Offline captioning services

Used for pre-recorded programming or video, offline captioning is prepared in advance before the programme is broadcast or the video is uploaded online. From our UK recording studios we provide the best value offline captioning service you will find.

There are two main types of offline captioning – closed captions and open captions. Here’s a simple guide to help you understand which offline captioning service you are looking for:

Closed captions

CC : Viewers can turn closed captions on and off as needed, and can alter their font and size.
CC : Suitable for YouTube, Vimeo, staff intranet.
CC : These captions are searchable by search engines like Google, which helps your page rankings.
CC : Less expensive offline captioning service: we provide a professional-format timed subtitle file, which you upload to your video.

Open captions

OC : Open captions are permanently visible on your video, and the viewer cannot adjust the font or size.
OC : Suitable for all web video platforms.
OC : Captions are not searchable by search engines.
OC : More expensive offline captioning service: burning-in subtitles involves additional production processes which increase the cost.

To see how closed captions work in practice on YouTube, look at the RSA shorts video, switching on the captions using the ‘CC’ icon on the bottom toolbar:

Additional offline captioning services

As part of our offline captioning service we provide subtitles in over 30 document formats (eg .SBV for YouTube, .STL for DVD Authoring, XML for Final Cut Pro) or burn-in the subtitles to any video format.  You can also request transcription and time-coding, translations, and mastering. All our offline captioning work is checked and re-checked as part of our commitment to quality.

To find out more about our offline captioning services, contact us.

Audio description and audio-visual translation services

As well as offline captioning services we offer audio description and audio-visual translation services, including

Audio transcription / time-coding scripts – transcribing and time-coding English or foreign audio for reference, voice over use (with partial time-codes) or subtitle use (with full time-codes). The transcription is provided ready for your translation team or we can produce the translation for you in over 80 languages.

English and foreign audio description either as script writing alone or including script writing and narration.

BSL Signing – transcription and adaptation of the script for a signer to use; filming on green screen, video edit and final encoding. The signer can be edited into your video or delivered to you as an h264 .MOV file on an alpha channel (transparent background) for your own use.

To find out more about any of our audio-visual or offline captioning services contact us.

Offline captioning