Enable closed captions

Learn how to use closed captions in Adobe Connect and select caption providers.

Closed captions in Adobe Connect sessions improve accessibility and display spoken content as on-screen text. You can also integrate third-party captioning services to provide transcription support for multiple languages, and participants can choose from multiple caption streams to display captions in different languages.

The following topics are covered in this article:

Enable closed captions

Follow the steps to enable closed captions:

  1. Select Room menu > Preferences to launch the meeting room preferences dialog.

  2. Select Closed captions.

  3. Enable the toggle Enable other closed captions.

Use in meeting captioner

An in-meeting captioner provides real-time transcription, line-by-line or word-by-word, of what is said during a meeting.  Follow the steps to add an in meeting captioner: 

  1. Type the caption title. 

  2. Select In meeting captioner in the Caption provider dropdown.

    Preferences for closed captions

  3. In the closed caption settings section, select the way that the in-meeting captioner displays the captions to the participants:

    • Line captioning: Select the button to let the captioner use the Enter button for sending the captions.

    • Word-by-word captioning: Select the button to let the captioner use the Spacebar button for sending the captions.

  4. To add another in meeting captioner, select Provider and repeat the above steps.

  5. Select Done. The caption panel will be available to both hosts and participants, and everyone will view a notification, “Closed captions are available now”. 

    As you type the captions in the caption entry field, they are shown to the participants selected to show captions. 

    In meeting captioner
    In meeting captioner

Add an external captioning provider 

An external caption provider is a third-party service that generates real-time captions for sessions or webinars. These providers use human captioners or automated speech-to-text technology to transcribe spoken words into on-screen text in a session.

Adobe Connect uses VITAC, StreamText, and other services to provide closed captioning to participants.

As an example, add VITAC as a caption provider.

  1. Select VITAC in the Caption provider dropdown. 

    Multiple caption providers
    Multiple caption providers

  2. Type the event ID in the VITAC Event ID field, and press Enter. The event ID is the confirmation number received in your order confirmation email from VITAC. 

  3. Select Done.

Nominate an attendee as captioner
Nominate an attendee as captioner

Use VITAC as caption provider 

Follow the steps to use VITAC as a caption provider:

  1. Select the CC menu and then select English—Start VITAC CC.

    A message, "VITAC CC stream started," will indicate a valid connection, and captions should start. Captions will be displayed in a black captioning box on the page. This box can be moved around the screen, enabling you to place the captions wherever you prefer. While using VITAC, it is not possible to configure and view captions from other providers. 

  2. Step text

    Select English - Stop VITAC CC on the CC menu to stop the captions from VITAC. 

Only the meeting host can start or stop the VITAC stream. The host who starts the meeting can stop the stream. 

If the host leaves the meeting, the CC stream stops, and participants see the message, "VITAC CC stream stopped".

Note

If a participant who has been promoted to host starts the VITAC stream and the original host tries to stop it, the message "Not authorized to stop this VITAC stream, the host that started the stream can stop it" displays. 

Nominate a captioner

As a host, you can nominate anyone in the meeting to be the captioner.

You can change the captioner at any time, the captions continue from where each captioner leaves off. Participants will not be notified if the captioner changes.

Nominate captioner
Nominate captioner

Delete a caption provider

You can only delete a provider after adding a new provider. Select Delete provider near a caption provider in Preferences > Closed captions

Delete caption provider
Delete caption provider

View captions in a recording

If you enabled closed captions withing your meeting, then your meeting recording will also provide the same captions and the same options for participants. 

View captions
View captions

While watching the recording you can open the CC menu from recording playbar. Using the menu options, you can:

  • Hide or show captions.
  • Choose caption language.
  • Modify caption text size and color.
  • Move captions.

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