TESTIMONIALS - The Captioning Studio

“The Captioning Studio’s live captioning service has been trialled with our graduate programs with great success. We have been really impressed by the speed and quality of the access that The Captioning Studio’s highly skilled captioning services have provided for us.”
Professor Greg Leigh, Director of the Renwick Centre, The Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC).

“It was a pleasure to see The Captioning Studio awarded the Australian Human Rights Award for Business for their dedication to the Australian Deaf Community and hard of hearing people in Australia. It’s great to see a successful business inspired by personal experience providing top quality captioning and giving back to the community.”
Colin Allen, President of the World Federation of the Deaf.

“The Captioning Studio is Australia’s outstanding captioning service”.
Editorial in Better Hearing Australia’s Official Journal.

“The Captioning Studio has worked tirelessly to promote and provide access in a wide variety of areas for people with hearing impairment and I congratulate them on this fantastic award. People with disability should have the same opportunities as all Australians and the ongoing commitment of The Captioning Studio to creating an inclusive and accessible society is helping make this a reality.”

Kate Ellis, Member for Adelaide

“I have seen firsthand the outstanding work The Captioning Studio does to improve accessibility for people of all abilities. We are highly impressed by The Captioning Studio’s innovative technology, which continues to provide greater opportunities and accessibility for so many people with disability.”

“I wish to thank The Captioning Studio for your wonderful realtime captioning service this year. Your service has been accurate, reliable, thoughtful and very caring towards the needs of the student. I have greatly appreciated your personalised and individualised approach. Many thanks.”
Deborah Hormann, Disability Liaison Coordinator, University of Ballarat.

“Beautiful Kate Productions has been impressed with the quality of the DVD and teletext captioning produced by The Captioning Studio for the feature film ‘Beautiful Kate’. The Captioning Studio’s professionalism, attention to detail and timeliness has been first class.”
Bryan Brown & Leah Churchill-Brown, Producers of the film ‘Beautiful Kate’.

With the move to remote working they have been essential to our business continuity and ensuring we can continue to deliver our range of programs and services to our clients. “The Captioning Studio has been my “Rock” of support during Covid. Always supportive, flexible and professional.”

Noel Henderson, General Manager Fundraising & Development, Deaf Children Australia.

“The Captioning Studio’s team deliver an extremely professional service and it is obvious that they really care about the service they are providing. Their clear and timely communication makes coordination a breeze. Feedback from the caption-viewing community has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Anna Donald, Captioning Manager, TVNZ.

“The feedback we received from the conference participants about your captioning was very positive. A number of attendees indicated it was the best captioning they had ever seen!”
John Richards, Chairperson, National Association of Australian Teachers of the Deaf, speaking about our live realtime captioning at the ANZCED National Conference.

“I have seen firsthand the outstanding work The Captioning Studio does to improve accessibility for people of all abilities, so it’s no surprise to me they were chosen from more than 200 nominations across the country. We are highly impressed by The Captioning Studio’s innovative technology, which continues to provide greater opportunities and accessibility for so many people with disability.”
Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers,Senator Jan McLucas.

“Alex French and staff from The Captioning Studio are of great assistance to students and staff here. With their prompt and efficient service, students’ work is always available. New technology has been shared on campus to produce a quality service for all concerned.”
Flinders University – Health, Counselling and Disability Services.

“The Bell Shakespeare Company has been delighted to have The Captioning Studio provide theatre captioning for its productions. Their technology has impressed us greatly as it offers features not found in theatre captioning systems used elsewhere in the world. We would certainly recommend The Captioning Studio’s theatre captioning service and technology for the delivery of a high-quality service.”
Lynne Emmanuel, Marketing Manager, The Bell Shakespeare Company.

“Accessing information remains a significant barrier for people with deafness, and The Captioning Studio’s service offers an optimal opportunity for inclusive and accessible information for everyone in both written and sign language formats – this is the way forward”.
Kyle Miers, Manager, Deaf Children Australia.

“The quality of captioning, both online and offline, provided by The Captioning Studio to Seven is of the highest standard. Seven is very selective in the contractors it uses for captioning and is glad to have The Captioning Studio working alongside.”
Captioning Manager, Seven Network.

“The Captioning Studio offered us the best combination of high-quality captioning, technological expertise and approach to customer service. The transition to our new captioning service has been seamless and we are delighted with the standard of captioning.”
Station Manager, Channel Nine Perth.

“The Captioning Studio are trailblazers in captioning technology!”
The Canberra Times.

“I have seen a lot of captioning, both here and in the USA, over the years. I can’t recall ever seeing one as good. Certainly none better! Thank you, and congratulations.”
Jenny Rosen, Deafness Forum Committee, about our live remote realtime captioning service.

“The Captioning Studio has been fantastic. Your team has been most helpful with supporting our requirements. The student has found the service outstanding and has been able to participate in the lecture sessions on a ‘real-time’ basis. The captioner is literally 2 words behind what is being spoken. Amazing! We would highly recommend real-time captioning for lectures, a fantastic new approach to service delivery and flexible teaching.”
Melanie Kovacs, Disability Manager, University of Canberra.

“I am really pleased to be able to offer this captioning service to the Wollongong community. The GoTheatrical! system by The Captioning Studio is the best solution I have seen and I believe it will rapidly become a standard feature in venues across Australia.”
Simon Hinton, Merrigong Artistic Director/CEO.

“The speed, accuracy and quality of your captioning work for our seminar program was indeed ‘awesome’. The audience was not only given the needed interpretation, but treated to an amazing display of immediate real time translation. Exceedingly impressive.”
Steve Robin, Project Manager, Deafness Expo.

“Thank you for providing this realtime captioning service today. It is just fantastic. I’m over the moon! I couldn’t ask for any more. I would love to see this as a feature of all future conferences. It should be. It needs to be. There’s a first time for everything, and this is the first time, believe it or not, that I’ve ever been into a room, a conference, a lecture theatre, a seminar, a workshop, and I’ve actually understood everything the speakers have said. And that’s because of The Captioning Studio’s captioning access. It is brilliant! In the 57 years of my life, I have never had that sort of facility. I went through 10 years at university where I slept through all my lectures as I just could not hear. I managed to pass by the skin of my teeth! But, God, this captioning is just wonderful. It is magnificent accuracy. I really appreciate it. What a contrast to the standard of captioning on TV, which is woeful, just woeful.”
Hearing impaired architect speaking on the record about our live realtime captioning service at a National access conference.

“I would like to thank and congratulate those theatre administrators and those theatre companies who have embraced the need to provide for people with disability. Who realise it is such an easy thing to do. Well, taking it up is easy. And the technology we are launching today will be remarkably easy to use.
It was not so easy to conceive, develop and implement! It took talent, it took research, it took acumen. Above all, it took will.
Nari Jennings from The Captioning Studio had that will….
This morning would not be complete without paying tribute to Nari.
Acquainted with hearing loss through her own family, she was inspired to ensure people could share the joy of theatre after her first experience of opera at the age of 16. An Aunt took her to La Boheme.
She determined to ensure that other people could share the unforgettable experience of that wonderful opera.
We all owe her our thanks and our gratitude, for her generosity and her talent.
Thanks to her, many people who would not otherwise be able to do so, will be able to share with their fellow Australians many wonderful nights at the theatre.
Thank you, Nari. It is entirely appropriate that the Australian Human Rights Commission recognised you and your team with the Human Rights Business Award last year.”
Federal Senator Jan McLucas speaking at the launch of The Captioning Studio’s theatre captioning app.

“Your realtime captioning was brilliant, first class and accurate.”
Ted Drowley, former National President, Better Hearing Australia.

” You did a fantastic job of captioning our recent event. I have never before seen such fast and accurate captioning!”
Trish Tracey, CEO, Melbourne Deaflympic Games.

“Wow – the captioning was fantastically received at the launch!”
Donna Bush, Marketing Manager, Canberra Theatre. 2005.

“This really is the best example of realtime captioning I’ve ever seen.”
Bob Willis From Word Of Mouth Technology speaking on the record about our realtime captioning at the Better Hearing Australia conference.

” I say again that we have been so impressed by the quality of the captioning here.”
Derik Ward, Better Hearing Australia, referring to our live realtime captioning.

“On behalf of the Melbourne Deaflympic Games, thank you once again for a fantastic job at our event last Tuesday!”
Natalie Dean, Marketing Manager, Deaflympics.

“Thank you for doing such a wonderful job of realtime captioning our AGM. We do appreciate it.”
Paula de Hair, President, Australian Tinnitus Association.

” If we are serious about advocacy, which is what we are here for, then everything we do should demonstrate good accessibility, good practice. Now, to be honest, some of the PowerPoint slides I have seen today have been a waste of time – we have struggled to read them. But just have a look to my right at The Captioning Studio’s captioning screen here, which, ironically enough, is for people with hearing impairment. This is the best example you could possibly get of visually accessible slides. It has a Sans Serif font, a large font size, a left-aligned margin and ragged right end. It is brilliant!”
Access consultant speaking at a 2008 National Access Conference, referring to our realtime captioning service.

“Theatre should be inclusive. By offering the Go-Theatrical! service by The Captioning Studio, we make theatre accessible and enjoyable to so many people who would not otherwise attend.”
Andrew McKinnon, Theatre Producer.

“We wanted to gauge how many people use captions, so I stood at the back of auditorium and I was amazed just how many people were turning their heads to look at the screens. Patrons frequently call us after a captioned performance to enquire about ‘more performances with those screens’. GoTheatrical! by The Captioning Studio has been an incredibly successful access initiative.”
Gill Hugonnet, Programming Manager, Canberra Theatre Centre.

“The Captioning Studio embraced the challenge of providing theatre captioning and developed their own patented theatre captioning system, which has proved to be superior to other theatre systems used across the country. The Captioning Studio pride themselves on providing the highest quality service and both Canberra Theatre Centre and The Captioning Studio have received a number of awards that recognise this service. But most importantly, the community, both deaf and hearing impaired, has embraced the service as well as the broader audience. Canberra Theatre Centre is recognised by theatre venues, peak disability service bodies and theatre companies as a ‘Best Practice Model’ for other performing arts centres. These successes can be largely credited to our successful partnership with The Captioning Studio. Live theatre timeframes are non-negotiable. The curtain must go up at the scheduled start time. The Captioning Studio have always delivered and have had no problems in working in this unique atmosphere. The Captioning Studio have worked seamlessly within the theatre environment working across the board with theatre staff from management to technicians as well as with the production companies, backstage crews and performers.”
Emma Dykes, former Programming Manager, Canberra Theatre Centre.

“I had been really impressed with my first captioning experience at the Royal Shakespeare at Stratford a few years ago and had been disappointed with other experiences until this one – the Go-Theatrical! captioning of Scarlett O’Hara At The Crimson Parrot at the Arts Centre in Melbourne. It was just as good.”
Margaret Robertson, hearing impaired patron, Melbourne.

“I would like to thank The Captioning Studio for producing the live captioning at the Playhouse Theatre in Canberra on Saturday. Fifteen of my Better Hearing Australia Canberra group members, all who have a hearing loss, attended and had a wonderful afternoon. Many of my members had not been to the theatre for years because they could not hear well enough to follow the dialogue. I even noticed my friends who have good hearing looking at the captions now and again when they missed what was being said, so we all benefited by having the live captions. I look forward to many happy hours enjoying live theatre again this season at the Playhouse Theatre. Thank you to The Captioning Studio and The Canberra Theatre Centre!”
Ms Sue Daw, President, Canberra Division, Better Hearing Australia.

“I just thought I’d let you know how very much I enjoyed attending the captioned performance on 26 February. I was just so delighted to be able to attend live theatre again. I thought the captioning was 100%! Thank you for the time and effort you so obviously and enthusiastically give to an area much neglected.”
Ms Suzanne Mitchell, hearing impaired patron.

Oh, woe is me!
But hark! In Canberra recently,
On yonder wall did I see
A billboard
Extolling a show – for me!
Live theatre with captions?
Can it be?
This surely was something that
I must see.
For the first time in years, I can honestly say I didn’t miss a single word of a performance, thanks to captions. And I now understand more about Shakespeare’s play than I ever did. How can this be? With the magic of captions, theatre came alive and accessible again.”
Ms Rosslyn Werner, hearing impaired patron, SA, emailing us after seeing one of our GoTheatrical! captioned performances.

“The Captioning Studio use different coloured texts to differentiate between actors. They position the captions on the screen to correspond with where the actors are standing on the stage. If an actor is on the left of the stage, the captions appear in phrases on the left of the screen; if the actors is stage right, the captions appear on the right of the screen; and if the actor is centre stage, the captions are centred on screen. The feature I like most about the captions is that they don’t scroll upwards, which I have always found tiring and sometimes confusing to read as I have often lost my place as they scrolled up. The Captioning Studio’s theatre captions appear on screen one line at a time, eight lines being the maximum on the screen, and then the screen clears and the new captions start again. The captions also never pre-empt any of the dialogue being delivered by the actors. The different caption colours, the placement of captions on the screen, the presentation of the captions and the varying number of caption lines on the screen give variety to reading the captions, which makes them interesting and very easy to follow.”
Vice-President, Services & Training, Better Hearing Australia.

“We were very fortunate to have our beautiful Civic Theatre selected for a live captioned performance of Andrew McKinnon’s production of the highly acclaimed Dickens Women at the Civic Theatre in October. The theatre was packed and it was not only the hearing impaired people that loved the captioning but other members of the audience as well who may have had some difficulty with some of the pronunciations and accents. The live captioning was excellent, thanks to the wonderful work of The Captioning Studio. We have heard that the Civic management was so impressed that they are hoping to offer more captioned performances in the near future.”
Karen Dempsey, hearing impaired patron, Newcastle.