About

Order machine-generated or professional captions for one or more media entries using REACH and Content Lab.

Captions are provided in the same language as the media. If you need translated captions or subtitles in another language, see Ordering Translations.

Caption service types

You can choose from the following caption services:

 Machine

Also known as ASR, machine captions are generated automatically and provide an average accuracy of approximately 85%.

Machine captions:

• Enable searchable video content
• Support caption editing
• Support resubmissions
• Can use custom vocabularies and dictionaries to improve accuracy 

Professional

Professional captions are created and reviewed by human transcribers and provide approximately 99% accuracy.

Professional captions:

• Meet closed captioning standards and accessibility requirements
• Include human review and quality assurance
• Support special instructions for editors and reviewers
• Are recommended for public-facing content such as marketing, learning, and training videos

Before you start

• Video must be in "Ready" status (transcoded)
• Your account must have Content Lab enabled
• Your account must have an active REACH profile enabled with relevant catalog item(s)

Access the caption ordering screen 

You can access caption ordering from either the Entries page or the entry details page.

From the Entries page

1. Log into your Rich Media CMS.

The Entries page displays by default.



2. Locate the desired entry, click the three dots to the right and select Captions & Translations.

From the entry details page

1. Click on the desired entry.



The entry details page opens.

2. In the left panel, click the Captions tab.



The Captions tab opens.

3. Click Order captions & translations at the top of the page.

The Captions orders window opens.

Order captions

1. Click + Order captions and select Closed captions.

The Order captions screen displays. 

2. Complete the following fields:

• Unit – This option only appears in the event that different REACH profiles (budgets) are configured for each unit in your account. The selected unit will be charged for the captions request.
• Service Type -Select one of the following:
  • Machine – Automatically generated captions.
  • Professional service – Human-created and reviewed captions.
• Source language - Select the source media language from the drop-down menu. The options in the menu are dependent on your REACH plan.
• Vendor - Select the vendor. Items in this drop-down list appear as "Vendor Name + Turnaround time of the catalog item + Catalog item name" with available vendors based on catalog items.  
• Instructions (Professional only) - Add notes for human editors and reviewers. For example, you can provide guidance on terminology, speaker names, formatting preferences, or accessibility requirements.

3. Click Submit.

A confirmation message displays: Captions order submitted successfully. Click the X at the top right to close the message.

Your captions order appears in the "In Progress" area of the Captions screen and is labeled as "Pending".

When the captions are ready, they are automatically added to the entry.

Add instructions for professional captions

Providing clear, detailed instructions helps improve caption quality and consistency. You can add instructions in any of the following ways:

Option 1: Manually type your own instructions in the Instructions field. 

Option 2: Click on a preset tag provided below the Instructions field. The Instructions field is populated with that tag and a list of suggestions for additional text instructions displays. Click on one of the suggestions to autocomplete the instructions. 

Option 3: Click on a preset tag. The Instructions field is populated with that tag and a list of suggestions for additional text instructions displays. Instead of clicking on one of the suggestions to autocomplete the instructions, manually type in the Instructions field to complete the text. 

Following are the available preset tags:

Terminology and names:

• Define acronyms - “Please define acronyms at first use and use them consistently throughout.”
• Use correct speaker names - “Please ensure speaker names and titles are accurate and used consistently.”
• Use correct proper names - “Please ensure all proper names (e.g., brands, products, organizations, and titles) are accurate and used consistently.“
• Use consistent terminology - “Please use consistent and accurate terminology throughout.”

Include speaker labels: “Please include speaker labels where multiple speakers are present.”

Style and tone: 

• Preserve original wording - “Please preserve the original wording and phrasing as much as possible.”
• Remove filler words - “Please remove filler words where they do not affect meaning.”
• Simplify wording - “Please simplify complex phrasing where possible while preserving meaning.“
• Maintain consistent tone - “Please maintain a clear and consistent tone throughout.”

Formatting:

• Ensure correct punctuation - “Please ensure punctuation is accurate and consistent.”
• Format for readability - “Please format captions for clarity and readability.”
• Use consistent casing - “Please use consistent sentence casing throughout.”

Accessibility: 

• Include non-speech elements - “Please include relevant non-speech elements such as sound effects where appropriate.”
• Clarify speaker identity - “Please ensure speakers are clearly identified when needed for understanding.”

View captions orders and perform additional tasks 

You can access caption orders from either the Entries page or the entry details page.

View status

The Captions orders window displays all requests for the selected media entry. 

In our example below, there are two existing captions orders - one is in Pending status, and one is in Ready status. 

Status types

The following statuses are available for captions requests:

• Pending - when generating new request
• Pending for Moderation - requests in approval queue
• Rejected - requests that were rejected on moderation. This status must include reject reason.
• Processing - sent to the vendor and vendor received request (you cannot cancel a request when the status is Processing)
• Completed - when captions were received from the vendor
• Error - an error was sent from the vendor
• Aborted

Manage captions assets

Click Manage captions assets.  

The Captions tab of the entry details page in Rich Media CMS displays.

For complete information on this tab, see Upload and manage captions in Rich Media CMS.

Additional tasks

Click on the three dots to the right of the request and choose from the available options depending on status type:

View order details - available for all statuses

Cancel order request - only available for Pending

Launch editor - only available for Ready

Download - only available for Ready

View order details

In the three-dot menu, select View order details.

The Order details screen displays. 

Cancel order request

1. Click Cancel order request. Note, any action items associated with the request will be canceled. A confirmation message displays. 
    
2. Click Cancel request.
   If you try to cancel a request that's already in progress, a message displays: The request is already in progress, therefore cannot be canceled.

Launch editor

See our article Use the captions editor in Content Lab for details.

User experience

Once captions are ready, they’re automatically added to the media. Depending on admin settings, a CC button may appear, letting users toggle captions on or off.

Admins can also set captions to display by default when playback starts. If multiple caption languages are available, users can select them from the captions sub-menu in the settings.