About

Captions primarily convey dialogue and other relevant audio information, making videos accessible to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, or for viewers who prefer to watch videos without sound. They're typically in the same language as the video, and are important for viewers who are deaf, hard of hearing, or prefer watching without sound.

It's important not to confuse captions with subtitles, which are a translation of the video's dialogue into another language. For information on ordering subtitles, check out our article Ordering Translations.

Captioning options

Kaltura provides two options for captioning:

Machine: Also known as ASR, this service achieves an average accuracy of 85% and a turnaround time of up to 2 hours. It enables searchable video content, transcript editing, and resubmission for alignment. The machine engine improves over time and supports custom vocabularies for enhanced accuracy, along with dictionary use. For more information about the dictionary, check out our article Reach profiles and services 

Professional: This service uses human transcribers to provide full-service captioning with 99% accuracy, meeting Closed Captions laws and media standards. Turnaround time varies (3-48 hours) based on your REACH plan. Ideal for public-facing content like marketing, learning, and training videos.

Access the Caption & Enrich service 

Single video

1. Log into your KMC.
The Entries page displays by default.
2. Click the the three dots menu to the right of the desired entry, and select Captions & Enrich.

Multiple videos

1. Click the boxes next to the desired videos.
The More Actions menu at the top of the page is activated.
2. Select Captions & Enrich.

The Captions & Enrich page displays.

Order machine captions

1. 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 - Select Machine.
• Source Media Language - Select the source media language from the drop-down menu. The options in the menu are dependent on your REACH plan.
• Feature - Select Captions.

2. ClickSubmit.

A confirmation message displays: Your request has been received. Your video will automatically be updated upon completion. 

Click the X at the top left to exit the screen.

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

Order professional captions

1. Complete the following fields:

• Service - Select Professional.
• Source Media Language - Select the source media language from the drop down menu (this is the language the video is currently in). The options in the drop-down menu are dependent on your REACH plan.
• Feature - Select Captions.
• Turnaround time - Select the turnaround time from the drop-down menu. The turnaround time options available in the menu are dependent on your REACH plan. 
• Speaker Names - (Optional) Check to add the speaker's name(s) at the beginning of the captions. This feature must be enabled by your system administrator. 
• Instructions & Notes - (Optional) This box is relevant for professional captions only, and is used for adding notes for the attention of human editors and reviewers. 

2. Click Submit. 

A confirmation message displays: Your request has been received. Your video will automatically be updated upon completion. 

The order displays at the top of the screen. 

The captions’ request will be shown on the captions request list on the top of the page. You can follow the caption status by viewing the status.

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

View orders

Exiting requests

To view the order status, navigate to the three dots menu on the entry line and select Captions & Enrich.

If there are existing requests, they are displayed in the Existing Requests section. (Clicking +Order will take you to the Order Captions & Enrichment Services section to create another order.)

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

Use the arrow at the side of the request to display the order details.

Duplicated requests

If you submit and identical order to one that exists, the following message is displayed: Service was already done for this video. Are you sure you want to resubmit? 

Cancel request

1. To cancel a Pending request, click on the trash can icon in the request line. Note, any action items associated with the request will be canceled.



A confirmation message displays: Are you sure you want to cancel this request? 



2. Click Yes.

If you try to delete a request that's already in progress, a message displays: The request is already in progress, therefore cannot be canceled.

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.

To learn more about how captions display on the player, visit our articles Captions and Audio Tracks and Accessibility.