Caption your Hopin events

Live event captioning in Hopin: how to get captions and subtitles

Aug 15, 2021 | Blog, Stories

Event managers might ask about how to get closed captioning in Hopin. However, remember that closed captions can be turned off and on while open captions are always in view. It’s often easier to choose open captions when you are streaming live content.

On the other hand, if you want captions to be optional, an easy solution is to offer them in a separate window for those who would like to view them. This article will show you a few ways to get captioning in your Hopin event.

Captioning and translation for Hopin events

Here are a few options for captioning in Hopin:

How to choose solutions for captioning in Hopin

Since hybrid events can be complex to plan for and run, it’s essential to find captioning and translation solutions that solve common problems and fit your specific needs.

1. Too many tools

Some captioning tools work best for live, in-person events, while others are better for online digital events. However, if you want reliable captioning for Hopin, find a tool that is designed for hybrid events. Since Hopin is a platform that works for online, hybrid, and in-person events, you’ll be able to take your captioning and translation service with you, regardless of your event type.

Using the same tools will result in a more consistent experience for your attendees. For example, spf.io’s Audience View provides captions and subtitles through a web app, so your audience will see the same captions whether they are online or physically present for your event.

2. Scaling

You might know how to provide captioning for a small audience of less than 50 people. However, what if you decide to scale up your event to include a bigger audience? Can your solution for captioning in Hopin handle a few hundred viewers?

If you want to expand your reach for an international online event, how many languages does your translation tool offer? Keeping future goals in mind will save you a lot of trouble in the future since switching tools costs time, money, and effort.

At spf.io, we’ve found that technology for virtual events changes quickly. Our tech team finds it useful to stay ahead of new changes, so we’re constantly creating tools and developing features that are more powerful and easier to use. For instance, if you have more than one presenter at a time, spf.io’s cloud loopback feature allows multiple speakers to be captioned. If you want your event to reach thousands of people, you’ll find our Audience View Scalar critical for handling peak traffic.

3. Cross-platform compatibility

Will you be streaming over YouTube Live or other platforms? Do you need replays or recordings of your event for future use?

Hopin recently acquired StreamYard, which lets you stream to YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, and other platforms at the same time. If you want to stream to multiple platforms while captioning in Hopin, it’s good to find tools that integrate with your setup. As another option, you can find a captioning and translation tool that works independently of whatever platform you choose. Spf.io integrates directly with YouTube and Zoom, but it also offers a link to captioning and translation in your browser (Audience View, which also embeds into web pages). This way, regardless of where you’re streaming, you can always display spfio’s captions and subtitles to your viewers.

If you’d like to save your livestream captions (and timing!) to create recorded content, use spf.io’s fastSRT feature For pre-recorded content, generate captions and subtitles with AVCS.

4. Cost

You can take advantage of automatic translation technology to provide captioning for Hopin events while staying within your budget. Consider whether you want to hire interpreters, use voice writers, and/or have a staff member operate and edit machine-generated translations. Spf.io’s features are easy to use, whether you want automatic captioning in Hopin or human-powered translation.

5. Adaptability

Can the tools you use be run by a staff member, or do you need to hire a specialist to run your equipment? By using in-house staff, live event captioning can become more affordable.

Summary of options

Top choice: spf.io (60+ languages, for 1+ speakers, captions can be edited and saved)
best for events that want quality captioning, create an easy experience for presenters, use 2+ languages, have pre-recorded content, need specific captioning/translation solutions, etc.

Other alternatives:
– Live caption in Chrome (English only) – best for events with no budget, requires viewers to activate this setting in their Chrome browser
– Google Slides (English only, captions limited to speaker) – best for events with no budget, used when presenting with Google Slides, requires presenter to screen share

Why choose spf.io to caption and translate your online event?

At spf.io, we build technology that integrates with human-centered solutions. This means that you can use your own staff to supervise AI-powered transcription and translation. Our onboarding process empowers you to choose the right technology for your situation. We also teach your staff and volunteers how to apply these powerful tools to a variety of situations:

  • releasing lines from a script
  • controlling the timing of subtitles
  • generating a transcript
  • translating a document, and more

Spf.io’s AI can even be trained to recognize phrases that are specific to your topic of choice, so you have more control over the accuracy of captioning in Hopin.

Still need help planning your captioning/translation strategy? Tell us what you’re looking for, and we’ll let you know which spf.io setup will work for you!

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