Follow the steps below to schedule captions for a live captioning event with captions virtually encoded (CEA 608) into your RTMP stream. In this workflow you will stream from your video source (encoder) to 3Play, 3Play will provide you with an RTMP URL and Key to stream to from your encoder. Upon receiving your video stream, 3Play will encode your captions and restream the caption encoded stream to your provided Stream Target (typically your audience facing Live player).
| Note: Events default to US-Eastern time unless a new timezone has been configured at the user level. |
Prerequisites
- This service is not available to Express customers
Workflow diagram:
Key Notes:
- 3Play is delaying the stream to your output Video/Event platform by 30 seconds to align the captions to the video stream (such that your audience should experience only 1-2 seconds of caption latency in relation to the event audio)
- In this workflow, 3Play is streaming both video and captions to the end streaming platform - if you choose to End Event through the 3Play interface, this will also end the video stream. Do not select this unless you want to stop streaming your video.
- Additionally, if your stream to 3Play, or the 3Play stream to your specified restream URL is compromised, both captions and video will be impacted. As such we advise customers using this workflow run a secondary stream as a fallback.
- You must successfully test your live caption setup at least one week prior to attempting to use it on a live, production event. The configuration you test should be the same used in production – troubleshooting a new setup at production time is rarely successful.
Steps to Schedule a Live Virtual Encoding Event with 3Play
- Navigate to Live Captioning in your 3Play account
As a first step, click into the Live Captioning module within your 3Play Media project, click “Schedule Captions” and select “Virtual Encoding”
2. Provide us with your event details
Select Service Type
For Virtual Encoding, we offer both Automatic and Professional Live Captioning options.
Add Event Name
Add in a name for your event that will make it easy for you to find the event when searching for it after scheduling.
Select Event Start Time
Click the calendar icon to choose the MM/DD/YYYY and HH:MM:SS of the event. The time will automatically be set to 5 minutes from the current time but can be manually edited within the field.
- Please note: The live event must be scheduled at least 5 minutes in the future and it is editable up until 5 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. 3Play will initiate a service to listen for your stream at this time. Do not attempt to stream to 3Play before the event start time, as the stream connection will fail.
Add an Estimated Event Duration
Tell us how long you estimate your event to be. Your estimated event length assists with scheduling. 3Play will be ready to provide captions for the entire length of the event
Add a Pre-Event Start Time
This is how many minutes before your event's start time you can begin streaming to 3Play. We will be ready to provide captions for your event at this time.
Provide Information Regarding Caption Delivery
Tell us where to send the output stream for your encoded captions. Make sure to provide us with an output stream target URL as well as a stream target key. In addition to streaming to your target, we will also provide a caption delivery embed and webpage that you may use as an alternative delivery method. If you have a reserved static captioning embed or reserved static URL, you can choose to deliver to your static endpoints, or you can choose to use a single-use external URL or web page. If you choose to create a new Static External URL, you will have the option to use that static delivery endpoint for future live events.
Select a File Storage Location
Choose a folder within your 3Play Media account to send your finished live transcript to after your event is over.
Select an Event Type
Tell us more about what captioner may be best for your event by selecting an accurate event type for us to categorize your event under.
Provide an Event Description (optional)
Tell us more about your event with details to help our captioner research anything that they may need prior to your event starting.
Provide a list of Speaker Names or a Wordlist (optional)
Provide us with a list of properly spelled speaker names for our captioners to use when captioning your event ( Live professional captioning ).
Set your Profanity Filter (optional)
Tell us how you'd like profanity in your event to be filtered, if at all.
Set your Stream Reconnection Wait Time
If your live stream disconnects during the event, this is how long we will wait before we disconnect from delivering captions. After this time has passed, you will no longer be able to connect to this event.
Set Your Max Stream Time
3. Enter Support Contact Information
Please enter contact information for your event host or the person streaming your event to us in the event that 3Play Technical support needs to get in touch.
4. Click "Schedule Captioning"
Click "Schedule Captioning" on the right-hand side of the page to schedule your event once you have provided all of the necessary information.
5. Copy Embed Code
Once scheduled, the 3Play Live Captioning embed code will be immediately available and then can be added to your live event page.
Copy the iFrame embed code under Live Captioning Details to paste onto your webpage. While a JavaScript embed is available the iFrame is the preferred embed code for most uses. The Javascript embed allows for advanced customization.
| Note: This embed code only contains the text/captions and not the video. |
Click for information on how to customize the Captions Embed
Once the Live Captioning event has been scheduled, event settings can be edited up to 5 minutes prior to the Event Start Time that was selected in step 2.
Click for information on how to edit the live caption's event settings for a scheduled event
Streaming specifications:
Please note, the transcoder handling your video stream is a passthrough transcoder, any streaming settings you configure will be maintained in your stream output. Please ensure that you are adhering to the streaming settings specified by your streaming destination.
For more information on streaming best practices, follow this guidance: https://www.wowza.com/docs/encoding-best-practices-for-wowza-video-2
3Play recommends you follow the tips below to ensure more accurate captions for your professional live captioned events:
- Captions for live events work best when the event contains high-quality audio and one person is speaking at a time (no overlapping audio)
- Add event instructions and a wordlist to help 3Play better understand the context around your event