Livestreaming can be an impactful way for businesses, large and small, to reach a greater audience. Whether you are creating comprehensive online classes or hosting your quarterly conference, livestreams help companies bypass limitations of physical events and still reach their audience. Companies have access to platforms like Facebook Live, YouTube, and StreamYard to create digital content and expand its viewership. To deliver impactful content, it must be accessible and accurate, making real-time captioning for your livestreams non-negotiable. As expert captioners, we know that a strong technical understanding of caption delivery improves the smoothness and accuracy of your event’s captioning. In this guide, we’ll break down technical industry jargon like RTMP and clearly lay out caption delivery workflow options to ensure your livestream is equipped with uninterrupted captions.
Benefits of Live Captioning
Including live captioning for livestreams offers multiple benefits, such as increasing accessibility and creating content that is easily understood. Captions help individuals with hearing loss, non-native English speakers, and visual processors fully engage with your content in real time. Other benefits of adding captions include:
- Reduces cognitive load for the audience
- Provides another form of processing for comprehension
- Helps minimize the risk of diversion for individuals in noisy or distracting environments
- Boosts viewer engagement
Now that we’ve established how live captioning adds meaningful value to your livestreams, let’s break down the technical process so your team can provide seamless captions. While acronyms and workflows may sound intimidating, understanding how captions are implemented helps ensure they’re accurate, compliant, and fully compatible with your streaming technology.
Understanding RTMP
The first step in generating real-time captioning is ensuring a reliable funnel that routes content seamlessly to a livestream platform. RTMP stands for Real-Time Messaging Protocol, and this is how video and audio are taken from your encoder (software that prepares raw video and audio) and delivered to the platform hosting your livestream. This standardized sending method ensures a compatible exchange. While RTMP does not create or add captions, it plays a key role in ensuring the video is transferred with or prepared to support live captioning.
Choosing the Right Caption Delivery Workflow
Captions can be embedded at two points in a livestream workflow—either directly embedded into the video during the encoding process or added to the feed in real time after the content has been sent via RTMP. Understanding where your content will be distributed, who your audience is, and your current production setup and workflows will determine what caption delivery option is best for your livestream.
Closed Captions
Closed captions are generated during the encoding process and embedded directly into the video. This option is widely compatible with most platforms and ensures broadcast-ready livestreams. A key characteristic of this delivery method includes the end user’s ability to turn the captions on and off, allowing them to customize their viewing experience based on their preferences.
When choosing closed captions, selecting the right closed captioning standard is important for meeting accessibility requirements set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Understanding the difference is especially helpful if your content will broadcast on traditional TV. Here’s the breakdown of the difference between 608 and 708:
608 Closed Captions
- Designed for analog TV and considered the old standard TV.
- While 708 is the updated captioning standard, 608 remains widely compatible and most streaming platforms support 608.
- Includes a basic appearance of a black box with white lettering.
- Customization is limited and done at the captioner’s end. Design includes italics, placement, and capitalization.
708 Closed Captions
- Designed as the updated standard for digital TV and compatible with most streaming platforms.
- Not compatible with analog TV.
- Both the captions and the viewer can customize the closed captions to make them more accessible.
- Customization includes, but is not limited to, features such as color, font, size, and contrast.
- Supports a wider range of language options.
Open Captions
Open captions burn the text directly into the video, creating permanent captions that users cannot turn off. These are ideal for platforms that don’t allow for 608/708 ingestion.
Web-Based Caption Windows
Web-based captions are a great option for accessibility. They allow viewers to customize their captions, such as font size and language. The captions link directly to the livestream platform and appear in a separate browser.”
Choosing the right captioning workflow directly impacts the user experience, from providing accurate captions across multiple platforms to audience customization for adaptable accessibility. The right caption delivery ensures your captions are compatible with your platform, accessible to your audience, and compliant with regulations. When production teams understand these details, captioners, AV teams, and speakers can collaborate to create impactful, uninterrupted, engaging, and inclusive content.
Tools That Support Live Captioning
Choosing the right platform can be difficult. Whether you’re comparing technical compatibility or built-in accessibility features, finding the best fit can help ensure your livestream has access to all the essentials, including live captioning. Here are a few of the platforms and streaming tools we have worked with:
Event & Webinar Platforms
Broadcast & Streaming Tools
- OBS Studio
- vMix
- YouTube Live
- Facebook Live
- Vimeo Livestream
- Videolinq
Partner in Livestream Captioning
At Caption Pros, we offer the level of service that high-quality livestreams demand. Our team delivers an inclusive, polished experience for every attendee. Whether you want broadcast-ready livestreams or accessible content that can be used across multiple platforms, our team partners with companies from the start of production by providing technical expertise, tailored options, and seamless captioning to ensure your livestream makes an impact. Connect with us today!