Creating Automatic Transcripts in Flash Video Using Adobe CS4

The remainder of this article will walk you through the steps I’ve outlined, providing detailed instructions as we go.

Premiere Pro/Media Encoder
• To create a project, start by clicking File > New and going through the resulting dialog boxes to set up basic parameters for the project; give the project a name, and give the initial sequence a name.
• Bring the video clip(s) to be transcribed into the project window (in the upper left of the Premiere Pro interface) and then drag the clip(s) into the timeline. For this article, we’ll just be using one QuickTime video clip as our source.
• Open the Metadata window by selecting Window > Metadata.
• Click on the clip in the timeline, either in the video or the audio track, to select it.
• To initiate the speech transcription, click the Transcribe button at the bottom of the Metadata window.
• The Speech Transcription Options dialog appears. Choose the language you are transcribing and either High or Medium quality. Deselect the Identify Speakers check box (as shown in Figure 3) if you do not want the transcription software to attempt to identify speakers as it transcribes. (If you leave the check box selected, the transcription software inserts labels such as [Speaker 1] into the transcription.) When you have chosen the transcription options, click the OK button.
• The Adobe Media Encoder comes up with the sequence to transcribe in the queue. Click the Start Queue button (see Figure 4). The Media Encoder will create the transcription, tracking progress at the bottom of the Media Encoder window.
• When the Media Encoder is done transcribing, the initial transcription appears in the Speech Transcript area of the Metadata window.
• Edit the transcription. (For instructions on editing options, see Premiere Pro help.)
• Export an FLV file with XMP transcription metadata embedded in it. To do this, with the sequence selected in the timeline, go to File > Export > Media. The Export Settings dialog will appear. Select the FLV format and any other desired export settings. Click the option icon at the right-middle of the dialog box and select Include Source XMP Metadata. Click OK.
• Once again, the Media Encoder comes up with the sequence to transcribe in the queue. Click Start Queue. When the Media Encoder finishes encoding the FLV file, you are ready to move on to Soundbooth to create an XML file. (Premiere Pro CS4, unfortunately, lacks the ability to export XMP metadata as XML.)

Soundbooth
• Bring the most recent FLV (the one with XMP metadata) into Soundbooth. You can just drag and drop it into the timeline.
• To confirm that the speech transcript is there and in good shape, select the Edit Audio to Video workspace layout. You’ll see the transcript in the lower left of the interface.
• Select File > Export > Speech Transcription. The Save Selection As dialog comes up, ready to save an XML file. Change the default name of the file, if you wish, and click Save. Soundbooth will export an XML file containing cue point information based on the embedded XMP transcription metadata.

Let’s move on to the Media Encoder to embed cue points in the FLV.

Media Encoder
• Bring the most recent FLV (the same one you previously brought into Soundbooth) into the Media Encoder queue. You can just drag and drop it into the queue.
• Double-click in the Preset column in the row of the queue that contains the FLV. The Export Settings dialog appears.
• In the lower-left quadrant of the Export Settings dialog, click on the Import Cue Points icon.
• The Load Cue Points dialog appears. Select the XML file created in Soundbooth and click Open.
• You are returned to the Export Settings dialog. Click OK, and you’re taken back to the main Media Encoder window. While you’re here, make sure you’re configured to export an FLV and not an F4V file. (You can embed cue points in the XMP metadata of an F4V file. Parsing that metadata requires XMP-specific ActionScript code, not the code I mentioned earlier in the article.)
• Click Start Queue. The Media Encoder creates an FLV with embedded cue points.

Now for the final step—the Flash application.

Flash
There are four basic phases here:
• Create a new ActionScript 3.0 project.
• Populate the Library with the necessary components.
• Cut and paste the ActionScript code.
• Publish.

1.  Create a new project.
• On the Flash start screen, under Create New, select Flash File (ActionScript 3.0).
• Select File > Save As, enter a file name, and click Save. • Go to Modify > Document and set the dimensions a bit larger than your video (I chose 800x600 for a 720x480 video).

2.  Populate the Library.
• If the Library is not already visible, select Window > Library to bring up the Library window. This step is not really necessary, but it allows you to confirm that the Library is currently empty.
• If the Components window is not already visible, select Window > Components to bring it up.
• From the Components window, drag the following three components anywhere on the Stage: an FLVPlayback component (from the Video section), a Button component, and a TextArea component (both from the User Interface section). Then, delete all three. You will see that the Library is now populated.

3.  Cut and paste the ActionScript code.
• If the Actions panel is not already visible, select Window > Actions to bring it up.
• Copy the ActionScript code and paste it into the Actions panel.
• Change the name and location of the FLV file in the code. (The line you’re looking for starts with flvPlayer.source. Look for three asterisks in the line above it.) For testing purposes, you can leave the name and location of the sample file, which is hosted on Flash Media Server (FMS) at influxis.com, a popular hosting service for streaming applications.