New Zealand Parliament selects Ericsson for live captioning services

NEW DELHI:Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson said that it has won an exclusive multi-year access services contract with the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives in New Zealand.

The contract will see Ericsson remotely deliver live captioning services for the Parliament TV broadcasts of the sittings of the New Zealand House of Representatives. The new captioning service will be available on Parliament TV for the first time from August 2016.

David Wilson, Clerk of the House of Representatives, says "One in nine people in New Zealand uses captions when watching TV content. So providing live captioning for our Parliament TV audience is a significant advance towards making Parliament's information even more accessible. As a result live captioning will enable more people in our communities to be informed about and involved in the work of their Parliament."

Thorsten Sauer, Head of Broadcast and Media Services, Ericsson, says: "This contract to provide captioning to the New Zealand Parliament is an important win for Ericsson and marks the first time that we will be delivering our world-class captioning service to New Zealand. At Ericsson, we believe that content should be accessible by everyone, especially content that is integral to shaping a country's future and the lives of its citizens. We remain committed to investing in technology and innovation to ensure we deliver the very highest levels of service and quality to both our clients and their audiences and we look forward to building a long and successful partnership in the years to come."

In March, Ericsson announced multi-year captioning contracts with Australian public service broadcasters, ABC and SBS. In November, Ericsson also announced a multi-year news captioning contract with ANC, Australia's leading 24-hour multi-channel, multi-platform news service provider. As part of the contract, Ericsson provides captioning services for SKY NEWS-produced bulletins on Qantas flights.

Ericsson's closed captioning business is one of the largest in the world, with hubs in Australia, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the US. Ericsson has been providing captioning services for over 30 years and delivers 230,000 hours of captions every year, 100,000 of which are live. It is also the world's largest provider of TV audio description and sign-language translation.