Live captions vs. real-time voice: when to use which
It's tempting to treat live captions and real-time translated voice as one feature wearing two hats. They're not. They solve different problems for different people, and the events that feel effortless usually run both at once.
Captions are text: a running transcript in the listener's language, a beat behind the speaker. Real-time voice is audio: a natural-sounding translation streamed into their headphones while you keep talking. Same source, very different experience.
When captions win
Text is the right call more often than people expect. Accessibility is the obvious case, but the more common case is plainer: the room is loud and half the audience didn't bring headphones.
- In a loud space, audio in earbuds fights the PA. Text doesn't.
- Deaf and hard-of-hearing attendees need captions, full stop.
- A single caption feed on a venue screen serves the whole room at once, including through OBS or ProPresenter.
When voice wins
Translated voice is the better fit when eyes are busy. Someone watching a demonstration or reading along in a printed book can't also track a caption screen. Voice also holds up better over a long session; reading captions for ninety minutes is work, and listening isn't.
Given the choice, most people quietly use both: voice in their ears, captions as the backstop when a name or a number goes by.
That's why BabelCast produces both from the same live stream. Your audience picks whichever suits them and switches whenever they like. You don't have to guess for them, which is good, because you'd guess wrong.
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