Adding Closed Captions to WebEx Videos

Adding Closed Captions to your WebEx sessions is easy with CaptionSync. WebEx allows you to record your meeting, event, or training session, including the audio, video and presentation, to later have that media file captioned. But, currently it does not facilitate uploading closed caption files for meetings. This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to submit WebEx recorded sessions for captioning.

Tutorial

WebEx allows you to record and download your meeting, event, or training sessions to your local computer. Learn how to export and caption your recordings below.

Downloading WebEx Recordings:

• Go to My WebEx -> My Files -> My Recordings.
  
  
• Click More -> Download, next to the meeting you want to download, and save file to your local computer.

Currently, there are two formats available for download depending on your WebEx account, ARF and MP4. If only the ARF format is available for you, then you'll need to follow the steps outlined below to convert your media file to a format we accept. Or, you can contact your WebEx site administrator about switching to an MP4 format account.

Converting your Recording:

Using WebEx Network Recording Player

• Once the recording is saved to your local computer, access to WebEx -> Network Recording Player.
  
  
• On the Network Recording Player, scroll to File -> Open, and browse for the recording.
  
  
• During playback, go to File -> Convert Format -> MP4 (MPEG-4).
  You may have to install the conversion tool, so just follow the instructions in the prompt box.
  
  
• In the Convert Format to MP4 box, specify a location where to save the new file.
  
  
• Choose the Content options, Video Quality preferences, and Conversion Start Time. Finally, click OK.

Note that the WebEx Network Recording Player does not currently support converting recordings to MP4 format on Mac.

As an alternative, you can use the Any Video Converter to transcode your files into the MP4 format. This tool is available in both PC and Mac versions. 

Captioning your media file:

Upload your recordings to a cloud storage platform such as Dropbox, YouTube, or Vimeo, published as public or unlisted. Other options are Panopto, Mediasite, Brightcove, VoiceThread, other online video platforms, or your own website.
Then you have 3 options to caption the meetings:

• Smart Player: you can submit a URL to the video, and once results are ready, generate and launch the CaptionSync Smart Player. You can share the Smart Player directly, or embed it into your website or Learning Management System (LMS).

• Video platform integrations: if your video is located in a platform we are integrated with, you can make the captioning request, and once results are ready, we will post the caption file directly to the video platform.

• Other video platforms: if your video is located in another video platform, you can make the captioning request, and once results are ready, associate the captions with the video. If the player does not support Closed Captioning, you can add Open Captioning to the request at submission time.

Smart Player:

• Submit your media file for captioning. The Smart Player is available for the following URLs: YouTube, Dropbox, Vimeo, and direct URLs to .mp4, .m4v, .f4v, or .mp3 media files. If the URL to your file is not compatible with our List of URLs feature, then we recommend placing the video on YouTube; or in your local system as long as the URL points directly to the media file, e.g.: http://www.domain.com/path/video_filename.mp4 .
  If the audio content of your meeting is poor (has static or is noisy), then we also recommend adding Result Review to your request.

• Once final results are available, open the URL List Details page, and generate and launch the CaptionSync Smart Player, under the Smart Player URL column. You can share the Smart Player directly, or embed it into your website or Learning Management System (LMS).

See an example of the CaptionSync Smart Player playing.

Integration with a Video Platform:

If your video is located in a platform we are integrated with, like YouTube, Panopto, Mediasite, etc, you can take advantage of our integrations with those platforms to add captions to the media file. You just need to enable your CaptionSync account for the integration, make the captioning request, and then we will post back captions automatically into the video platform, when results are available. Captions will be displayed when playing the video.
See the integrations we have available, and how to use and configure them, in our Closed Captioning Integrations category.

Other Video Platforms:

If your video is located in an online platform we're not integrated with, you can make a manual request for it, and then associate the captions with the video. Captions will be displayed when playing the video (ensure the video player you're using supports Closed Captioning).
If the player does not support Closed Captioning, you can select Open Captioning at submission time, and then you just need to upload the finished encoded output into the video platform.

Resources:

• You can find more information about downloading and converting your recordings in WebEx tutorials.