Online video consumption is emerging with leaps and bounds. According to the latest research, around 92.1% of global internet users worldwide watch digital videos every week. With the massive augmentation of video content, it has now become a necessity to make videos accessible across the globe.
How to make online videos accessible for all?
Closed captions are key players in making online videos more accessible. Reach out to diverse audiences, minimize barriers of language and hearing disabilities, and adhere to accessibility compliances like ADA section 508. According to WHO, over 5% of the world’s population has hearing disabilities.
Not adding captions to videos makes content limited to only those people who understand that specific language spoken in the video. That ultimately means limited reach to your content, whereas automatic closed captioning encourages global reach.
This article highlights the importance of automatic closed captioning and top closed captioning tools available today.
Why Is There a Need for Automatic Closed Captions in Videos?
Source: Verizon Media
- Adding video captions makes your videos more engaging to the audience.
- Along with that it enables people with hearing disabilities to watch, comprehend and remember information in videos more easily.
- To aid with disabilities, closed captions are required by Section 508, ADA, and other accessibility compliances.
- Closed captioning is a very tedious task if done manually. Trained transcriptionists can take 4 to 5 hours to transcribe an hour-long video, challenging for most organizations that produce massive video content.
Therefore, automatic closed captioning generated using artificial intelligence is of utmost importance. There are various closed captioning tools available in the market today.
Best Automatic Closed Captioning Software:
We will discuss the best automatic closed captioning tools one by one based on their distinguishing features.
VIDIZMO:
VIDIZMO is a Gartner-recognized YouTube-like enterprise video platform that allows enterprises to store, transcode, stream, manage, and share videos and digital media content with internal and external audiences.
VIDIZMO provides automatic transcription with translations used to generate multilingual closed captions in the most secure and compliant way. This capability is present in both of VIDIZMO’s products:It allows you to:
- Automatically generate closed captions in around 40 languages using artificial intelligence for all your videos, including your recorded Zoom and MS teams meetings and much more.
- Save time, reduce costs, improve productivity, and generates accurate closed captions for videos.
- Edit these captions within the application to ensure accuracy.
- Translate these closed captions into more than 50 languages.
- Simultaneously transcribed up to 4 spoken languages in a multilingual video (out of 22 supported languages).
- Reach specific parts in a video quickly by searching for spoken words and phrases synchronized with the video.
Rev:
It generates accurate closed captions (both manual and automatic) that save time and human effort. Some of its features are as follows:
- Fast, easy-to-use and accurate captioning and transcription platform.
- Edit auto-generated captions.
- Automatic live captions for Zoom meetings and webinars.
- Turnaround time is usually 12 to 24 hours.
- No downloads required. Just upload videos, paste URLs, or send links from other platforms.
- Generate subtitles for English videos in 8+ languages.
YouTube:
YouTube is a public video sharing platform with over two billion users. It is an excellent choice for content creators who want to add closed captions and translate their videos for free.
Its key features are listed below:
- Transcribe and auto-sync video files.
- Built-in transcription tool for auto-generation of closed captions.
- Captions can only be added and then translated for videos after the video is uploaded on YouTube.
- It is convenient, but it is not accurate due to low-quality speech recognition.
- You need to put a lot of effort into reviewing and editing automatic closed captions.
3Play Media:
3Play Media is a full-service paid video platform that provides reliable closed captioning and transcription services.
It allows you to upload video files directly from the local drives, via links, integrations, or custom APIs. Its video editor tools help in captioning, transcription, and translation services for accurate results.
Some of its features are mentioned below:
- Integrated closed captioning in about 20 languages.
- Video files with captions can be downloaded in 50 formats compatible with most video platforms.
- User-friendly interface. Translate video files into around 40 languages for global reach.
- Use automatic speech recognition technology for live captioning.
- Manage live captions with flexible and efficient scheduling workflow.
CaptioningStar:
It is a hassle-free captioning tool that offers multiple video captioning services such as open captioning, closed captioning, embedded captioning, and real-time captioning.
You can upload video files, paste URLs, or integrate with Vimeo, Dropbox etc.
Its primary features are as follows:
- Provides accurate and easy-to-read captions by integration with other platforms like YouTube, Vimeo.
- Live streaming captions are accessible for a global audience.
- Closed captions are available in two languages: English and Spanish.
- Flexible turnaround times.
- Supports most audio and video file formats.
Vitac:
Vitac is one of the largest providers of captioning services in the U.S, which has been in business since 1986.
It offers closed captioning services for offline and online video platforms. It provides live or real-time captioning capabilities for news programs, sporting events, government meetings, etc. In contrast, offline captioning is done manually by humans after a video is recorded.A few of its features are:
- A talented team of manual captioners is available 24/7.
- Provide captions for remote meeting integrations such as Zoom video communications, Cisco Webex etc.
- Social media integration.
- Auto-sync caption files.
- Offers captioning services in Spanish and French for live or prerecorded programs.
Archive Captioning:
Another captioning platform is Archive Captioning which offers live stream captioning for virtual meetings and webinars.
Live captioning can integrate with Facebook. YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, etc. Post-production captioning services help make the videos accessible for individuals with hearing disabilities across the globe.In short, a few of its key features are listed below:
- Offline captioning services are available in unique styles such as roll-up, stationery, pop on, etc.
- Cost-effective live captioning services.
- Multiple caption formats.
- Can integrate with Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings.
- Machine translation for foreign language captions.
Vimeo:
Vimeo has over 230 million users, creating, managing, and sharing high-quality videos. Vimeo transcribes your videos by using Google’s API.
It supports a larger library of captioned and subtitled languages. It has more of a professional and user-friendly interface compared to other video platforms.
Some of its features are as follows:
- Automated closed captions save time, money, and human effort.
- Live stream closed captions are available in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
- It supports a few file formats such as SRT, WebVTT, DFXP, SCC, and SAMI.
- Identifies specific names and technical terms better speech detection for accuracy.
Final Verdict:
Enterprises use video conferencing tools and content management systems to host and manage videos. By adding closed captions, you can make your video content accessible to a diverse set of audiences, ensuring higher inclusivity and engagement.
It is a must-have feature now. As discussed, many closed captioning tools are available in the market, each with its own set of unique capabilities. What you choose depends on your requirements (understand your needs first!).
If you are a larger organization, VIDIZMO’s powerful AI-powered video platforms will be the best fit. It enables you to:
- convert speech to text.
- generate smart transcripts.
- translate them into multiple languages automatically.
For more details contact us.
Or better yet, try it yourself?
