Live captions for a livestream: Microsoft Envision Forum 2020

EVE and the livestream: Microsoft Envision Forum 2020

Due to the current situation, the Microsoft Envision Forum 2020 took place exclusively virtually on the ON24 event platform. Microsoft also attaches great importance to inclusion for digital events. So we had to figure out, how to provide the three parallel tracks of the event with live captions.

microsoft envision forum 2020

In times of a pandemic, creative solutions must be found to maintain or even improve on previous standards. As the event was completely hosted online, ON24 was used as event platform. Microsoft decided to offer the event with three parallel tracks in German and English. After the opening keynote, the livestream was to be divided into three sections. The challenge here was to provide all three tracks with live captions. For this, the following questions had to be answered first:

  • How can captions be integrated into the livestream without affecting the viewing experience?
  • How can we compensate the 15 seconds delay caused by the transmission?
  • How many people can have simultaneous access to EVE live captions during the stream?

How does EVE work During livestreamS?

In general, EVE can be integrated into a livestream using two methods. Option one: cut out the finished EVE sentences from the EVE listener with a chroma key from a director and burn them permanently into the livestream. However, this is a time-consuming process and not suitable for every livestream.

As a second option ON24 offers the possibility to activate URL-widgets in the live stream dashboard. Thus the listener can be displayed as a separate widget next to the livestream and can be deactivated again if required. Every viewer can have the captions displayed in the language of choice.

How can I delay the live captions?

Livestream platforms like ON24 create a delay of about 15 seconds between the real signal and the final output in the stream to the viewer. Without the delay, EVE’s subtitles would appear earlier than the spoken word in the livestream. Therefore, EVE offers a way to delay the output as needed. URL parameters can be used to configure various settings for the listener. The URL for the listener window must be adjusted as follows:

BEFORE
AFTER
URL-Parameter
FunCtion
https://app.staging.starteve.ai/listener/testevent https://app.staging.starteve.ai/listener/testevent?delay=5000 ?delay=5000 delay of 5 seconds (5000 ms)
https://app.staging.starteve.ai/listener/testevent https://app.staging.starteve.ai/listener/testevent?delay=200 ?delay=200 delay of 200 ms

How many people can simultaneously use EVE?

Livestreams often have several thousand viewers at the same time. However, this is no problem for EVE, as it is scaled accordingly. If you are expecting more than 10.000 simultaneous listeners for your event, please contact our support team in advance, so that EVE can adjust to it.

The Stream…

… went smoothly. With the help of the dictionary, technical terms were trained in advance: EVE recognized companies and partner names. The integration of a URL widget was possible without any problems. After some tests we found out that ON24 works with an average delay of about ten seconds. We were able to compensate for this with the URL parameter. We are looking forward to provide the next Envision Forum with live captions as well. 😉

Your company is currently thinking about a livestream and, of course, wants to provide live captions for the audience? Contact us for a suitable option for your event or a live demo: hello@starteve.ai