𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦: 5 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴🕒
Over the past years, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the UK’s largest companies and marketing and communications agencies, providing thousands of professional live captions projects for events, conferences and meetings all over the world.
As word has spread and people have begun to see the enormous benefit that a live captioning service brings, we are receiving more enquiries than ever about this service.
In fact, in 2025, it was our most popular service from all of the multimedia accessibility solutions that we offer.
So, we’ve put together this guide to cover as many of the questions that people have about live captioning as we can.
They include:
- What are live captions?
- How is live captioning done?
- Why use live captioning?
- Can AI be used for live captioning?
- What kind of events is live captioning suitable for?
- What is the process of live captioning for my event?
Read on to find out everything you need to know.
What are live captions?
Live captions are a type of closed caption, which simply means they can be turned on or off as the user requires. The subtitles you might see on a movie, or on a television programme, are all types of closed captions.
(Open captions, by the way, are the type that can’t be turned off, and are burned into the screen.)
Now, the big difference between most closed captions and live captions is, as the name would suggest, that live captions are written in real time and they are live. That means they are are perfect for live events.
How is live captioning done?
In short, by highly trained professional stenographers. Using a special palantypist machine, they can type up to 300 words per minute. When you consider that the average typist does about 40 per minute, that’s pretty impressive! Importantly, the average rate of speech is between 100 and 150 words per minute, so that leaves the live captioning professional with plenty of time to check their spelling – and maybe even have a sip of tea! As they write, the words appear on the screens your audience members are using to view the event.
We have more than 100 of these highly trained stenographers on our books, making us one of the largest providers of live captioning services in the UK. Our team can work remotely or on-site as required, it’s worth noting that we complete live captioning projects in exactly the same way whether we are on-site or not.
Explore a free accessibility consultation with us today.
Why use live captioning?
Live captioning is hands down the best way to make your event more accessible. While live captioning isn’t a legal requirement for live events in the same way it is for television, remember that 18 million adults in the UK are deaf, hard of hearing or have tinnitus. That’s one in three.
Therefore, using live captioning services for your event will help them participate fully and that only increases their bond with your brand and the likelihood they will return.
Live captioning can also benefit non-native English speakers, deaf and hard-of-hearing, and neurodivergent people who perhaps can’t process visual and audio simultaneously.
Also, there can be a QR code for slower captions or captions that can change colour, text size, and contrast, which is also great for dyslexic people. It also eliminates seating issues and enables everyone to be included.
A further bonus of using live captioning is that a transcript can be provided afterwards, so it can be reviewed at attendees’ own pace following the event.
Can AI be used for live captioning?
Yes, it can. In fact, we offer AI live captions as a service, which is suited to brands with smaller budgets or that need to host lots of live events.
However, it is worth bearing in mind that the accuracy of AI live captions sits between 70% – 85%, depending on the audio quality and accent. Whereas, a human live captioning comes with around 98% accuracy.
Human live captioning would be better suited to a project where accuracy is crucial, in industries such as legal, medical or similar. Or, if you want to provide a higher quality and more professional service.
What kind of events is live captioning suitable for?
Live captioning is useful for any events at which it is essential for attendees to have an understanding of what is going on in real time.
That includes:
- Corporate meetings and conferences
- Public events and webinars
- Education & training
- Government and public sector:
- Entertainment and cultural events – such as theatre, festivals, and live performances
- Events with multilingual audiences
- University lectures
- Sales presentations
We have provided live captioning services for all these events and more.
“We are really lucky that VoiceBox could help us fulfil our mission of inclusivity and accessibility; and help us raise the calibre of our event. The N8 Research Partnership deemed the event a gold standard for accessibility.”
Head of Researcher Development and Culture, University of Liverpool
What is the process of live captioning for my event?
The beauty of live captioning is that the work itself is mostly done at the same time as the event, so there’s not the usual worry about deadlines that can happen with other writing projects. However, there are a few decisions you’ll need to make beforehand to make sure everything runs smoothly.
The first one is around the technology you will use to enable people to see your captions. Will they appear on a big screen, or on people’s tablets and phones? Will you make them available to everybody, or only those who specifically request live captioning prior to the event? If you’re unsure of the best digital medium for the live captioning of your event, our experienced team will be happy to talk you through your options.
Secondly, while the live captioner is skilled at listening to, and replicating the audio elements of any event into text, a little context always helps, particularly if the speakers are likely to use industry jargon or specialist language. Providing your live caption service with any materials (such as a glossary) relating to the event in advance can help them research any key terms they might need to know.
Conclusion
But before you get to that point, there is also the small matter of choosing your provider.
That’s where we’re on hand to help. Come and see why the University of Liverpool, SAVE Britain’s Heritage, Black Country Touring and National Rural Touring Forum speak so highly of us.
Contact us today to chat about your needs for your live captioning project.