This article only applies to your community if your Firstup contract includes this functionality. Please contact your Customer Success Manager with any questions about feature availability for your community.

Firstup's video auto-transcription and translation feature enhances accessibility and inclusivity by automating captions and supporting multiple languages. This ensures clear communication for all employees by improving engagement, saving time, and helping you reach everyone effectively, regardless of language or ability!

Auto-Transcribe Captions

Note: Creator Studio cannot be used to add captions to videos pulled in via links, such as Youtube, Vimeo, or Kaltura.

1. Create or edit a campaign to include a video block.
2. After your video upload has finished processing and the optional preview image and alt text have been added, select + Add Captions.
   
   Note: There is a limit of 50 captions that can be uploaded per video.
   
   
    
3. Select Automatically generate captions. Captions will be automatically transcribed and generated for your video. Firstup supports all languages that AWS uses for transcription services. A full list can be found here. (If you do not want to auto-translate the captions, click Continue and proceed to Step 5.)
   
   
   
   Note: Labels reflect whether captions have been automatically generated or manually uploaded.
   
   
4. Selecting Auto-translate these captions will prompt you to select which languages you want to auto-translate the captions into. Firstup supports all languages that AWS uses for translation services. A full list can be found here. Once you have selected the languages, click Done and then Continue.
   
   
   
   Manually uploaded captions can also be translated by clicking the Translate icon.
   
   
   
    
5. Once generated, select whether or not you want to display captions by default. You can also click the Edit icon to manually edit the captions. Click Save to apply the changes.
   
   Note: Brand Super Admins can refer to Language Controls to learn how to create rules that save time on caption editing by preventing the translation of, always removing, or always replacing specified terms.
   
   
    
6. Caption font color and size, and background color can be styled for the video under Captions Styling. Styling will be specific to this video only and will need to be updated for each captioned video block.
   
   Note: Caption styling is only supported in the web experience at this time.
   
   
    
7. Preview the video with all caption files and caption styling.
   
   
    
8. You have the option to download transcribed and translated captions by selecting the Download icon, and you can remove captions at any time by clicking the Trash icon.
   
   

Member Experience

Once a video campaign has closed captioning, users can select the CC button to turn on the captions. The CC button appears anywhere the video appears, even if you embed the video.

Web Experience

 

Mobile Experience

Issue Workaround

In Creator Studio, if a user uploads a manual English transcript in the Design tab of a campaign and later uses the Add Captions feature to generate captions in an additional language, the system replaces the manual English transcript with the auto-generated English transcript. As a result, the original manual transcript is overwritten and cannot be recovered.

To preserve the manual English transcript:

1. First, use Add Captions to generate any additional language captions.
2. After the additional language captions have been created, upload the manual English transcript.

Following this sequence ensures that the manual English transcript remains intact.

FAQ

Is there a limit to the number of captions that can be added?

Yes, there is a limit of 50 captions per video.

Can I upload my own caption files?

Yes! You can even upload multiple files at the same time.

How long does it typically take to auto-transcribe a video?

Transcription times increase as the video length increases. The average duration for 1 min, 5 min, 30 min, and 1 hr videos are as follows:

1 min: 24.946908 seconds

5 min: 70.7044372 seconds

30 min: 121.6132884 seconds

60 min: 199.1208548 seconds

How long does auto-translation typically take?

Translation times are relatively consistent regardless of video length.  The average duration for 1 min, 5 min, 30 min, and 1hr videos are as follows:

1 min: 24.7849072 seconds

5 min: 14.5821964 seconds

30 min: 22.580478 seconds

60 min: 12.9720626 seconds

Can captions be automatically enabled?

Yes, you can, but these settings will not override a user’s phone or desktop settings and their current accessibility preferences.

Can I use auto transcription and translation with ScreenCloud?

Today, ScreenCloud does not support captions generated through Firstup. They do have their own technology that allows auto-generated English captions to be enabled, but they do not support any other languages.

Is there a way to automatically correct specific terms or words when using the auto transcription and/or translation tool?

Yes! Language Controls allows you to create custom rules for transcription and caption translation.

Can I format the font on my video captions?

The font color and size, and background color can be updated.

What will the default caption language be for users?

If captions are on by default, we will auto-detect the browser or device language where possible so that default captions are set to the user’s native language. If the caption does not exist, it will show the caption in the language of the video. Finally, if there is no matching video language caption, it will display the first caption it can.

Can I edit auto-transcribed captions?

Yes, users can edit auto-transcribed captions directly in Creator Studio or download them as a file to edit externally.

Will captions work in email?

No, users still have to open videos through the member experience to watch and view captions.