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University Information Services
 

Enable automatic captions for videos in Panopto

Once a video is created or uploaded, in the background, Panopto carries out automatic speech recognition (ASR), to provide reference text for its enhanced search capabilities. You can also import this text in the editor by enabling the automatic captioning, to use as closed captions. These machine-generated captions are not as accurate as manually typed human transcription, but they can be reviewed and edited to correct any errors and improve the accuracy. 

To add automatic captions to a video, follow the steps below: 

  1. Create or upload your video into the Panopto course folder, sub-folder or my folder. The captioning can only be applied to a video after it has been uploaded and processed in Panopto.
     
  2. Move your cursor over the video and select the Edit button. 

     

  3. From the top left-hand corner of the screen, select the Captions tab, and select the Import captions button.


     

  4. From the dropdown options, select Import automatic captions.  You will now see the automatically generated captions appear along the left-hand side of the screen.

With high audio quality and clear English, these automatically generated captions will be around 70% to 75% accurate. Therefore, it is recommended that you review the captions and manually edit where necessary to improve the accuracy. 

You will find more information on how to Add Automatic Captions to a Video on the Panopto Support pages

You can also Enable automatic captioning language at the folder level.
 

Additional captions settings for viewing   

Once the captioning is enabled by the 'Creator', the viewer has the option to show or hide the closed captions by clicking the icon on the right-hand bottom corner of the player.   

Also when you use the closed captions in Panopto Viewer, you will be able to change the following caption settings by clicking the three black dots found on the right-hand bottom corner of the player, next to the playback quality icon. 

The caption settings provide the following options:  

  • Position: You can position the closed captions below the video (‘Dock below video’) or have it superimposed on top of the video (‘Overlay on the video’)
  • Colour: There are two colour options for caption text and background, ‘Light text on dark background’ or ‘Dark text on light background’
  • Size: The caption text can be ‘Regular’ or ‘Large’ in size

Uploading caption files into Panopto  

To upload a caption file created using alternative captioning platforms into Panopto follow the steps below:  

  1. Create or upload your video into Panopto  
  2. Move your cursor over the video and click 'settings'  
  3. Select Captions from the settings list  
  4. In the captions window, select the Choose File button to browse and locate the .srt, ashx, vtt or dxfp caption file you would like to upload
  5. Select Upload Captions
  6. You will see a summary of the captions you are uploading and they will take a few minutes to process and embed on the recording 

Please see the Panopto support pages for more information on importing captions including supported formats. 
 

 

Editing and configuring captions 

  1. Log into the Panopto web site via Moodle or go to https://cambridgelectures.cloud.panopto.eu and sign in using your Raven account.  
     
  2. Find your course folder. On the left-hand side, select ‘Browse’ and open the course folder you would like to upload the video to.  
     
  3. To edit a caption, select the caption. Type in any changes you need to make. 


     

  4. Select ‘Edit’. A new window will now open containing the Panopto Video Editor.   
     
  5. On the left-hand side of your screen, you will see the editing menu. Select the ‘Captions’ option to edit the video captions. 


     

  6. The automatic machine-generated captions for your Panopto video should now appear. 
     
  7. The automatic machine-generated captions for your Panopto video should now appear. 

    Note: To the right of each caption, you will see its timestamp. This indicates the time that the caption will appear when viewing the video. 
     

  8. To edit a caption, select the caption. Type in any changes you need to make, including fixing any errors, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. 


     

  9. To edit a timestamp, hover over the caption, select the 3 black dots and then select the ‘Edit’ (pencil icon) from the dropdown list. 


     

  10. An Edit Caption pop-up will appear. Edit the timestamp by selecting the box next to the Time heading. 

    Note: You can also edit the captions into the box next to the Caption heading. 


     

  11. Select ‘Save’ to confirm the changes you made to the timestamp. 
     

As a video creator, you will need to consider all aspects of accessibility issues to enable our students and staff to engage with the online video content. The following are some of the accessibility features that Panopto has built into the platform for viewers to take advantage of when viewing published video content to help reduce or eliminate accessibility issues that could be possible barriers. 

Variable speed playback 

The Panopto video player allows anyone viewing a video to adjust the playback speed according to their personal needs. 

The control for this is at the bottom of the video player viewing window. 

 Viewers can slow down the video to half its original speed (0.5x) or speed it up to twice the original speed (2.0x) using the pre-set speeds provided by Panopto. 

 

Screen reader support

Panopto supports screen reader software designed to read text displayed on-screen aloud for users with blindness or visual impairment. 

Below is a list of screen readers that you can use with Panopto: 

  • JAWS 
  • NVDA 
  • VoiceOver for Mac screen reader software. 
     

Keyboard accessibility and navigation

The Panopto web interface also supports keyboard access, allowing the users to easily navigate the interface using the tab key to access all available functions. The new viewer allows you to use shortcut keys to control the player: 

  • Spacebar - Pause/Play the session 
  • Left/Right arrow keys - skip 5 seconds backward or forwards 
  • Up/Down arrow keys - adjust volume up or down 
  • The ‘M’ key - mutes and unmutes the recording 

All of the Panopto functionalities and links in the web player interface are accessible by using the Tab key. You can use the tab key to move from function to function and you can press the enter key to use the function. You can also hold down the Shift key and use the Tab key to select the functionalities in the opposite direction.