12-Specifications and Requirements GEN2132684B1 Real-Time Captioning and Recording Services.pdf

SPECIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

Real-Time Captioning and Recording Services

1. Scope of Services:

The Records, Taxes, and Treasury Division (“RTT”) is seeking a qualified Vendor to provide remote real-time captioning and near-verbatim meeting minutes services for live televised County Commission meetings and other designated public meetings; and onsite reporting and transcription services for non-televised meetings, workshops, advisory board meetings, and other meetings designated by RTT on an open-end basis. No guarantees as to the number of hours or transcript pages are expressed or implied. All equipment and supplies to provide the services required herein shall be provided by the Vendor .

2. Definitions:

a. Captioner: A certified individual providing real-time closed captioning services during a meeting.

b. Contract Administrator: The Broward County (County) representative designated to administer the contract and authorize services.

c. Non-Televised Meeting: Any County meeting requiring recording and transcription services but not requiring live broadcast captioning.

d. Near-Verbatim Minutes: A transcript-style record of meeting proceedings that substantially reflects the spoken record of the meeting while incorporating formatting, punctuation, and minor editorial corrections for readability.

e. Onsite Reporting: The in-person recording, reporting, and preparation of near-verbatim meeting minutes by a qualified reporter for meetings designated by the County.

f. Televised Meeting: A meeting broadcast through County television, webcasting, or other public media platforms requiring real-time captioning services.

3. General Information:

a. Remote real-time captioning services are required for televised Commission Meetings.

b. Onsite reporting and meeting transcription services are required for non-televised

Commission Meetings (e.g., Advisory Board Meetings, Board Workshops, etc.).

c. Remote real-time captioning and reporting services shall be provided on both a scheduled and unscheduled basis.

d. RTT will make every effort to provide at least seventy-two (72) hours’ notice for unscheduled meeting requests; however, shorter notice may be provided when operational circumstances require.

e. The County Commission meets on Tuesdays once or twice each month. There are approximately twenty (20) televised County Commission meetings per year.

Occasionally, meetings may require real-time captioning on a day other than Tuesday.

i. The County Commission meetings generally commence at 10:00 a.m. ET.

ii. Two annual Budget Public Hearings are held each September and commence at

5:01 p.m. ET.

f. Vendor should be familiar with the Commission Meeting and non-televised Commission Meeting documents.

i. Sample Commission Meeting Minutes (Exbibit A) and Non-Televised Commission Meeting Minutes (Exhibit B) are included with this solicitation and are provided for reference purposes to illustrate the required format, content, and quality standards expected under this contract.

g. ALL meeting minutes shall be subject to review by RTT and must conform to the specified format as listed in Section 11. The general appearance of completed meeting minutes must reflect an overall high quality and accuracy prior to payment.

h. On occasion, meetings may extend beyond 8 hours in one day and may be interrupted for a recess period. The captioner/reporter is required to remain available until the meeting adjourns, including during recess periods when the meeting is expected to reconvene.

i. Payment will be made only for approved service time, including authorized setup and preparation time.

4. Minimum Qualifications:

a. All Captioners assigned to provide real-time captioning services must be certified by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) as a Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) and either a Certified Real-time Reporter (CRR) or Certified Real-time Captioner (CRC) at time of bid submittal.

i. Proof of certification(s) should be furnished with the bid; however, proof must be furnished within three (3) business days after request by the County. Failure to timely provide proof of certification will deem the Vendor non-responsive.

b. Captioner must have verifiable captioning experience performing work of this scope and nature. Additionally, Captioner must maintain a minimum accuracy of 98.5%, excluding technical interruptions, inaudible speech, multiple speakers talking simultaneously, or audio feed failures outside the Vendor's control.

c. Vendor shall maintain qualified backup captioners and reporters capable of assuming services with minimal interruption in the event of equipment failure, connectivity issues, or other unforeseen circumstances.

5. County Responsibilities:

a. Coordinate with Vendor to establish and schedule dates and times for real-time closed captioning service for various meetings.

b. Provide a monthly schedule of televised Commission Meetings that require remote captioning services.

c. Provide a monthly schedule of non-televised Commission Meetings that require onsite reporting services.

d. Provide access to the iCap Encoder via a dedicated IP address.

e. Provide the iCap Encoder access code for the web portal, a captioning encoder and network connectivity from the encoder to the web portal for real-time captioning of Commission meetings, and other televised meetings, as required. Network connectivity will provide soundtrack feed to the successful bidder’s captioner to receive video/audio and enable the return feed of the captioning transmission.

6. Onsite Reporting Services Requirements:

a. For reporting transcription services of non-televised Commission meetings, appearance is required 30 minutes prior to and through to the conclusion of the meeting. A one (1) hour minimum onsite appearance is required.

b. Vendor is required to provide onsite reporting services at the following location and possible off-site locations to be decided by RTT in advance of the scheduled meeting:

Broward County Governmental Center 115 South Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33301

c. Vendor is responsible for providing and operating recording equipment when meetings are not held in the Governmental Center Rooms 302, 422, or 430.

7. Remote Real-Time Closed Captioning Requirements:

a. Vendor shall complete an iCap Encoder connection test approximately thirty (30) minutes prior to the start of each captioning session and shall confirm connectivity via email or telephone with designated County staff.

b. Vendor shall provide an unedited, uncertified, raw data transcript that contains a copy of the real-time captioning session immediately following the conclusion of the meeting in Microsoft Word (.docx) format.

c. Vendor shall provide captions that include, at a minimum, the ability to adjust position on screen, number of lines, number of characters displayed on a line, frame rate adjustments and display identity of speakers.

d. Vendor shall provide the name, e-mail address, office and cellular numbers of an individual designated as the central point of contact to the County that can be reached during regular business hours and on an emergency basis after regular business hours, for the duration of the contract period and must update this information if/when staff changes occur.

8. Near-Verbatim Minutes:

a. Televised Commission Meetings:

i. County shall provide Vendor with preliminary meeting information at least one (1) business day prior to Commission Meeting for inclusion in Vendor’s captioning dictionary for proper noun accuracy.

ii. Vendor shall provide an unedited, uncertified, raw data transcript that contains a copy of the real-time captioning session immediately following the conclusion of the meeting in Microsoft Word (.docx) format, but no later than twenty-four (24) hours after meeting adjournment.

iii. Vendor shall provide completed near-verbatim minutes of the televised Commission Meeting in Microsoft Word (.docx) format within twenty-one (21) calendar days.

b. Non-televised Commission Meetings:

i. Vendor shall provide completed near-verbatim minutes of the non-televised

Commission Meeting recorded by the reporter in Microsoft Word (.docx) format within twenty-one (21) calendar days.

9. Near- Verbatim Minutes Format:

a. County will provide Vendor with preliminary meeting information (e.g., speakers, agenda, etc.) to be used in the preparation of meeting minutes.

b. County will provide Vendor with the Commission Action Agenda document to be included in the minutes. Vendor shall not include the Commission Action Agenda document in calculating the number of pages.

c. Commission Meeting Minutes (EXHIBIT A):

i. All minutes must be formatted on letter-size paper. All margins must be no more than one (1) inch. Font size must be 12-point Arial style. All documents must be full margin justified, and all pages must be numbered at the bottom right.

ii. Speaker’s name must be capitalized and flush with the margin. Following two-character spaces, colloquy material must begin with subsequent lines indented no more than five (5) spaces in paragraph format.

iii. Single line spacing must be used for dialogue. Double line spacing must be used between item numbers, speakers, and paragraphs.

iv. Agenda item numbers must be in bold and caps, written as, for example, "AGENDA

ITEM 22".

v. Must have a footer on each page that states meeting name, captioner's initials, and date of meeting.

vi. Must list the Commissioners present at the beginning of the meeting and reference within the minutes when Commissioners leave or re-enter the meeting.

vii. Must list alphabetically all roll call votes of the Commission, except for the Mayor's name which is listed last. All roll call votes and unanimous votes shall be in bold.

viii. Non-agenda items must be numbered in sequential order following regular agenda items and in the order the items are discussed. Numbers must coincide with those used for Action Agenda.

d. Non-Televised Commission Meeting Minutes (EXHIBIT B):

i. All minutes must be formatted on letter-size paper. All margins must be no more than one (1) inch. Font size must be 12-point Arial style. All documents must be full margin justified, and all pages must be numbered at the bottom right.

ii. Must list Members present and all other pertinent people responsive to that specific meeting. Vendor shall be responsible for documenting meeting attendance through the sign-in sheet provided at the meeting.

iii. Speaker’s name must be capitalized and flush with the margin. Following two character spaces, colloquy material must begin with subsequent lines indented no more than five (5) spaces in paragraph format.

iv. Single line spacing must be used for dialogue. Double line spacing must be used between speakers, and paragraphs.

v. Must have a footer on each page that states meeting name, reporter's initials, and date of meeting.

vi. Near-verbatim minutes must include meeting agenda headings for each item.

Agenda and back-up materials must be available to the Vendor one week prior to the meeting or as soon as received by RTT.

10. Quality Assurance:

a. Vendor must maintain quality control procedures to ensure accuracy, completeness, formatting consistency, and timely delivery of all meeting minutes and captioning services.

b. County reserves the right to return meeting minutes requiring corrections. Vendor shall provide corrected minutes within five (5) business days of notification at no additional cost.

11. Performance Deficiencies and Remedies:

Vendor may be subject to actions outlined in the General Conditions, Section A(2)(e), for failure to perform the services required under this contract, including but not limited to:

a. Minutes do not meet standards established in this contract.

b. A pattern of arriving late or failing to appear for assignments as scheduled by the Contract

Administrator.

c. A pattern of failing to deliver minutes within the timeframes established in Section 9.

d. It is determined that information provided to the County has been falsified or found untrue.

12. Payment and Availability for Appearances:

a. Payment for appearances beyond the one (1) hour minimum shall be in fifteen (15) minute increments, at a price of one quarter the hourly rate. This fee shall apply to both scheduled and unscheduled hours.

b. Vendor is entitled to charge an additional thirty (30) minutes for setup/preparation prior to the scheduled start of a meeting. Vendor must have captioners/reporters available for appearance within 48 hours of notification by the Contract Administrator (or designee).