Kaltura - Ordering Machine Captions for Media in Kaltura MediaSpace [UW-Madison]

This document describes how users can order machine captions for media in Kaltura MediaSpace.
Captions for audio or video media make your media more accessible. Machine captions are generated by computer-based speech recognition and can be created for media in MediaSpace. They are approximately 75% accurate depending on content complexity, and should only be used when you review and edit them to increase their accuracy. Inaccurate captions can cause disruption and confusion for the user. Allow 3.5 times the duration of the media to review, edit, and improve their accuracy. Since editing to improve accuracy takes time we recommend you use this tool with shorter recordings.
If you are teaching a student who would benefit from captions, the McBurney Disability Resource Center offers captioning services for students with disabilities. If you have longer or more complex content, request captions reviewed for accuracy by professional caption editors through our recommended vendors. To increase the initial accuracy of machine captions we recommend that you:
  • Use a dedicated microphone (not your built-in laptop microphone) when recording your screencast or webcam if possible.
  • Avoid a noisy recording environment. For example if you have people talking in the background, or a fan, or air conditioning on, it will add noise to the background your recording which will make auto-detection of what you are saying more difficult.
Once you have uploaded your media to Kaltura as described in Kaltura - Uploading Files to Kaltura Mediaspace [UW-Madison] , follow these instructions to request machine captions for your media. You must be the owner of a media item or a co-editor to order machine captions for it:
  1. Launch Chrome or Firefox, go to Kaltura MediaSpace, and login: mediaspace.wisc.edu. If you need more information on how to log in to MediaSpace please see Kaltura - How to Log in to Kaltura MediaSpace [UW-Madison] .
  2. Click on your name or the person silhouette icon in the upper right corner and click My Media:
    Screenshot showing the user having clicked their user icon in Kaltura MediaSpace with the cursor hovering over the drop-down menu option "My Media".
  3. Search for or scroll until you find the media you want to add captions to.
  4. Click on the thumbnail of the media item you want to add captions to.
  5. Click the Actions drop-down menu and select Caption & Enrich:
    A screenshot showing the user having clicked on "Actions" and hovering over "Captions & Enrich" which is outlined in orange.
  6. The Order Captions & Enrichment Services options will display underneath your media item. If you have previously requested machine captions for the media item, it will display here and you can edit them as described in Kaltura - How to Edit Captions in Kaltura MediaSpace [UW-Madison] . If you would like to order machine captions and none have been previously ordered, select your options. There are drop-down menu options for
    • Service - select Machine
    • Source Media Language - select the appropriate language. Note that while Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portugese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish are all available we have not had the opportunity to test the machine captioning accuracy of languages other than English.
    • Feature - select Captions
  7. When you're done selecting your options click the Submit button.
    A screenshot showing the Kaltura MediaSpace "Caption & Enrich" screen. "Existing Requests" is at the top followed by "Order Captions & Enrichment Services." Below this is a message indicating that "Note: Machine captions are on average only 75% accurate. They require editing to increase accuracy, make your media accessible for everyone, and 508 compliance. See the KnowledgeBase article on editing captions for more information." Below the message are dropdowns for "Service" (Machine is selected), "Source Media Language (English is selected), and "Feature" (Captions is selected). At the bottom is a "Submit" button which is outlined in orange.
    At this time you can only request machine captions for a video once so only do this after you are sure you are done making any changes to your video.
  8. The Existing Requests screen will update to show your machine captions pending request order. You should also receive an email notification that indicates a new caption file was added when the machine captions are done processing.
    It usually takes a minimum of 5-10 minutes for machine captions to be processed even for short videos. For longer videos it generally takes about twice the length of the video. Please be aware that during times of heavy usage processing times can lengthen to hours. Keep an eye out for the email notification indicating your machine captions are complete.
  9. If you refresh the window you will need to re-click on Actions and select Caption & Enrich to check when the machine captions are completed. If they are still in process it displays "Processing." Once they are done you'll see the Existing requests will indicate the captions are completed:
    A screenshot showing the "Existing Requests" window. An existing caption request shows a "Request Date" of "09/12/19", "Service" of "Machine", "Feature" of "Captions", "Language" of "English", and "Status" of "Completed."
  10. As of May 15th, 2023, machine captions will automatically be enabled when they are returned. Previously, an extra step was required to "Show on Player". See the instructions below on how to disable or enable captions on a video.

The suffix of "(auto-generated)" is appended to the label of all machine-generated captions. This suffix informs viewers and media owners that the captions were automatically generated by Kaltura's machine captioning process, and have not been edited.

We recommend you edit the label and manually add the suffix "(auto-generated)" to all machine captions generated before 2021.

Once an auto-generated caption file has been edited for accuracy, we recommended you remove that suffix from the label. To edit the label of a caption file, refer to Kaltura - Managing Caption Labels in MediaSpace [UW-Madison] 

Displaying Captions

Note: The steps in this page are not be required as of Monday, May 15th, 2023. Machine captions are automatically be set to "Show on Player" when they are returned, eliminating the need for users to manually perform these steps.

Note: Kaltura's "machine captioning" process is commonly considered to be only 75% accurate. If your captions were generated with this automated process, we strongly encourage you to edit those captions to ensure or improve their accuracy. Instructions on editing captions are available in Kaltura - How to Edit Captions in Kaltura MediaSpace [UW-Madison] .

To turn "on" your captions for your media file, log into Kaltura MediaSpace, and locate the media file in question: 

  1. Click the Actions drop-down menu and select Edit:
    A screenshot showing the user having clicked the Actions drop-down menu. The cursor hovers over the "Edit" option which is outlined in orange.

  2. Click the Captions tab.
    Screenshot of tabs with "Captions" tab highlighted

  3. Locate the caption file you wish to make available to the end user, and click the Show on Player icon. (That is the icon on the far-right.)
     Screenshot of caption file listing, with "Show on Player" button highlighted
    • This icon is a toggle, alternating between "Show on Player" and "Don't Show on Player".

  4. Once this setting has been changed, you may need to refresh your browser window to notice the change on the media file.
  5. To ensure the change has taken place, click the CC button (lower-right of the video window).
     Screenshot of caption selection menu with "English auto-generated" label
 

See Also


Keywordskaltura, machine, caption, subtitle, generate, request, create media, cc, captioning captions auto generated label   Doc ID92764
OwnerLearn@UW MadisonGroupLearn@UW-Madison
Created2019-06-28 09:42:31Updated2023-12-20 13:40:36
SitesDoIT Help Desk, Learn@UW-Madison
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