What are audio transcripts and captions?
Audio transcripts and captions are an important part of communicating effectively with video. Although two separate assets, they are closely related, and both provide a significant benefit to you and your audiences.
- An audio transcription is a textual copy of the audio from your video. The audio transcript comes in the format of an SRT, VTT or Text file. In the context of Vidyard, audio transcripts are typically requested as a paid service and subsequently used to provide video captions.
- Captions display the audio from your video as text during playback. Typically this text comes from a timestamped version of an audio transcript. If you do not have an SRT or VTT file for your video, Vidyard's caption authoring tool allows you to create your own.
| Benefit | Transcripts | Captions |
|---|---|---|
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | Using Vidyard's SEO Metatags feature, published audio transcripts are injected into the <head> tag of any webpage where the Vidyard player has been embedded. This makes it easier for web crawlers to understand and index the contents of your videos. |
N/A |
| Language Localization | Owning a transcript gives you the option to have it translated into other languages and subsequently deployed as captions. | Using a translated audio transcript, broaden your viewership to speakers of different languages, increasing the reach of your video |
| Accessibility | Audio transcripts can be turned into different formats that interface with assistive technologies, such as high contrast readers, refreshable braille readers, etc. You may also have an audio transcript modified to include indications of the speakers and physical cues. Include the transcript as a textual reference along with the video on your website. Users with sensitivity to motion or other difficulties interacting with visual media may choose to read the content of your video instead. |
Make the audio content of your video accessible to viewers who are deaf, hard-of-hearing. |
The Vidyard Caption Manager
Vidyard's Caption Manager acts as the central location to create, manage and edit captions. Here you will find any completed audio transcriptions that have been requested as a paid service, as well as auto-transcriptions generated by Vidyard.
Before using the tool, it is important to understand that captions are set at the video level. This means that captions added to an individual video will become available for that video in any players where it has been included.
- From the Vidyard dashboard, select Content > Videos (all of your uploaded videos are available here)
- Hover over the video you want to edit, then click Captions.
Note: for more information, refer to our documentation on using the Vidyard Caption Manager.
Vidyard auto-transcriptions
Vidyard provides many options when it comes to audio transcripts and captions. Platform users may create their own captions, upload an existing SRT, VTT or Text file, or request audio transcripts as a paid service.
Additionally, Vidyard also provides an automated audio transcription service to all paid customers. Once finished encoding, videos uploaded to the Vidyard platform will be automatically transcribed and made available to be used as captions.
- The auto-transcription service does not extend to GoVideo Enterprise users or videos created through the GoVideo Chrome extension or partner applications.
- Only videos with English-language audio will receive auto-transcriptions in (American) English. You may still request audio transcriptions in other languages.
- Auto-transcriptions are not automatically published. It is recommended that auto-transcripts be reviewed before they are published to ensure that any language errors and the position of captions are corrected.
Important: depending on the length of your video, the transcoding process, and the queue load, auto-transcriptions may not be immediately available.
A good rule of thumb: after a video has finished encoding, an auto-transcription will generally become available in a period of time equal to the duration of the video (10 minute video = 10 minute auto-transcription process).
Review an auto-transcription
- From the Vidyard dashboard, select Content > Videos
- Hover over the video you would like to review, then click Captions
- The auto-transcription should be the first available English-language entry
Search for videos using captions
Captions in Vidyard have the added benefit of allowing you to search your library using words that were spoken in a particular video.
- From the Vidyard dashboard, click Search to open to global search menu
- Type keywords into the search bar to return both players and videos that return a match
When using the global search menu, keep in mind:
- Titles and tags are matched at a higher priority than captions and will therefore surface higher on the results list
- Captions first need to be indexed before they become searchable. Videos with newly created, uploaded, or received captions may not immediately appear in search results.
- Captions do not need to be published in order to be searchable. Draft captions are indexed as well.
