Word up for Webcasts

E-Media (www.e-media.com), a streaming provider, announced a partnership with WordWave ( www.wordwave.com), a digital transcription and database company, to create a closed captioning service for live and on-demand streaming. The product allows organizations to use streaming media to communicate with hearing-impaired individuals.

Perry Solomon, WordWave CEO, said that the product was useful for government agencies that use streaming. Government agencies have been required under section 508 to accompany their broadcasts with closed captioning.

E-Media has sold its closed captioning service to Skehan Communications (www.skehan.com), a webcasting company that works with government agencies. "We approached e-Media two months ago, as the June 21 section 508 deadline was approaching," said Mike Skehan, president of Skehan Communications. "We have numerous federal agency clients who have displayed a demand for real-time closed captioning during their webcasts."

The E-Media/ Wordwave product also makes event clips searchable by spoken word to help users locate a specific topics and comment. In addition, users can request transcripts of events.