How to add Subtitles/Closed Captioning to a Simulive or On Demand webcast

Administrators and engineers can now add timed Closed Captioning (Subtitles) to their Simulive and On-Demand webcasts to make them more accessible, whether for the hearing-impaired or international audiences.

For an Alternative to this solution, you can also configure automated subtitles which can be found here: Configuring Studio Automated Subtitles.

After you have uploaded a media version or recorded a webcast, follow these steps:

Enter the Studio Presenter Console with administrator privileges and navigate to the Presenter Console Menu>Tools>Subtitle Track to add your tracks. A Subtitle Track will be used for each of your language alternates and will show a different set of captions as necessary. To add a Subtitle Track, click on the big blue plus icon at the top right-hand side of the menu. Please note that your webcast type must be set to video and audio, subtitles are not supported in audio-only webcasts.

Add a Title. We recommend the language name, as this is the most common use case. Then, choose the language for your subtitles from the drop-down menu. Finally, decide if this track will be Active and if you want viewers to access it. Users can select from as many Active Subtitle Tracks as needed.

After you add your tracks you will see them displayed in the Subtitle Track menu. Tracks are not specific to a media version but to a webcast, so even if you switch media versions, you will not need to re-add tracks.

NOTE: Only one track per language can be displayed in a webcast at a time. Adding multiple tracks with the same language will only display the captions from the track that was created first.

Once you’ve added the Subtitle Tracks you’ll need for your webcast, it’s time to add the subtitles to your media version. You can do this either from the simple menu, or from the Advanced Editor.

Let’s look at the simple editor first:

Navigate to Tools >Manage Media and click into the Media Version you want to add subtitles/captioning to. You will now see underneath Actions the CC icon. Click on that icon. This will open a new menu, Edit Subtitles, where you will be able to select a track and import a .srt file, or alternatively, add timings to subtitles you add through this menu.

The first step is to select which track you want to add subtitles to by choosing one of the Tracks you previously added from the drop-down menu. Now you have two options, you can upload a subtitles file or manually add them. To import a subtitles file (.srt, .vtt or .webvtt) click on the file upload button on the right and select your file and click Open. This will import your subtitles.

Alternatively, to manually add subtitles, click on the first box below From to add a subtitle time and add a To time to create a time frame for the subtitle to display. Then, type or copy-paste the text into the text box to the right of the subtitle range time. As you add a subtitle time, a new line will appear for you to keep adding subtitles.

Once you’re done importing or manually adding subtitles to the track, click SAVE. While this will send you to the Editor Sessions menu, you are NOT creating a new Media Version, but the subtitles are being compiled for display. The editor session will immediately place the progress in the Queue.  Once complete, the PERCENT will display 100. 

Once the compiling is done, click Back to go back to the Media Version, then to the Edit Subtitles menu.  Hover over the media display window, click Play and preview the subtitles you just added. 

If you are working in Broadcast Studio and want to add subtitles from the Advanced Editor, from the Presenter Console Menu navigate to Tools >Manage Media and then click on Media Editor to open it.

Click on the CC icon on the menu bar on the left-hand side of the editor to enter Subtitle Mode. 

Before you begin, confirm you’re adding the subtitles to the correct Media Version by selecting it from the drop-down menu in the top left hand corner.

You can import a subtitles file or manually add them. To import a subtitles file (.srt only) click on the Import Subtitles icon on the left-hand side of the editor.

Select the appropriate Subtitle Track and select CHOOSE File to upload the .srt file.  Following the upload, preview the From, To, and Text and confirm it's correct.  Once complete, click SAVE.

The subtitles will display in the Subtitles Timeline and to the right of the media window display.  

After successful import, you still have the option to manually adjust the From, To and Text box.  From the Subtitle Timeline, click on a subtitle to edit.

Update the time and text box. Manual adjustments can also be completed to the right of the media window display.  Adjust the From, To and Text box.

If you wish to manually add subtitles versus importing, right-click on the Subtitle Timeline and click Add New>Subtitle. 

Enter the From, To and Text for your subtitle and click SAVE. 

Once added, you can drag it on the timeline to move it to a different timing position.  In addition, you can right click on a subtitle and select Edit to manually adjust the From, To and Text box.

Manual adjustments can also be completed to the right of the media window display.  Adjust the From, To and Text box.

Once you’ve added all your subtitle you can click play to preview. To finalize adding subtitles, click SAVE to compile the subtitles.

Now that you’ve added subtitles/closed-captioning to your webcast, a CC icon will display in the media window where your attendees can turn this feature on, select a CC track, and get more from the content.

Please note that while Tracks are set for all Media Versions in the webcast, each Media Version has its own Subtitle cue points, so you should always confirm that the Media Version you added subtitles to is the one in use for Simulive or On Demand playback.

 View the list of Supported Languages.