How to Request Live Captioning

Live Captioning your events with CaptionSync is easy. You just need to choose the service, schedule the session and watch the captions live. In this article we show how to enable your CaptionSync account for the feature, and request Live Captioning for your event.

Enabling your account for Live Captioning:

Log into CaptionSync, go to Settings -> Account Features, select Enable my account for Live Captioning from the Account Feature to Add drop-down menu, and click Request Account Feature. You will receive an email updating you about the feature status. Note that if you can't see Live Captioning on the "Account Feature to Add" drop-down menu, then it's already enabled.

Once you receive confirmation that the feature is enabled, you will see a new Live tab in your account, on the navigation panel on the left-hand side.

Scheduling a new Live Captioning request:

Go to Live -> New Live Captioning Request, in your account:

Fill out the form fields in the New Live Captioning Request page. Next to Audio Source, enter the source of the audio that will allow our writer to listen to the event and transcribe it. Check out below a detailed description of the services we offer, if you have questions about them. Finally, click Schedule Live Captioning. You will then be contacted about the request, and all details will be arranged.

Which Service should I choose:

There are several different formats of Live Captioning you can choose, depending on the type of event you want to caption:

Remote CART (English, Spanish, or French):

Remote CART (Communication Access Real-time Translation) services provide instantaneous, near verbatim, translation of speech to text, with less than a two-second delay. A CART writer listens remotely and transcribes the audio, allowing the audience to read the text in real time.

Graduations and Large Events:

A captioning professional can be provided for large events, like graduations, musicals, theater, poetry readings, awards ceremonies with names to be captioned, etc, to transcribe the audio. Captions are then displayed on a video screen so the audience can follow along live.
NOTE 1: Graduation or commencement sessions require an extra 30 minutes of setup time, which will be added to the beginning of the session.
NOTE 2: Graduate names in commencement ceremonies are traditionally not captioned, unless a list with the names, in the exact order they will be called, is made available to us. In this case, additional preparation time will be scheduled and billed, up to four hours.
NOTE 3: Any events with significant scripted content should include the scripted materials in advance.

Remote Text Interpreting:

Remote Text Interpreting is an electronic note-taking system, specifically designed for educational settings, that provides meaning-for-meaning transcription of the spoken content. TypeWell and C-Print® services fall under this category.
NOTE 1: Remote Text Interpreters are not equipped to handle complex delivery setups, for example, like Adobe Connect requires.
NOTE 2: Remote Text Interpreters are not equipped to get the audio source over phone lines; only over browsers/apps, for example, a Zoom meeting.
NOTE 3: Remote Text Interpreters can only take assignments for up to 1 hour at a time. So, for events longer than one hour, multiple requests need to be set up in our system, broken into 1-hour sessions.

eCART:

This is an alternative solution that uses automatic speech recognition (also known as ASR ), combined with trained real-time editors. Find out more in our Live Captioning Using eCART article.

For more information about the different types of services, call our Sales line, at 877-278-7962, or open a Support ticket.

Service information:

• A text transcript is made available with all your Live Captioning events. You can find more information on how to get it in our Getting a Text Transcript of my Live Captioning Event article. The transcript file is usually generated within 24 to 48 hours (business days), after the end of the event.

• To order a caption output for your event, you can request it at schedule time by selecting either SRT or VTT from the Request drop-down menu, in the New Live Captioning Request page. The caption file is usually generated within 24 to 48 hours (business days), after the end of the event. NOTE: Caption outputs are provided at an extra cost.

  

• If you have special delivery requirements, like needing a separate text feed (e.g., StreamText); or, requiring multiple simultaneous outputs (e.g., Zoom and StreamText), please add that information to the Comments section, at request time. E.g.:
  Example 1:
  Please provide the captions over StreamText only.
  Example 2:
  Please provide the captions over Zoom and StreamText also.
  Example 3:
  Please provide the captions over YouTube and StreamText also.
  Example 4:
  Please provide the captions over iCap and StreamText also. Password for the Falcon encoder: passw.

• A minimum of 5-hours notice is required to schedule a Live session. Bookings will not be accepted on less than 5-hours notice. NOTE: we do not guarantee that we can find writers available for a request placed with just 5 hours in advance. Please ensure you schedule your request with as much time in advance as possible. 

• Overages: when you book a live session, we reserve a captioner for the entire duration of your reservation. You will be billed for the entire reserved time, even if your event ends early. Please ensure you use your best estimate of the time required when booking your session. If your session goes past the scheduled duration, you will be billed for the extended time at our regular rates and our captioner will stay for as long as possible, but because the captioner may be booked for other events, they may have to leave before your event ends. To prevent having the end of your event uncovered, ensure you reserve the full amount of time needed.
  
  
• Remote Text Interpreting (RTI) providers can only take assignments for up to 1 hour at a time. So, if your event will run longer than 1 hour, please schedule it as 2 or more separate Live Captioning requests, in your CaptionSync account.

• If you're displaying a pre-recorded video during the live stream, note that, traditionally, the captioner will not capture that content in the real-time captions, and will instead write [ Captioned video playing ]. So, we would recommend open captioning the pre-recorded content in advance. For more information on this, please open a Support ticket.

• Graduate names in commencement ceremonies are traditionally not captioned, unless a list with the names, in the exact order they will be called, is made available to us. In this case, additional preparation time will be scheduled and billed, up to four hours. Please add such a request to the Comments section, and open a Support ticket to send us the file with the list of names.
  
  
• If you require the captioning of songs during your live event, note that you'll need to let us know via the Comments section, at schedule time, and provide us with the lyrics at least 24 hours in advance. Generally, this will not incur in additional charges, but for long events with a significant amount of lyrics, additional preparation time might be scheduled and billed. In which case, you'll also have to select our Graduation Captioning service instead.
  
  
• Live Captioning breakout rooms in Zoom: live captions can only be provided in one breakout room only, and so, if you need to have captions available for multiple breakout rooms within a Zoom meeting, we can deliver captions using a text-feed solution, like StreamText, 1CapApp or Verbitext (if you requested eCART). The audience will then be able to watch the live captions on a separate browser tab. Please make sure to let us know, in the Comments section of the request, when you'll need live captions for a breakout room, so that we can set up the text-feed accordingly. E.g.:

  This request is for breakout room #4. Please provide StreamText link.

• Although we provide the writer's direct contact information, before the event, any emails to writers should be cc'd to live@automaticsync.com. We would also recommend contacting them only about direct technical information.
  
  
• To make a HIPAA complaint Live Captioning request ensure you ask for a password protected captions feed (e.g.: StreamText with password protection) in the Comments section, at schedule time. This will require all participants to enter this password in order to watch the live captions feed. You can also turn off the email delivery of the results by entering a 0 value under Settings -> Contact Settings -> Email Attachments, and finally clicking Update Contact Settings.

• Depending on the browser you're using and the date/time settings in your system, the Event Date, Event Time and Expected Duration may appear different from the picture above. If your browser does not support the HTML5 date and time standard controls, it will fall back to the ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) and 24-hour time (HH:MM). If you're using a browser that supports the HTML5 date and time standard controls, the format will match your locale preferences for the date/time settings in your system and browser (e.g., D/M/YYYY, hh:mm A). In another system/browser, the example request shown above looks like (note the differences in Event Date, Event Time and Expected Duration):

  

Scheduling a recurring Live Captioning event:

To schedule a Live Captioning request for your recurring event:

• Fill out the form in the New Live Captioning Request page for the first date of the series of events, and click on Setup Recurrence, below Event Time:

  

• On the Recurrence Setup box select all the details for the remaining events. That is, the frequency of recurrence, on which days it will repeat, and the number of occurrences or end date:

  

• Finally click Setup Recurrence.

Note: Please cancel any events that are not needed as soon as possible, e.g.: holidays.

Changes to your Live Captioning request:

You can make changes to your existing Live Captioning requests, including Event Date/Time, or the contact information, from within the respective Details page, in your CaptionSync account. 

For any other changes you need to make, like Event Name or Expected Duration, please open a Support ticket. Note that changes can only be made up to 24 hours prior to the event.

NOTE: URLs cannot be copied directly from Excel sheets, since this program adds extraneous characters to the links.

Cancellations to your Live Captioning request:

You can cancel a Live Captioning request from within the respective Details page, in your CaptionSync account. Note that there is a 24-hour cancellation policy to avoid charges for scheduled time. If you need to make additions, schedule changes, or updates to specific events, please contact us at live@automaticsync.com . For other questions related to Live Captioning requests (like history, billing or UI problems), please open a Support ticket. For more information on our policy on cancellations and changes, please visit our Cancellations and Changes to your Live Captioning request article.

Monitoring your Live Captioning request:

You can log into your WordShare account, and check the schedule for each event, view assigned writers, and get the URLs to the captioning pages.

Additionally, you can monitor the status of a Live Captioning request from within your CaptionSync account, by going to Live -> Status of Live Requests:

Click on the linked AST ID for more details of a request, such as the scheduled date: