About

You can order live captions for your scheduled events using Content Lab. 

Captions display spoken dialogue and relevant audio information as on-screen text. They improve accessibility for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing and support viewers who prefer to watch videos without sound.

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

• Your account must have Content Lab enabled
• Your account must have an active REACH profile enabled with relevant catalog item(s)
• Events must be at least 10 minutes long (600 seconds minimum).

Access Content Lab

Steps for accessing the Content Lab vary depending on the Kaltura application. 

Rich Media CMS - 

Access the Content Lab through the Create with content lab button on the Entries list or on the Entry Details page. 

Legacy Video Portal - 

Access the Content Lab through the Create with content lab button on the Media page. 

Kaltura Events - Access the Content Lab through the Create with content lab button on the Edit session page or the Edit media page. 

LMS Video - Access the Content Lab through the Create with content lab button on the Media page. 

Content Lab overview

The appearance of the Content Lab varies depending on the Kaltura application. 

Rich Media CMS - 

After clicking the Create with Content Lab button on the Entries list or on the Entry Details page in Rich Media CMS, the 'Get more from your video' screen displays.

Legacy Video Portal, Kaltura Events, and LMS Video - 

After clicking the Create with Content Lab button on -

• the Media page in legacy Video Portal
• the Edit session page or the Edit media page on Kaltura Events
• the Media page in LMS Video

the 'Create with AI screen' displays. Here's one example from the list above - accessing the Content Lab through the Create with Content Lab button on the Media page in legacy Video Portal: 

Order live captions

1. Click Create with Content Lab. 
   The 'Get more from your video' screen displays.
    
   
   Content Lab in Rich Media CMS
   
   This is the Content Lab's main menu. Options shown vary depending on the services configured for your account.
2.  Click Captions & Translations.
   The Captions orders screen displays.
   
   
3. Click + Order captions and select Live closed captions (CC).



For live entries with recordings, two additional options display - 

• Closed captions (CC) - Generate captions from audio 
• Translations - Create captions in another language

For live entries without recordings, these options will not display (as shown in the above image).

The Order live captions screen displays. 



4. 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 mode - Select Auto-start or Scheduled. Auto-start live captions are enabled when the session is live. Scheduled live captions are arranged in advance. If you choose Scheduled, two additional configurations display - Pre- and Post-session buffers. 
• Service Type - Select Machine or Professional.
• 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.

5. Click Submit.

A confirmation message displays: Live captions are being created. This may take a few minutes. Click the X at the top right to close the message.
Your captions order appears in the "In Progress" area of the Captions orders screen and is labeled as "Pending".
If Auto-start was selected, your live captions are enabled when the session is live. If Scheduled was selected, your live captions behave as configured.  

Pre and Post-session buffer

If you choose Service mode - Scheduled, you have the option of adding pre- and post-session buffers. 

Pre-session buffer (minutes) - Choose when captioning should start: 

• at the beginning of the event
• 15 minutes before the event starts (recommended)
• 30 minutes before the event starts
• 60 minutes before the event starts

Post-session buffer (minutes) - Choose how long captions should continue after the scheduled end time:

• at the end of the event
• 15 minutes after the event ends 
• 30 minutes after the event ends
• 60 minutes after the event ends

Add instructions for professional captions

Providing clear, detailed instructions helps improve caption quality and consistency.

The following preset tags are available:

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.”

Best practices for live captioning

• Start streaming a few minutes early to ensure full caption coverage.
• Order machine captions at least 15 minutes before the event
• You can cancel machine orders anytime before the event. 
• Captions apply to the primary stream only - backup streams aren’t supported.
• Events must be at least 10 minutes long (600 seconds minimum).
• Captions can run up to 8 hours per session.

View captions orders and perform additional tasks

Navigate back to the Content Lab's main menu. The number of requests are displayed in the Captions & Translations box. 

Click on the Captions & Translations box to open the Captions orders screen. In our example below, there are three existing captions orders - one is an auto-start order that will be enabled when the session is live, 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)

Ready - captioning service is configured and ready for the event

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

Click 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.

Download 

Click Download. The captions file is downloaded to your machine.