Overview
A common issue that users often encounter is the need to manually seek or skip parts of a video to find specific information, which can be time-consuming and lead to frustration. Chaptering solves this problem by breaking up long or extensive content into smaller, more manageable segments, making it easier for users to navigate the content and find the information they need. Chapters can also give users a general idea of what the content is about or what topics are covered.
Note: In DEMS, 'Chapters' are called 'Topics.' They function the same way as Chapters, the only difference being the name. This article explains these functionalities using an EVCM Portal, so the terms 'Chaptering' or 'Chapters' are used here.
Concepts
VIDIZMO offers several ways to add chapters to your Portal content. You can manually add chapters through the Media or Evidence settings or use Studio Space, which offers additional functionalities to create more precise chapters.
Another way to create chapters for your content is to utilize the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer app for AI-based chaptering. The application provides 'Chaptering' as an AI insight that allows you to process your content. AI-based chaptering requires audio and video files to be transcribed. The application uses an AI model that analyzes the transcriptions and automatically creates chapters with their timestamps and titles.
If you are manually creating chapters, you can use any language you want. However, when using the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer for automatic chaptering, you may experience limitations with rare or unsupported languages. Refer to Language Support for more information. You can also create chapters in multiple languages for your Media. To ensure consistency, these chapters will be preserved and saved even if you change the global language of your Portal.
Chapters also appear in content shared externally. For example, chapters appear in content playing on an embedded audio or video playback widget.
In the VIDIZMO portal, chapters can be created either manually or automatically. Let's explore each option.
Create Chapters Manually
One way to add chapters manually is to go to your Media or Evidence settings and provide the timestamps and titles for the chapters in the 'Chapter' section. Note that the chapter section is only available for audio and video files.
Consecutive Chapter Creation
After creating the first chapter with the correct format, you need to provide the start time timestamp and the title for the second chapter after switching to the next line. The start time timestamp of the second chapter acts as the end time for the first chapter. In other words, the first chapter ends where the second chapter begins. This happens to all the chapters you continue to create subsequently.
After you add the chapters, you can view them on the playback page in the Chapters tab. You can also go back to the Media Settings and make needed adjustments to the chapters for your Media files if the chapters need to be updated or if they are not up to mark
Chapter Thumbnails
When your content is being processed, VIDIZMO generates preview thumbnails for your video content; you can view these thumbnails when you hover over the seek bar on the player. The chapter thumbnail is taken from the preview thumbnail closest to the chapter's start time timestamp.
Chapter Creation Considerations
Some specific rules or conditions need to be met for valid chapter creation without any issues. You can’t save the chapters in your content if any of these conditions are not met:
- You need to create at least two chapters for the chapter functionality to work for your content.
- There needs to be a minimum time interval of 10 seconds between each chapter.
- The start time timestamp you specify for the chapter must not exceed the runtime or total duration of the audio or video.
Studio Space
If Studio Space is part of your product package, you can use it to add chapters to your content manually, as well as other interactivity elements like surveys, quizzes, or handouts. The advantage of chaptering in studio space is that you can view your content while creating the chapters in real time, which helps you determine if they are created or segmented according to the way you want. You can also make the needed adjustments to the chapters you’ve created while the content is active in real-time to make your chapter creation more precise and accurate.
After publishing your content, chapters created in Studio Space appear in your content’s settings and playback page. See the Studio Space process in detail here: How to Add Chapters using Studio Space
Automatic Chaptering
In addition to manual chapter creation, VIDIZMO allows you to generate chapters automatically using the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer application. However, your content must be transcribed for this functionality to work. If your content does not have transcriptions available, the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer will automatically generate them and then develop the chapters accordingly. To see how you can configure the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer app for Chaptering, see Configuring VIDIZMO Audio Indexer for Chaptering
You can also use any indexing application to add these transcriptions (including the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer itself). Aside from the Indexing applications, transcriptions can be added to your content using various indexing applications, see Azure Video Analyzer ARM, AWS Indexer App, or the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer.
Concepts
The VIDIZMO Audio Indexer creates chapters for your content based on the information provided in the transcriptions. The AI model used for this functionality analyzes the transcriptions and then automatically creates the timestamps and titles for the chapters when it finds a specific topic or piece of information being covered in your content.
Note: Chapters Generated this way will always be in the (HH:MM:SS) (Hours:Minutes:Seconds) format. The application will also always try to generate at least two chapters for your content.
Automatic Chaptering Considerations
In some cases, chapter generation can be significantly affected or not be possible for your content. This can occur in cases where:
1. Quality of Transcriptions
The transcriptions of your content determine how the chapters will be generated. If you want your chapters to be as accurate as possible regarding timestamps and titles, ensure that the transcriptions are as accurate as possible.
2. Unsupported language
If the transcription is in an obscure language that the AI model used by the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer can't recognize, it will not generate chapters. See Language Support below for more information related to language support.
3. Short Duration
The AI model may or may not generate chapters for content that has a duration which is less than one minute. In such cases, it may not find enough context to segment the information into the minimum requirement of two chapters.
4. Hallucinations
Sometimes, the model can generate chapters incorrectly, especially regarding timestamps, due to LLM hallucinations. VIDIZMO has implemented checks to counter these hallucinations, such as retry mechanisms and timestamp validations.
If you encounter a problem with inaccurate chapters generated this way, it is recommended that you process the content for chaptering again (such as on-demand processing).
Language Support
The VIDIZMO Audio Indexer also includes support for multiple languages other than English. It offers support for chapter generation in over 30 languages, especially the most prominent or spoken ones. Some of these languages are:
- English
- German
- French
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Hindi
- Spanish
- Thai
Account Metrics
Automatic Chapter Generation done by the VIDIZMO Audio Indexer app utilizes AI processing as a consumption metric for your VIDIZMO Account. To learn how you can view consumption reports, refer to Consumption Reports for SaaS Deployment Overview.
Copy Content with Chapters
When you copy content with Insights generated on it, you can copy or retain these Insights on the copy that will be created; this also applies to chapters that are part of these Insights. So, when you make a copy of content with chapters, you can retain the Chapters on the new copy like the original content. This feature also works for bulk copying and different content formats, such as audio or video.
For more information on copying, refer to Copying Evidence Across Portals in Your VIDIZMO Account
Note: Certain activities on your VIDIZMO portal can lead to the removal of Insights or Chapters. An example of this is clipping.
Chapter Editing
If your content already has chapters created for it, then processing that media for the AI chaptering insight will override the created chapters and replace them with the new ones. However, you can edit the chapters later via Media Settings or Studio Space.