Full how to: subtitling livestreams, movies, webinars, classes, debates and lectures in batches or in real time

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You don’t create video content simply for its own sake. You make it to be seen and consumed. You hope that it will be helpful, educational, and entertaining. And you want your audience to be as large as possible. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t bother spending the time on it.

And yet, simply creating great content isn’t enough. You need to have everything in place so that it can reach its full potential. Even seemingly small features can make an enormous difference if done well. And subtitles are one of those features.

Subtitles can seem like such a small, inconsequential thing. You might even wonder whether they’re worth worrying about. After all, if you’ve ever tried subtitling your videos manually, the process can be long and labor intensive. And many automatically generated subtitles simply aren’t accurate.

But subtitles are worth the time and effort. Not only do they make it possible for those with hearing difficulties to enjoy your content, but they also make everyone else more likely to watch and engage with your videos. When someone is in a setting where sound would be disruptive, subtitles allow them to still enjoy the content you’ve created.

To put it simply, subtitles increase accessibility. The more accessible your videos are, the larger your audience. And the larger your audience, the more likely you’ll accomplish the goals tied to your video content.

This is the power of subtitles.

Man looking for subtitles while browsing media

Many people associate subtitles exclusively with entertainment content. But subtitles are valuable tools for individuals, businesses, and organizations, regardless of the type of content they produce. Just consider how the following types of video content can benefit from subtitles and captions.

Livestreams

There are a number of tools out there that attempt to produce captions for livestreams and other real time videos. Unfortunately, they aren’t always as accurate as you might hope. And yet, subtitles offer tremendous benefits for livestreams.

Think about it. Since livestreams occur in real time, viewers naturally want to experience them as they happen. But what if those viewers are in the middle of something? Accurate subtitles give people the ability to silently enjoy live content without disturbing those around them or stopping whatever they may be doing.

Movies

Subtitles are essential for movies. They allow those with hearing disabilities to enjoy great entertainment. They give viewers the ability to watch films from other parts of the world.

And they ensure everyone can know what’s going on, even if the voices on the film are low or poorly mixed. In today’s world every movie and television show should be subtitled. There’s simply no reason not to.

Webinars

While you may not think of webinars as needing subtitles, they do. For one thing, subtitles allow those with hearing loss to enjoy webinars unhindered. Whether you’re providing educational or a sales webinar, this is a good thing because it boosts the accessibility of your content. And the more people you can reach, the more likely you’ll make sales or connect with the right people.

In addition, research has proven that people learn better when they engage multiple senses. So, if someone watches your webinar while reading the subtitles, they’ll be more likely to retain the information that’s presented. So, empower your viewers to make the most of your webinar with quality subtitles.

Debates

If you’ve produced debate content in the past, then you know how chaotic and unexpected they can be. But when you take advantage of the latest subtitling technology, you can ensure one thing isn’t chaotic at all: your audience’s ability to understand what’s going on. When you put subtitles on your debate videos, you’ll make them more accessible and memorable. But you’ll also give your viewers the ability to follow the debate more easily, whether they’re watching it with the sound on or off. And with Scriptix’s multi channel processing capabilities, you can get accurate subtitles for both speakers even if they’re talking over one another.

Lectures

As with webinars and debates, subtitles can make a huge difference in how people consume lecture-style content. Subtitles will help your viewers follow along with the speaker more effectively. They’ll improve memory retention and recall. And they’ll make it possible for those with hearing loss and those in quiet environments to consume valuable content more easily. And with the right software, you’ll be able to batch process a whole series of lectures or create subtitles in real time as a lecture is streamed.

Frans talking about subtitles on different kinds of content

With Scriptix, you can do far more than create subtitles for pre-recorded movies, television shows, and YouTube videos. We make it possible to quickly and easily produce transcriptions for all kinds of content, including livestreams and live webinars. Those transcriptions can then be used to create accurate subtitles. But that’s not all. Scriptix also gives you the power to batch process multiple videos at a time, so you can transcribe an entire series of videos without having to go through them all individually.

And once you’ve subtitled your content, you’ll make it far more accessible and useful to your audience. Transcribed videos make it possible for you to archive all of your educational content in a searchable database. If a visitor to your site wants to check out every video you have on a particular topic, they can do so with the click of a button.

By taking advantage of these features, you can extend the reach of your content exponentially.

So, how do you use Scriptix to accomplish these tasks? Read on to find out…

Man and woman are processing content with Scriptix on a PC

Batch processing content with Scriptix

If you have a series of debates, lectures, or other content that you need to create subtitles for, Scriptix can help. Our accessible API and its documentation make it easy to quickly and easily create subtitles for dozens of videos.

To take advantage of our batch processing, simply follow these four steps:

  1. First, you’ll need to check the API documentation database so you can get the JSON code needed to process your files.
  2. Second, you’ll want to create a session with the language model you need. You can access a list of available languages via the API portal. You’ll also be able to decide whether you want the transcription software to add punctuation or whether you want to take advantage of multi-channel processing.
  3. Third, you’ll have to begin the session by connecting the API and uploading the files that you need processed.
  4. Finally, you should test the API out to see whether it’s functioning correctly. If you have problems, this is the time to troubleshoot by going over the JSON code and ensuring everything has been input correctly. If there aren’t any issues, you should have a complete transcription of your video or audio files once processing has been completed.

Processing content in real-time with Scriptix

As we’ve already noted, live content can benefit tremendously from subtitles. And it’s never been easier to produce quality, real-time subtitles than it is with Scriptix.

Scriptix is equipped with a real-time API that allows any customer with a WebSocket interface to process their live videos as they’re shown. With this said, real-time processing is a more complicated endeavor than batch processing files. But with a bit of effort and expertise, you can have your live webinars, livestreams, and more subtitled automatically. Simply follow these steps to get started:

  1. You can use the WebSocket Secure protocol to access Scriptix’s API service. There, you can specify which language model to use for the transcription.
  2. Once you’ve got things setup, you can start, stop, and otherwise control the session via JSON commands. You’ll also be able to specify whether you want to receive partial transcription results or full results, including metadata for each word.
  3. Before you begin the session, you’ll want to ensure that your audio stream is encoded as PCM WAVE, 16khz mono. If it isn’t in that format, you can use a ffmpeg command to convert it before it’s sent to our API.
  4. Once you start the session, your transcription will be created in real time. With that said, you should always test out your livestream before you go live with a real audience. That way, you can clean up any problems before they show themselves to your audience.

Creating subtitles for your videos is essential. Unfortunately, if you’ve got a lot of videos to process, it can take hours. But when you use our batch processing feature, you can have all of your videos uploaded and subtitled at once. It saves you time and effort. And it ensures all of your videos have maximum accessibility and reach.

Subtitling live content like webinars and debates can feel like a monumental task. And yet, it’s always worth doing. Not only does it make this content accessible to those with hearing disabilities, it also allows people to follow along when they can’t turn their device’s volume up.

If you’re looking to batch process subtitles for your videos, it’s as simple as creating a new session with the correct language model, uploading all the files you want to process, and waiting for Scriptix to complete the task. Batch processing is so easy, it would be foolish not to take advantage of it. Either manually upload your videos or connect with our batch API’s by following our online API-documentation.

If you want to create real-time subtitles, you’ll need to take advantage of our API. To get a better idea of how to make it happen follow our online API-documentation.

Absolutely! Subtitles aren’t just for entertainment. They make your informational, educational, and inspirational content more accessible for everyone. If you want to maximize your videos’ impact, don’t neglect the power of subtitles.