ENCO Unleashes Raptor Cloud-Based Captioning at NAB New York

ENCO introduces Raptor, a new cloud-based captioning encoder, to North American broadcasters at NAB New York. Designed for simple and fast deployment, Raptor makes it easy to embed closed captions (CEA-608) into live video streams. Built on a fully software-defined infrastructure, it combines AI-driven automation with compatibility for popular formats like SRT, RTMP, and HLS, making it a flexible and scalable solution for broadcasters and AV professionals managing live events.

In partnership with StreamGuys, ENCO ensures Raptor delivers reliable performance through a secure hosting environment and full integration with the StreamGuys Contribution Network. Users gain access to powerful features like protocol transmuxing and automatic AI captioning with high accuracy, without needing any on-premise hardware. The collaboration reflects ENCO’s vision to accelerate cloud-based workflows across broadcast, streaming, and live production environments.

ENCO this week debuts its latest award-winning captioning innovation to North American broadcasters at NAB New York. Introduced at IBC last month, Raptor is a cloud-based captioning encoder that offers a simple and straightforward way to embed CEA-608 Closed Captions into a live program stream. A convergence of pure software-defined infrastructure with AI and automated captioning workflows, Raptor’s quick-deploy capabilities offer powerful new captioning options for live broadcast. sports and AV events.

Raptor adds new depth to ENCO’s market-leading range of captioning solutions as the company’s first cloud-based captioning encoder. Raptor’s software-defined architecture invites customization at any point along the chain to best match the workflows and standards in use, supporting SRT, RTMP, HLS and other video streams at the source or destination.

Longtime ENCO partner StreamGuys will provide the hosting infrastructure for Raptor, offering customers a secure and reliable live streaming captioning service. Along with access to StreamGuys’ technical support and network uptime, customers are empowered through Raptor’s seamless integration with StreamGuys’ Contribution Network. The enterprise streaming media ecosystem will receive a live stream from any source, and provide an on-ramp to the Contribution Network to pass embedded Closed Captions in a variety of formats.

Raptor customers will also have access to other valuable Contribution Network services, such as transmuxing between protocols. The process efficiently repackages streams into many formats to ensure compatibility with more user devices, enabling wider audience access to broadcast and streaming events.

Raptor injects the speed, power and reliability of ENCO’s real-time, proven AI capabilities into process, incorporating the AI-based workflow from ENCO’s enCaption solutions to automatically generate captions with industry-leading accuracy. As hosted on the StreamGuys infrastructure with no physical encoder to maintain, customers are assured an agile solution that is quick to configurewith the ability to inject captions at nearly any stage.

“We see many new interesting use cases for Raptor as hosted within our infrastructure, including captions for live visual radio broadcasts and integration with our ULLS ultra-low-latency streaming for in-venue sports and live events,” said Eduardo Martinez, Vice President of Technology for StreamGuys. “Our infrastructure is optimized for broadcasters in ways that more effectively serve and adapt to their needs than public clouds that often lack important specialized features for professional broadcast and streaming workflows.”

“Raptor’s pure software-defined architecture unlocks captioning opportunities for content producers without the constraints of hardware dependency. Our partnership with StreamGuys ensures quick deployment and support for multiple types of streams, strengthened through many years of familiarity and experience with ENCO’s TV, radio and AV solutions,” said Ken Frommert, President, ENCO. “Together, we are providing a solution that addresses the increasing shift of broadcast and video production workflows to the cloud, further strengthened through ENCO’s proven automated captioning innovations.”