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According to the Ofcom survey, 80% of the television audience who watch programs with captions aren’t deaf or hard of hearing. Captions are much beyond time-synchronized transcripts; they help reach out to more potential customers in many ways. Video-themed content and online events have mainstreamed in several fields, and the global lockdown accelerated the usage of virtual content creation and management to a greater extent.
With these overwhelming web-based events such as conferences and seminars, captions have proven to be of great assistance to ease out the viewer’s experience. There are a few top reasons how captions could steal the audience for impressive benefits:
Approachable to all kinds of audiences
The International Standards set Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for Web accessibility. They state the importance of captions in pre-recorded and live audio, audio/video, and video contents. Their main aim is to eliminate discrimination and provide equal access to viewers with hearing impairments Some people among the audience might suffer from learning or behavioral difficulties, to name a few- language or auditory processing disorder, Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In such cases, captions act like a secondary input to keep the information intact.
Apart from this, captions wheel up the viewers to catch up with their busy lifestyles. Studies say almost 85% of Facebook watches video without audio. Captions allow them to watch virtual events despite the nature of the environment. For example, a student can do their last-minute preparation while traveling to the university or in a public place, waiting outside the examination venue regardless of the noise-sensitive environments.
Upgrade the content rank and reach
It is not very likely for internet bots to interpret and gather keywords from video content. Captions provide the same information transcribed or translated in text form that is easier to be read by bots. In turn, captions drive up the rank of the content via Search Engine Optimization. People looking for similar subjects can access them easily with the appropriate key terms. It brings in more traffic to your website and more participants for future events.
When the events are live, it could be hard to follow the words. But live events with captions can reach more audiences. Alongside captions makes the process of repurposing possible without any additional effort. Thus captions of the video content can be copied and repurposed to other forms. Carousels posts in various social media platforms, blog posts, presentation slides are a few such uses of reusing the captions.
Greater comprehension, more retention
Captions run parallel visual reading experiences while hearing the words that double the sustainability of information. Thus, the content could stay longer in mind compared to solely listening to the lecture. Eidetic memory is the best opt for retention. The caption also promotes listening comprehension, words recognition, especially new terminologies, concepts, and jargon are instantly recognized and understood.
Autoplaying videos and fun captions highlighting important terms make social media content more approachable and less time-consuming. While watching videos, the written figures and facts are retained in memory easily. Sometimes, the main points are differentiated with big and bold captions to grasp the attention.
Keeping up the viewership
A survey made by Verizon Media and Public Media showed that 80% of American consumers watched the entire video with the availability of captions. And 50% of the participants of the mentioned survey admitted watching the videos on mute with captions. Viewers can capture the essence of any video even in silence despite the nature of the ambiance. This way, the average watch time has drastically increased. In the middle of, on-the-go lifestyle, captions keep the viewers engaged in the videos, and captions stand out as a center of focus among the visual elements.
Translate the captions to widen the audience
According to Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing Survey, 2020 was the year of webinars. There was a 16% increase in hosting webinars in the last two years. Such webinars can be the gateway to an ESL ( English as Second Language) approach or non-native learners with captions. Subtitles break the language barrier and multiply opportunities, and it widens the reach of the content internationally. And real-time captioning can also draw in more audiences who might benefit from written form than spoken for better understanding.
Overall, captions are a key to winning more viewership and accessibility. It benefits learners, tutors, content creators, and everyone under the roof of virtual setup. However, there is a shortcoming when it comes down to captioning, and the accuracy tends to fall short. YouTube reports that it produces one billion captioned videos, but only half of the caption syncs with the uttered word. So it is advisable to hire the right captioning service provider to make the best out of its benefits.
Human-generated captions: These captions are exact and error-free. Quality content gives a comfortable reading flow that grasps the reader’s attention, and it significantly improves engagement time.
CaptioningStar: Live captioning experts at CaptioningStar are well capable of providing real-time captions instantly within 3-5 seconds. With our quick turnaround times, the transcriptions and translations are made as early as possible with utmost precision. Captions are a multi-purposeful and profitable companion for all kinds of virtual events when it has been done right.
As per your needs, CaptioningStar writes captions in a wide range of formats, styles, and templates. The support system aids their clients 24/7 to way out any queries or problems. The supportive formats are listed below:
- .SRT (SubRip)
- .VTT (WebVTT)
- .SCC (Scenarist Closed Caption)
- .STL (Spruce Technology)
- .CAP(Common Caption)
- .XML (Flash)
- ITT(iTunes)
- .TXT
- .ASC
- .SST (Sonic Scenarist)
- SON
- .QT (Quicktime) & more.
Choose the desired format based on the preferred video displaying platforms like television, smartphone, laptop, or other comparatively big screens.
CaptioningStar also provides translated captions. Let us review the process involved in making captions.
- Upload the files to the CaptioningStar server. With one click, upload them away. The files limit per upload is five, and each should be within 2GB. Live chat options are available at any hour.
- Caption writers are assigned. And in the case of translations, experienced native speakers are employed as translators. The writers comprehend the language better despite dialect differences.
- After listening to the video carefully, word by word, the experts draft the captions manually. The scripts are designed with timestamps for encoding purposes by the production team later.
- Verbatim transcriptions for fillers, shutters, non-verbal elements are conveyed in words aptly without any change. And for non-verbatim transcriptions, some changes are seamlessly made to promote readability.
- The completed scripts have 99% accuracy.
- The production team time code the captions. They encode the scripts and then decode them to upload captions to the video.
- It is delivered to the clients within the deadline without fail.
Such carefully written captions help a ton in bringing out the most impactful benefits. Distribute your content to all viewers without any basis like hearing, learning difficulties, or language barriers. They engage the audience with top-notch quality and smooth readability.
