Captions on a livestream

If you stream your event on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo or your own website, Spiiksi can put live captions over the picture: the speaker's own words, a translation, or both. You add one link to your streaming software as a browser source; the captions appear over your camera as people speak. The same link can also play an interpreted language's voice, so the stream can carry the translation as sound.

Stream viewers need no app and no link of their own: the captions are part of the video they already watch.

What you can showSpørg

• Captions in the original language: what the speaker says, as text. Useful for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, and for a noisy room.
• Translated captions: one AI language's interpretation, as text.
• Both: the original on a smaller line, with the translation under it.
• The interpreted voice: an AI language's audio, for the stream's sound or a second audio track.

Each link shows one language. For captions in two translations, add two links to two separate streams or scenes.

Captions without an eventSpørg

If you only stream, you don't need an event. Open Stream captions, press New stream, give it a name, choose the spoken language and the languages to interpret into, and press Create. Then:

1. Add captions to your stream: choose a language and the look, and copy the overlay link into OBS, as described below.
2. Send the sound, last, in one of three ways:
   • Browser: press Open audio page on the streaming computer and press Allow the microphone, so the inputs show by name. Choose the input your mixer feeds (its level shows before you start) and press Start. A three-second count-in follows; start speaking at Speak now. You can switch the input while streaming. Nothing to install; keep the tab open while you stream.
   • OBS or encoder: in OBS, open Settings → Stream, choose the service Custom…, and paste the Server and the Stream key. vMix and hardware encoders take the same, or the SRT address. This sends your whole stream to Spiiksi, so it needs upload for a second stream. OBS streams to one destination; to reach YouTube and Spiiksi at once, use the Multiple RTMP outputs plugin, or the audio page.
   • API: a program sends the sound over a WebSocket; the developer docs describe it.

The stream key and the links stay the same for every broadcast, and when you rename the stream, change its languages or switch between the original and translations: a stream's link names the stream and the language, and follows whatever serves it. The look is saved with the stream, so changing it keeps the link too. Replace key makes a new key if the old one has spread; the overlay links keep working. Interpretation is billed per language only while sound arrives.

If speakers switch languages, choose Detect language as the spoken language: it is then recognized sentence by sentence. A known language is recognized more accurately, so choose it when you can.

Connect transcription to an eventSpørg

When creating an event, choose Transcription only to start with captions. Choose the spoken language; translation languages are optional. On an existing event, switch between Speaking event and Transcription only above the setup. The switch keeps your inputs, languages, streams and links, and does not stop sound that is already running.

Under Transcription streams, press Add transcription stream, or Connect existing stream to attach a stopped standalone stream. You can also choose an event when creating or editing a stream under Stream captions. The event and stream must belong to the same organization.

Press Start transcription · choose audio input to open the audio page. Choose a microphone or mixer input and check its level before starting. Use OBS or another input opens the available encoder settings; WebSocket input is also available. Audio input connected means an input is on air; otherwise the event shows Waiting for audio input.

A stream in Test mode shows sample captions and never charges money or uses the event's demo minutes, even if you send sound. Turn test mode off to transcribe live: remaining demo minutes are used automatically. When they run out, the event continues with normal billing if a payment method and billing details are configured and payment authorization succeeds. Otherwise paid processing stops until payment is set up. Stop the audio input before changing test mode, connecting to another event or disconnecting. The stream key and overlay links stay the same when connecting or disconnecting.

Set up captions for an eventSpørg

1. Open the event under Events and find the room your speaker uses.
2. Press Set up under Captions for your stream.
3. Under Captions in, choose the original language or a translation.
4. Choose the look: for a translation, whether to show the original above it; whether the text appears word by word or sentence by sentence; position, size, number of lines, a dark band or an outline, and a transparent or green background. The preview shows how it will look on a 16:9 picture.
5. Press Copy to copy the Overlay link.

Captions appear while the room is live: start the broadcast from the speaker page or the Spiiksi Box as usual. The overlay itself doesn't start or stop anything, and an empty overlay shows nothing on the stream.

The link stays the same and works until you reset it, so a weekly service can keep the same scene. The look is saved with the language, not in the link: change the position, size or anything else in the dialog, and an overlay already in OBS takes the new look within a moment, with no new link to paste. Anyone with the link can read the captions and hear the audio; share it only with your stream team. Reset link revokes all previous output links for this language, including original-language captions using the same channel. Open connections close within five seconds. Copy the new link into OBS or your streaming software. The encoder stream key is unchanged. Existing links also become permanent until reset.

Add the link to OBS StudioSpørg

1. In Sources, press + and choose Browser.
2. Paste the link into URL.
3. Set Width and Height to your canvas size, for example 1920 × 1080.
4. Keep the browser source above your camera in the list, so the captions are drawn on top.

The page is transparent: only the captions show. To check the setup before the event, open the Test link under the overlay link in OBS instead: it plays sample captions with your look on a loop, with no sound and at no cost, and follows changes to the look as you make them. Or start a short test broadcast in Spiiksi and speak. On a live stream, turn on Test mode on the Stream captions page instead: the stream's own links then show samples in every language until you turn it off, so the scene is ready with the links you go live with.

vMix, Wirecast and other softwareSpørg

Most streaming software can show a web page over the picture:

• vMix: Add Input → Web Browser, paste the link, and set the resolution to your production's. Put the input on an overlay channel.
• Wirecast, Ecamm Live, Streamlabs and similar: add the link as a web page or browser source.
• Hardware mixers (ATEM and others): choose the green background, play the page full screen on a computer connected to the mixer, and remove the green with the mixer's chroma key.

Translated audio on the streamSpørg

For an AI language, turn on Add this language's voice to the stream before copying the link. The browser source then plays that language's interpreted voice.

In OBS, tick Control audio via OBS in the browser source's properties. The voice then shows up in the Audio Mixer, where you can set its level or, under Advanced Audio Properties, send it to its own track.

Most streaming platforms play a single audio track in a live stream. To offer the translation as sound, you can:

• run a second stream for the translated language, with the interpreted voice as its sound and the room's sound lowered underneath it; or
• keep one stream with the original sound and share the event's listening link or QR code, so viewers can hear their language on their phone.

The voice link takes no listener place in your event.

Where the text comes from and what it costsSpørg

• Translations: the text is the interpretation itself: what the AI interpreter says is what the captions show. The overlay adds no charge; interpretation is billed as usual.
• Translations without a voice: give a language the type Captions only, or on a stream leave Interpreted voice too off. It is translated as text only, at the captions price, which is lower than interpretation. Captions in the spoken language are then included.
• The original language, with an AI language in the room: the text comes from the transcript the AI interpretation makes anyway, with no extra charge.
• The original language, without an AI language: the room needs live captions on its original audio, which are billed per broadcast minute. The dialog offers Turn on for this. Current prices are on the pricing page.

A human interpreter's language has no text, so it can't be shown as captions. Choose the original or an AI language instead.

Captions are produced by AI and can contain mistakes, especially with names, rare terms and unclear sound. Interpreter instructions and terms help with names and terminology; see Languages and translation quality.

Tips for readable captionsSpørg

• Two lines at the bottom suit most streams. Choose one line when the picture has its own lower-third graphics.
• The dark band reads on any picture; the outline is lighter on screen.
• Original-language captions follow the speaker word by word, and each sentence is corrected when it is final. Translated captions arrive a sentence at a time, a few seconds after the speaker. Under Text appears, Sentence by sentence shows only whole sentences, for a calmer picture.
• The captions roll up as on television: lines already written stay put, new words appear on the bottom line, and a full line moves up.
• To line the captions up with the picture, you can delay the camera and microphone by a few seconds in your streaming software (in OBS, a Render Delay filter on the camera and a Sync Offset on the microphone).
• Good sound gives good captions: feed Spiiksi the mixing desk's output rather than a microphone in the room; see Audio setup and troubleshooting.

If captions don't appearSpørg

• A red notice in the corner: the link is not valid, for example cut short when pasted, or reset. Copy it again from Captions for your stream or Stream captions.
• A red notice on the Stream captions page: it says why a language's captions aren't running though the sound arrives, for example no balance or card to pay for them. It clears once captions run.
• Nothing shows: check that the room is live in Spiiksi and that someone is speaking. Captions clear themselves after a few seconds of silence.
• Original-language captions missing: turn on live captions for the room's original audio, or add an AI language.
• No voice in OBS: tick Control audio via OBS and check the browser source in the Audio Mixer. In an ordinary browser tab, click the page once: browsers play sound only after a click.