Captions and subtitles for your event video

Captions and subtitles help more people follow your event video: viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, people watching without sound, and audiences who prefer another language.

They are available on request and confirmed for each event, because they depend on the audio, the languages and where the video will be shown.

What is the difference between captions, subtitles and a transcript?

Many events need more than one. For example, an annual dinner video might have English captions with Malay and Chinese subtitles. The W3C advises that accessibility is best specified during planning, not added at the end. The accessibility planning guide has more.

Decisions to make before we start

Good captions start with clear answers to these:

1. Languages spoken: which languages the speakers use, and whether they switch within a sentence.
2. Languages needed: the caption or subtitle languages your viewers want.
3. Where it will be shown: social media, a website, a screen at the venue or a broadcast.
4. Style: captions fixed on the picture for everyone, or a separate file viewers can turn on.
5. Names and terms: a list of speaker names, titles, organisation names and technical words.
6. Review: who checks the final text, and how many people must approve it.

The caption language planner turns these answers into a short spec you can send us.

Why automatic captions need a check

Automatic captions are quick, but the W3C says automatic captions need accuracy checks and usually correction. At events the common mistakes are:

• Names of people, companies and places.
• Malay, English, Chinese and dialect words in the same sentence.
• Speech over music, applause or a loud hall.
• Technical terms and abbreviations.

So we treat the machine draft as a first pass and check it against the sound. A list of names and terms from you speeds this up. If the audio is very poor, we say so plainly, so you know what accuracy to expect.

Can captions be added to new footage and to an existing video?

Yes, both.

• With our filming: we plan clean audio from the start, which makes captions more accurate. See full ceremony and speech recording and interview filming for outputs that often need captions.
• On a video you already have: send it with the languages and the destination. This sits alongside editing from existing footage, and we check audio quality first.

A social video clip needs a different caption style from a full speech, because short clips need shorter lines that are easy to read quickly.

Translation

Translated subtitles need someone who understands both languages and the context. Tell us the languages you need and we confirm which we can arrange. Also tell us who will review the translation: your own team, a speaker or a translator you trust.

Live captions during a livestream are less accurate than captions prepared afterwards. We confirm what is realistic before you commit.

Review and delivery

Before final delivery you review the text, usually while watching the video. Collect corrections in one list. The timecoded feedback builder helps your team do that. The final video acceptance checklist covers what to check before approving.

You receive the files agreed in the scope, such as a video with captions on the picture, a separate caption file, or both.

The quote depends on the length of the video, the number of languages, the audio quality and whether translation is needed. See how we quote. To start, message us the video length, the languages and where it will be shown, or use the event video brief builder first.