Automated Lecture Recording Subtitling System - Soft Market Testing Exercise

The University of Southampton is currently exploring a range of options to meet its need for automated subtitling of lecture video recordings. The University is keen to explore all options that may be currently available in the marketplace.

Students use videos of lectures to revisit taught content. Some groups of students benefit from subtitles on videos, especially those with additional learning needs or with English as an additional language (EAL). Lectures are recorded using Panopto.

The University is conducting soft market testing for an automated subtitling system for lecture video recordings that must include the following: - A high degree of transcription accuracy in real-world scenarios (including a range of acoustics, voices, accents and background noise) - A pricing model that defines the University's costs - A operational and/or support model that reduces the costs to the University - Ability to cope with ~55k lecture recordings per annum, with a processing time limited to 12 hours per recording - Ability to cope service approximately ~1m hours of video per annum (or integration with existing services that provide this) and scalable to support future growth beyond this - Ability to integrate with existing University services to give an excellent student experience (e.g. Blackboard, Panopto, Banner etc.)

This soft market exercise is intended to allow interested organisations with appropriate experience to outline their views and provide impartial information to the University with no commitment to themselves or the University. It is not part of a formal procurement process nor shall the University be committed to carrying out such a process. The ultimate aim is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various solutions available to the University to deliver the outcomes above.

The aim of the soft market test is not to select organisations with which to work, it is to better understand the solutions available in the market to inform the University's strategy for fulfilling their requirements. It can, however, be viewed as an opportunity for contractors to become more familiar with the University's automated lecture subtitling needs and inform the University of their organisation and relative services.

The soft market testing process will consist of submission of the Soft Market Testing Questionnaire (SMTQ) using the In-Tend portal. Further details regarding the completion and submission of the SMTQ can be found within the questionnaire document.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a call for competition at this stage.

Additional information: The University is utilising an electronic tendering tool (In-Tend: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofsouthampton) to manage this soft market testing exercise and to communicate with suppliers. All documentation in relation to this project can be downloaded from the In-Tend portal.

Bidders are advised that there will be no hard copy documents issued to organisations and all communications with the University including the submission of Soft Market Testing Exercise Questionnaires (SMTEQ) will be conducted via the In-Tend portal.

Regular monitoring of the portal is the responsibility of the supplier.

If you are not already registered as a supplier with the University of Southampton, you will need to register in In-Tend in order to access the SMTEQ documentation.

Once you have logged in as a supplier: click on 'Tenders'; locate the relevant project; and click 'View Details'. Once you are in the project screen, you will be able to register your company against the project and access all documentation by clicking 'Express Interest'.

Further instructions for the submission of SMTEQ responses are below. To submit your return, please follow the instructions below: 1. Log In 2. Click 'Tenders' 3. Locate the relevant project 4. View Details 5. Click on the tab relating to the relevant project stage (e.g. 'Soft Market Testing Exercise') 6. Click on the 'Attach Documents' button and upload your return. 7. Check ALL your response documents are uploaded and displayed in the "My Tender Return" panel. The system will only permit your organisation to make one return. 8. Click the red "Submit Return" button.

Please note that, to preserve the integrity of the tendering procedure, all queries must made be via the correspondence function within the In-Tend portal.