Multi-language audio and subtitles

Introduction

Digital signage has evolved to become a powerful tool for communication and engagement across diverse audiences. Integrating multi-language audio and subtitles/closed captions into digital signage enhances accessibility and inclusivity, ensuring that content is comprehensible and engaging for everyone. Multi-language audio allows viewers to select their preferred language, making the content more relatable and effective. Subtitles and closed captions provide essential text overlays that translate spoken dialogue and describe audio elements, catering to non-native speakers and individuals with hearing impairments.

SpinetiX offers advanced digital signage solutions that support these features, enabling businesses to deliver dynamic, localized, and accessible content to a global audience.

Multi-language audio

Multi-language audio refers to the availability of audio tracks in different languages within a single video file. This allows viewers to choose their preferred language for the audio, and is particularly useful for interactive displays in environments like museums, airports, and shopping malls.

Elementi support

Starting with Elementi 2023 (4.8.0), when opening a video file, all the available audio tracks are shown in the media information panel, including the language code. You can also use third-party software, like MediaInfo or VLC, to get detailed information about media files, including its audio tracks.

For any video file with multiple audio tracks, the first audio track is selected by default. You can select a specific audio track from the Layer Properties dialog → Advanced tab by setting the spx:audio attribute to a language code (e.g., "ENG" for English, "FRA" for French, "SPA" for Spanish), "QAA" (for the original language), "QAD" (for audio description), or to a number (using the #n syntax, available from version 4.8.4 onwards).

Select audio track tutorial

Get started

Multi-audio sample project

Version 1.0 (2024-08-23)

Download the sample project provided on the right to get started quickly.

Otherwise, follow these steps:

Start with your Elementi project, or create a new one if needed.
In the Browse panel, navigate to your project and double-click on its icon to open it.
- The last tab in the Browse panel takes the name of the project and the main index file is automatically opened in the Preview panel.
Import a video file into your project.
- Drag and drop the video file from Windows Explorer into the Browse panel of Elementi.
- Make sure the video file contains multiple audio tracks.
Add the video to your layout:
- Drag the video file from the Browse panel directly into the Preview panel.
- Adjust the size and position of the video within the Preview panel as needed.

Select audio track

To change the audio track in a video file with multiple audio tracks, follow these steps:

Open the layer properties .
Go to the Advanced tab.
Click on the "Click to add..." field under the "Name" column, the selection box is expanded.
Select the spx:audio attribute from the list.
Click on the right column next to it (under the "Value" column).
Type the language code of the audio that you want to use and press Enter on your keyboard.
Click on OK to close the layer properties Save your project.

Note:

From version 4.8.4 onwards, you can also select an audio track by its track number using the #n syntax. This added flexibility makes it easier to specify exactly which audio track should be played, whether by language code or by track number.

Subtitles and Closed caption

Introduced in Elementi 2023 (version 4.8.0, released on September 27th, 2023), the software now supports the use of subtitles and closed captioning (CC) to enhance video accessibility. This includes support for various subtitle formats and the ability to display subtitles in multiple languages.

Enabling subtitles and closed captioning

To enable subtitles or closed captions, similar to switching language audio tracks, the attribute spx:subtitles should be added.

With the spx:subtitles attribute, you can select a specific subtitle track by providing:

A language code (e.g., "ENG" for English, "FRA" for French).
"ON" to select the first available subtitle track.
"CC" to select the closed captioning track.
"CC1", "CC2", "CC3", or "CC4" for closed captioning on specific channels.

Notes:

To check the available subtitles and closed caption and their corresponding language codes, open the media file inside Elementi directly. Alternatively, you can use third-party software like MediaInfo to get detailed information about media files, or VLC as another tool.
Supported subtitle formats include EIA-708 (Line 21), Teletext, DVB, DVD, Blu-ray, SubRip (SRT), and (Advanced) SubStation Alpha (ASS/SSA).
Some subtitles or closed captions may be embedded directly into the video file and may not appear within the media properties in Elementi or other software tools. In such cases, we recommend manually adding the spx:subtitles attribute and setting the 'Value' field to either 'ON' to select the first available subtitle track, or 'CC' for closed captioning. You may also try specifying 'CC1', 'CC2', 'CC3', or 'CC4' to access additional closed captioning channels.

Tutorial

Subtitle sample project

Version 1.0 (2024-08-23)

To display subtitles or closed caption in a video file, follow these steps. You can also download the sample project provided above to get started more quickly. If you use the provided sample project, you can skip steps 1 to 3.

Create an Elementi project.
Import a video containing subtitles and/or closed caption.
Add the video to the edit panel.
Open the layer properties .
Go to the Advanced tab.
Click on the "Click to add..." field under the "Name" column, the selection box is expanded.
Select the spx:subtitles attribute from the list.
Click on the right column next to it (under the "Value" column).
Type the language code of the subtitle that you want to use and press Enter on your keyboard.
Click on OK to close the layer properties Save your project.

Subtitle appearance

The spx:subtitlesFormat attribute (available from version 4.8.0) allows you to customize how subtitles are displayed. You can adjust various style options, such as:

Font family: Change the font used for subtitles (e.g., "Arial").
Font size: Increase or decrease the subtitle text size.
Text color: Set the primary, secondary, tertiary, and background colors using hexadecimal BGR format.

The syntax is based on the Advanced SubStation Alpha (ASS) V4 style declarations, but provided as key-values pairs. The fields are as follows: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, TertiaryColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, Underline, StrikeOut, ScaleX, ScaleY, Spacing, Angle, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Encoding.

For instance, to change the font family to Arial, increase the font size, and make the text color blue, use this:

<video xlink:href="..." spx:subtitles="on" spx:subtitlesFormat="Fontname=Arial,Fontsize=18,PrimaryColour=&Hff0000&"/>

To change the font family to Helvetica, increase the font size, and make the text color yellow and italic, use this:

<video xlink:href="..." spx:subtitles="on" spx:subtitlesFormat="Fontname=Helvetica,Fontsize=18,PrimaryColour=&H00FFFF&,Italic=-1"/>

Notes:

The fields specifying a color must be spelled with "colour" (British format) and their values are expressed in hexadecimal BGR format as &HBBGGRR& or &HAABBGGRR& (with alpha channel).
Transparency (alpha) can be expressed as &HAA&, where "00" is opaque and "FF" is transparent. For boolean values, use "-1" for true and "0" for false.
This doesn’t apply to bitmap subtitles like DVB, hybrid like Teletext, nor does it override specific instructions if present in the subtitles source. Also beware of the risk of collision if increasing the font size on formats with explicit positioning of text like EIA-608.

Introduction