) for 'Frequently asked questions' on the above and their answers. They will also be in the next issue of Visability, a magazine of particular interest to teachers and librarians. Ed]
As a service to members we are offering to create links from the COTIS website to your own.
Any member (individual or organisation) wishing to take up this facility should forward their details to the Tarporley office. Email: administrator@cotis.org.uk
by Linda Pearce, Editor
On Track brings to your attention details about equipment, materials and services that COTIS feels will be of interest to you. Please note that this is for your information only. COTIS is not endorsing them or making any recommendations. Equally, reviews are personal comments by the writers of the articles.
If you would like to submit an article, send details of any forthcoming events which may be of interest to COTIS members, or take advertising space, all text or art work should be received in the COTIS Project Office in Tarporley at the latest by:
29 April for May's issue,
13 September for October's issue and
02 January for January's issue.
Advertising Costs: ¼ page £30; ½ page £55; full page £110. 10% discount to COTIS members.
© Written permission to use any On Track article or other COTIS
material to be obtained from
The COTIS Secretary, Project Office, 67 High Street, Tarporley,
Cheshire, CW6 0DP, tel: 01829-733351 (answerphone), or Email:
ontrack@cotis.org.uk .
or from the On Track editor.
COTIS, Project Office, 67 High Street, Tarporley, Cheshire, CW6 0DP, United Kingdom.
Telephone: +44 (0)1829 733351
Email: administrator@cotis.org.uk
COTIS President: Sir John A. Wall - Charity Number 299024
COTIS Web Site last updated 24th June 2005