Automated on-demand closed captioning is a workspace-level feature that uses speech-to-text functionality to automatically create closed caption subtitles for your on-demand webinars in the selected language the webcast is presented.
This feature is available for all on-demand event types
- Live webcasts and Forums that become on-demand - captions are generated at the time of archive
- Standard Simu-live events and On-Demand Recordings - captions are generated once the event is published
- Captions are available within 2-3 hours on average.
All audio, including audio from videos played in the media player, is supported. The audience will see the captioning in the Media Player on the Audience Console
If you'd like to use the automated on-demand closed captioning feature, please contact your Account Manager for pricing. This feature is available for an additional fee and a support ticket must be submitted for it to be activated on your account.
Things to Know
- This feature DOES NOT include real-time live captioning of a webinar. For real-time live captioning, there are two options available:
- Order Live Captioning and Translated Subtitles through the Production Team - this is on an event-by-event basis
- Add Automated Live Captioning to your account - this is an account-level setting that can be turned on or off per webcast
- When copying an event, the caption files from the original event are copied over. If you are importing the Storyboard and presenter media from another webinar, those caption files will also be copied as part of the import.
- The language selected on the Overview page when creating the event determines the language used for the automated closed captioning
- The system will not automatically detect the language spoken by the presenters
Choosing a Language
Choose the language that will be used during the event under the Language drop-down in the Main Details section of the event's Overview page.
The language field must be set to the language the presenters will be speaking for the entire event. If two languages are being spoken, the captions will not be accurate.
Automated on-demand captioning is available for several languages. And for those with auto-generated translated captions, the translated VTT files can be automatically generated after the original language VTT file is created.
Find a list of all available on-demand original and translated language options here.
Example Workflows
- If a live event is set to and presented in English, when the event goes on-demand it will automatically have closed-caption subtitles in English
- If a live event is set to and presented in Chinese, when the event goes on-demand it will automatically have closed-caption subtitles in Chinese
- If publishing a Simu-live webinar in Spanish, the language on the Overview page should be set to Spanish to automatically create closed-caption subtitles in Spanish
- If publishing a Simu-live webinar in German, the language on the Overview page should be set to German to automatically create closed-caption German subtitles
Editing the Caption File
Speech-to-text technology is not always 100% accurate, so you may want to check the subtitles or captions in the on-demand webinar for accuracy. If the accuracy is not acceptable, the .VTT file can be edited or deleted.
Once available, the caption files will appear in the Media Player's configuration menu in the Console Builder.
Note: Caption files will need to be activated to appear to viewers.
Click on the pencil icon to access the Caption Editor and review/edit the captions as necessary.
- Time codes indicate when each text block will appear
- Use the arrow icons to skip forward or backward by ten seconds. You can also click on the time code to jump to any spot in the event.
- As the event plays, the text being spoken will be highlighted
- Click on Edit to make changes. If the event is playing, clicking Edit will pause the video.
When editing, click in the text field to make changes. Once the changes are done, click Save.
Pro Tip: After finishing your edits, download the caption file so you have a saved copy of the edited version. If the caption file is accidentally overwritten or deleted, you'll be able to re-upload your saved copy.
For those with auto-generated translated captions, if updates have been made to your source language captions, you can quickly correct the translated caption files using the Regenerate Translations option.
Edit the source language captions first. For example, if your webinar was presented in English, the English captions are your source.
Then click Regenerate Translations to regenerate the translated files based on the corrected version of the source language captions.
If certain words or phrases are consistently miscaptioned for you, use the auto-correct feature to define your mapping.
Click on Auto-Correct and use the Add button to add a list of words or phrases that are repeatedly miscaptioned.
Captions must be set to Active to be visible to viewers. Caption files are inactive by default.
Note: Submit a support ticket if you would like this box to be checked by default for new caption files.
When the captions are ready to be seen by viewers (i.e. after being reviewed/corrected), check the box to make them Active.
- None - captions are available for viewers, but will not be seen until they click on the CC icon in the Media Player to turn them on
- When the dropdown is set to a specific language, the captions are shown to the audience automatically
- The audience doesn't have to take any action to turn on the captions
- Language must set to Active to show in the drop-down menu.
Depending on the event type, auto-generation of caption files is triggered when the presentation is "published" or when presenter media is uploaded. The Allow caption files to be overwritten by auto-generation process toggle helps you safeguard them.
- When this toggle is OFF, auto-generation of caption files (both the source language caption file as well as any translated caption files) will be suppressed so that your caption files will not be overwritten
- Even when the toggle is OFF, caption files can still be manually edited or uploaded, so the setting only impacts the auto-generation process
- After caption files are initially auto-generated, the toggle is set to ON.
- As a best practice, after caption files are auto-generated, you should review and edit as needed then switch the toggle to OFF to protect them.
- Note: If you are ever purposefully trying to regenerate captions by publishing or uploading presenter media, but it’s not working, it's likely this toggle is OFF.
You can make edits to the caption files outside of ON24 using your preferred VTT editor. Once the file is available, you can download it and edit it your preferred VTT editor.
Once the file has been edited, re-upload the file using the Replace Caption File button.
Note: Caption files that are uploaded will no longer be editable through the in-app caption editor. The pencil icon will disappear.
Once the edited file is uploaded, mark it as Active and Select a language to display by default. Find more information on adding your own caption files here.
Audience Experience
Once you have caption files activated, the CC button will appear in the Media Player for your viewers. If you have multiple languages, viewers will be able to choose the language they want subtitles in by clicking on the CC button.
By default, viewers will need to click on the CC button for subtitles to show, unless you choose a default language in Select a Language when setting up the captions.
If the event is audio-only, the Media Player will expand enough to display the text when the subtitles are turned on.
Captioning and Language Analytics 
You can view which leads are viewing captions (or turning them off), and which languages your leads are viewing in the Webcast Intelligence Report, in the More section of the Interactions tab.
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