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Add human-generated captioning to a live event

The Webcast platform offers options for human-generated or computer-generated captions on an event. Human-generated captions allow for support in multiple language and have an increased accuracy compared to computer-generated captions but require additional steps in the booking and setup process. The computer-generated caption setup is seamlessly integrated directly into the Webcast platform but offers English only captions. Note that computer-generated captions have an increased possibility of transcription errors compared to human-generated captions.

To include human-generated captions, you must request captioning services, set up a Custom Tab with the StreamText embed code, and then invite the captioner as an attendee. On the day of the event, the captioner joins as an attendee and types the captions into StreamText, which are then displayed to the audience in the Custom Tab.

Note: Because live captioning is not a feature of this platform, Support is not able to set up, test, or manage captioning for self-service clients. If you would like someone to manage an end-to-end integration, contact your sales representative to arrange a consultation package.

Jump to: Request captioning services | Example code | Set up the live captions tab | Preview your work | StreamText URL formatting

Request captioning services

We can book live captioning for your event.

To request live captioning:

You can also use your own third-party captioning provider, as long as they use the StreamText platform.

When you request live captioning through us, we provide your event ID to the captioning provider, who uses it to identify your event in their StreamText account. When you set up the custom tab, include this event ID in the embed code. If you schedule your own captioner, we recommend that you give them your event ID to use as their StreamText event name (identifier); confirm the value they used and include it in the embed code. To learn more about the process for scheduling captioning services, contact Support.

Example code

Use the following example code to embed captions in the custom tab. In the code, find event=1234567 in the code and replace 1234567 with the event ID for your event. If you're using your own captioning services, replace 1234567 with the event name provided by the captioner.

Important: If you requested captions in a language other than English, you must include an additional language parameter to the link for them to display correctly. For example, if you requested captions in Spanish, you must add &language=es to the link after the event ID or name. For more information, see StreamText URL formatting.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <title></title>
    </head>
    <body style="min-height: 405px;">
    <iframe id="stFrame" style="overflow: hidden; width: 100%; height: 130px;" src="https://www.streamtext.net/text.aspx?event=1234567&chat=false&header=false&footer=false&controls=false&fs=12&ff=Arial&bgc=ffffff&fgc=00000" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="95%" height="125"></iframe>
    </body>
    </html>

Set up the live captions tab

Sign in to the Webcast Admin portal and edit the Live event.

To add the live captions tab to an event:

  1. On the left panel, click the Event Content tab.
  2. Under Optional Content, expand the Add Custom Player Tabs section and click Add Sidebar Tab.

    image-1708430280724.png


  3. Enter a name for the captioning tab and set Load As to Open. Optional: The Q&A tab displays under the video player in your event by default. To have the captions display under the video player, use the Display Order field to change the tab order.

    image-1708430610973.png


  4. At the right side of the editor, click </> to switch to code view.

    image-1708430701236.png


  5. Delete all the placeholder code.
  6. Copy the example code (see above) and paste it into the editor.
  7. In the code, find event=1234567 and replace 1234567 with the seven-digit event ID for your event or the event name.

    Note: If your captions are in a language other than English, be sure to include the language parameter in the link.

    Sidebar tab setup for live captioning

  8. Click </> to switch out of the code view to review the setup. You should see a "!" icon in the lower right of the tab setup. This icon indicates that the captioner has not logged in for the event yet, but confirms that the captions have been setup correctly. 

    image-1708431541918.png


  9. Click Save Changes to save the coding. Then click Save and Continue to save changes to the event content.

Preview your work

Always preview the tab setup before the Live event.

To test captioning for your event:

  1. In the Webcast Admin portal, edit the event.
  2. On the Event Content tab, edit the sidebar tab you created for captioning and replace your event ID or name with ihaveadream.

    ...src="https://www.streamtext.net/text.aspx?event= ihaveadream &chat=false...

  3. Click Save Changes to save the coding. Then click Save and Continue to save changes to the event content.
  4. Now preview the web player: click the Event Summary tab and at the top of the page, click View My Event .

Make any changes to the display. When ready, go back and place your event ID in the sidebar tab coding.

StreamText URL formatting

The captions can be visually controlled by passing various query strings (parameters) in the URL. Here are the options used in our example code; we hide various elements to ensure captions display well in a sidebar tab. For a complete list of options, see this StreamText help article.

Query String Purpose Used in our example code Result
language

Required for displaying captions other than English. The ISO 639-1 code for the caption language.

Examples:
Chinese (Simplified) - &language=zh
French - &language=fr
German - &language=de
Spanish - &language=es
For a complete list of language codes, see this Google article.

 N/A English captions
chat Displays the chat box &chat=false Chat box hidden
header Displays the title and the controls &header=false Header hidden
footer Displays gray footer with copyright &footer=false Footer hidden
controls Displays a toolbar that allows each attendee to change the font, sizing, and other formatting of the captions they're viewing &controls=false Controls hidden
fs Font size &fs=12 12 pt font
ff Font family &ff=Arial Arial font
bgc Background color &bgc=FFFFFF White background
fgc Foreground color; sets the text color &fgc=00000 Black text
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