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How UR Handles Captioning

University Relations mainly deals with pre-produced video published online, pre-produced video for event playback, and live video streams.

Pre-produced videos

  1. All videos are uploaded to the WVU YouTube channel as a private video, which serves as our video archive.
  2. YouTube’s algorithm automatically generates a caption file after upload. The finished caption file time varies depending on the length of the video.
  3. The generated file is then corrected in YouTube and the edited captions are saved alongside the video. At this point, UR makes the video public on YouTube.
  4. Videos published to Facebook follow YouTube protocols, but you must force-generate captions on Facebook (it doesn’t happen automatically). When we are posting to both YouTube and Facebook, we copy the .srt file from YouTube and upload it to the video on Facebook.

Pre-produced videos for playback at events

  1. For New Student Orientation, State of the University and other large group events where videos will play back, an open-captioned video is supplied to the venue.
  2. We typically download a file from YouTube and superimpose the captions onto the video in the editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro) and export a new open-captioned video file.
  3. This method keeps file sizes small and ensures that the captions will play from any system that can play video. Most playback methods cannot read closed-captions, so we use open captions.

Live video streams

  1. For webcasting, we use an automatic captioning system that creates real-time voice-to-text captions.
  2. The video then streams through a decoder box to YouTube with closed captions. This lets the viewer toggle captions on and off as they like.
  3. Captions are not 100% accurate, but can be edited and published post-event like the automatic YouTube captions so the archived version of the video is accurate.

Have questions?

Need help? Have questions on how to achieve video caption compliance within your unit? Need some direction? Contact Kelly Heasley, UR Video, at kelly.heasley@mail.wvu.edu or at 304.293.3589.