Live captions on your screens

How screen captions work

A caption link is a web page that shows the live captions for one language, and nothing else. You paste it into the software that drives your screens, or open it on a screen of its own.

• Captions follow the live service, so there's nothing extra to start: they appear when the booth is streaming and someone is speaking.
• One link shows one language. To caption several languages, use one link (and one screen or layer) per language.
• The language has to be turned on on the Languages page first. Captions in the speaker's own language show their exact words.

Build your caption link

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   Step 1: Open Screen captions

   In the dashboard, open the Screen captions page. If your church has campuses, pick the Campus first: each campus has its own captions.

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   Step 2: Say where the captions are going

   Under Where are the captions going?, choose ProPresenter, OBS / livestream or In-room monitor. This sets a sensible starting look, so pick it before you style anything.

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   Step 3: Pick the caption engine

   • Standard: whole sentences, the same as phone listeners see.
   • Low-latency (Beta), recommended for ProPresenter and OBS: words appear on screen as they're translated, and you can save the look as a preset.
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   Step 4: Choose the language

   Pick it under Language. The speaker's language is listed with original transcript after its name.

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   Step 5: Style it

   • Standard: under Appearance, set the Background, Text color, Text size and Lines on screen.
   • Low-latency: under Caption format, set the font, size, colors, Vertical position, Scrolling and When speech pauses, then click Create preset. A saved preset gives you a link that never changes, and screens pick up later changes to the preset on their own, even mid-service.

   The Preview beside the settings shows the page at full-screen size over a checkerboard that stands in for your slide.

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   Step 6: Copy the link

   Under Your caption link, click Copy link. That's the link you paste into ProPresenter or OBS, or open on the TV.

Transparent backgrounds

A transparent caption page draws only the words, so your slide or video shows around them. That's what you want for ProPresenter and usually for OBS. A TV on its own wants a solid background instead.

ProPresenter

The most reliable setup is a prop: props float above whatever slide is live and stay on screen across slide changes.

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   Step 1: Make a prop

   Open the Props bin, click Add Prop (+) and name it, for example “Translation Captions”.

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   Step 2: Add the caption link as a web element

   1. Right-click the prop and choose Edit… (don't double-click: that shows the prop live instead of editing it).
   2. In the editor's insert toolbar, click the globe icon to insert a Web element.
   3. With the web object selected, the right panel shows Fill, then Web. Paste your caption link into the URL field and press Return. (The URL field only appears while the object is selected.)
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   Step 3: Place it: cover the whole canvas

   Size the web element to cover the entire canvas: position 0,0, full width and full height. The caption page positions the words itself, at the bottom or top of the screen, with the offsets you chose on the Screen captions page, so later changes need no ProPresenter edits. If ProPresenter warns that the selected size doesn't match your configured screens, click Resize. Then click Show to leave the editor.

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   Step 4: Show it, and leave it on

   Click the prop to show it, or add a Prop action to the first sermon slide. You can leave it on for the whole service: when no one is speaking the page fades itself out and is fully transparent. After you edit the prop later, clear it and show it again.

OBS and livestreams

1. On the Screen captions page, choose OBS / livestream, the engine (Low-latency works well here), the language and the look, then Copy link.
2. In OBS, add a Browser source to your scene and paste the caption link as its URL.
3. Set the source's width and height to match your canvas, for example 1920 × 1080, so the captions land where the preview shows them.
4. Keep the browser source above your camera or video source in the list, so the captions sit on top.
5. Pick Transparent or Dark glass for the background, as above.

A TV or monitor in the room

1. On the Screen captions page, choose In-room monitor, the language, and a large Text size; then Copy link.
2. On the computer connected to the TV, open the link in a web browser and switch the browser to full screen.
3. With the Standard engine, the screen says “Waiting for the sermon to begin…” until the service starts, then shows whole sentences in the middle of the screen.
4. Keep that computer awake and plugged in for the whole service. The caption page never plays sound.

Do a live test

The preview checks the look; only a live test checks the whole chain. Do one on a weekday with someone speaking at the pulpit.

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   Step 1: Start streaming

   Have the booth click Start streaming while someone speaks at the pulpit.

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   Step 2: Watch every screen

   Captions appear as the speaker talks, in the right place, readable over your slides or video.

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   Step 3: Check from the room

   • Readable from the back row.
   • Not covering lyrics, lower thirds or faces.
   • The right language: a translated language shows the translation, the speaker's language shows their own words.
   • When the speaker pauses, the captions fade or stay, as you chose under When speech pauses.
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   Step 4: Stop, and you're ready

   Click Stop in the capture app. The captions clear, and the same link works every Sunday.

Troubleshooting

Captions in the room are one part of a Sunday setup. If you haven't set up the booth yet, start with Your first Sunday.