Event Video Subtitles and Captions

What is closed captioning?

Closed captioning (CC) is the process of adding text with video to provide extra information. For example adding dialogue or actions as on screen text.

Subtitles or Captions?

Both Subtitles and captions both involve displaying text on screen, but there are differences.

Captions are the text version of the spoken parts of a event broadcast, they are in the language of the original video.
Subtitles are translations for people who do not speak the native language of the orignal video, for example translating an event webcast for a foreign audience.

Most Event Broadcasts will use Captions as standard.

Open or Closed Captions?

Captions can be either open or closed.

Closed Captions are saved separately to the video and can be turned on or off by the viewer. Open captions are ‘burnt in’ to the video and cannot be turned off.

When videos are watched back at lower resolutions it can be harder to read open captions.

Should I use captions?

If you are producing a live or on demand event broadcast, using captions will increase your potential audience.

Captions provide accessibility to people with hearing impairments and can sometimes be required by law. Captions are also useful to assist event viewers with English as a second language. As more online video is watched muted,  they can also be a great way to help viewers understand an Event Webcast or Recording without sound.

Stream7 provide a captioning service where captions can be added to both Live Streams and On Demand recordings, please contact us for more details.