Displaying captions during a live event

Specify live captions the same way you would specify a speaker: say what is needed, in which languages, and who checks the result. The earlier you do this, the more choices you have.

Where will the captions appear?

Captions can show in two places, and each needs its own planning.

• On venue screens. The captions need room on the picture or on a separate screen, and someone to operate it. See delivering camera video to venue screens for the handoff with the AV team.
• On the livestream. The platform may offer its own caption feature, or a caption feed may be added to the stream. This depends on the platform and the setup. See planning an event livestream from the first brief.

Which method will you use?

There are two common ways to make live captions. Neither is perfect.

W3C guidance notes that automatic captions need accuracy checks and usually correction. Treat software captions as a starting point, not a finished product, when the content matters. The same guidance says accessibility is best specified during planning and procurement, which is why it belongs in your first brief.

Which languages and terms?

List the languages spoken on stage and the language the captions should be in. If speakers switch between languages, say so. If you want translated captions, say which languages and who will check them. Our caption and language specification planner gives you a matrix for this.

Also give a short list of names, titles, place names and terms that must be spelled correctly. This helps a captioner and a software tool alike.

What accuracy will you accept?

No live caption is perfect. Decide what matters most, and write it down:

• Names and titles are correct.
• Numbers and dates are correct, for example in a prize announcement.
• Speech is not missing for long stretches.
• Captions stay on screen long enough to read.

Ask who will watch the captions during the event and what they will do if something goes wrong. A short check with the caption provider before the doors open is worth the time.

What is your backup?

Decide what happens if the caption feed stops. Options include a second person ready to take over, a printed programme or key points on a slide, or a plan to stop and restate a missed point. The sound for remote viewers and the sound in the room are separate checks; see livestream sound and in-room sound.

What about after the event?

A live caption stream is not the same as an edited subtitle file. If you want captions on the recorded video, or a transcript, treat those as separate items. Our event captioning and subtitles service covers captions on recorded video. Live captions on a stream are available on request, confirmed for each event through our event livestreaming service.

What we confirm for your event

• Who provides the captions, and what they need from you before the day.
• Whether captions appear on the screens, the stream, or both.
• Who checks accuracy during the event.
• The backup.