# How should speakers and non-speech sounds be labelled in captions, and how does that map from diarization output?

- id: art_01M5P66Q8BJXB8B3KPP2EJG691
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T10, T13 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-24T05:30:13.636Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5P66Q8BJXB8B3KPP2EJG691

Problem. Diarization gives anonymous speaker ids and no sound events. Conditions. SDH or captions for viewers who cannot hear audio. Method. Documented (Netflix English SDH): speaker IDs and sound effects go in square brackets; use IDs only when the speaker cannot be visually identified; if the name is not yet known use [man] or [woman] and add numbers such as [man 1]; two speakers in one subtitle use a hyphen without space and at most one speaker per line; the ID goes on the same line as the dialogue; describe sounds, not visuals; plot-pertinent sound effects included unless inferred from the visuals; never italicise labels. Music: lyrics between music notes, unknown song titles omitted and music described. BBC: colour is the preferred way to separate speakers, dashes are legacy and used with white text, single quotes mark out-of-vision speakers, and ttm:agent metadata may carry speaker information. Failure modes. Labelling every sound clutters the 20 cps budget; a wrong name given...

Problem. Diarization gives anonymous speaker ids and no sound events. Conditions. SDH or captions for viewers who cannot hear audio. Method. Documented (Netflix English SDH): speaker IDs and sound effects go in square brackets; use IDs only when the speaker cannot be visually identified; if the name is not yet known use [man] or [woman] and add numbers such as [man 1]; two speakers in one subtitle use a hyphen without space and at most one speaker per line; the ID goes on the same line as the dialogue; describe sounds, not visuals; plot-pertinent sound effects included unless inferred from the visuals; never italicise labels. Music: lyrics between music notes, unknown song titles omitted and music described. BBC: colour is the preferred way to separate speakers, dashes are legacy and used with white text, single quotes mark out-of-vision speakers, and ttm:agent metadata may carry speaker information. Failure modes. Labelling every sound clutters the 20 cps budget; a wrong name given too early leaks plot (Netflix [man]/[woman] rule). Limitations. Netflix and BBC differ (brackets and hyphens vs colour); pick one per platform. Version/date. Pages as fetched 2026-10-24. Inference: map diarization ids to labels only after a name or role is confirmed from the content; otherwise emit [man 1]/[woman 2]; audio-event classifiers are not covered by these sources.

Curator qualifications: All cited documentation excerpts located on the live pages by curator GET; no video sources.

Limitations: Overlapping speech is poorly handled by both guides and by ASR; no numeric limit on label length.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/217350977-English-Timed-Text-Style-Guide",
      "note": "I.16 Speaker ID / Sound Effects; I.16; I.16; I.6 Dual Speakers; 7 Identifying speakers; 7.9; researcher reasoning"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/forproducts/guides/subtitles",
      "note": "I.16 Speaker ID / Sound Effects; I.16; I.16; I.6 Dual Speakers; 7 Identifying speakers; 7.9; researcher reasoning"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Problem. Diarization gives anonymous speaker ids and no sound events. Conditions. SDH or captions for viewers who cannot hear audio. Method. Documented (Netflix English SDH): speaker IDs and sound effects go in square brackets; use IDs only when the speaker cannot be visually identified; if the name is not yet known use [man] or [woman] and add numbers such as [man 1]; two speakers in one subtitle use a hyphen without space and at most one speaker per line; the ID goes on the same line as the dialogue; describe sounds, not visuals; plot-pertinent sound effects included unless inferred from the visuals; never italicise labels. Music: lyrics between music notes, unknown song titles omitted and music described. BBC: colour is the preferred way to separate speakers, dashes are legacy and used with white text, single quotes mark out-of-vision speakers, and ttm:agent metadata may carry speaker information. Failure modes. Labelling every sound clutters the 20 cps budget; a wrong name given too early leaks plot (Netflix [man]/[woman] rule). Limitations. Netflix and BBC differ (brackets and hyphens vs colour); pick one per platform. Version/date. Pages as fetched 2026-10-24. Inference: map diarization ids to labels only after a name or role is confirmed from the content; otherwise emit [man 1]/[woman 2]; audio-event classifiers are not covered by these sources. · locator: I.16 Speaker ID / Sound Effects; I.16; I.16; I.6 Dual Speakers; 7 Identifying speakers; 7.9; researcher reasoning · source: https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/217350977-English-Timed-Text-Style-Guide

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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