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The widespread adoption of digital technology has made simultaneous interpretation more accessible than ever before. While in-person interpretation has witnessed a post-pandemic renaissance for professional, large-scale events, the advent of remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) options has enabled effective international conversations to take place without the need for an on-site interpreter. Ultimately making the delivery of simultaneous translation more simple, reliable, and cost-effective than ever before.

What is the connection between Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, and YouTube? Without a doubt, they are among the top video consumption platforms today. But they all have one thing in common: all of these video platforms include captions or subtitles for video uploads as part of their core features. Why? Let's dive into some of the key benefits of live captioning:

Whether you are a content creator, event manager, meeting organiser, or busy professional, adding subtitles or closed captions to your live content and videos is a game-changer.

A recent study by UK charity Stagetext reports that four out of five young people use subtitles when they watch TV. The charity's research further suggested an average of 31% of people would go to more live events if more had captions on a screen in the venue.

Subtitling and captioning have begun to shape a new norm of how people consume videos and live content. But as soon as words start appearing on video screens, many people tend to use the terms captions and subtitles interchangeably.

Let's look at subtitles and captions in-depth: What are they, and how do they differ?

In this article, we’re going to look at the differences between subtitles, and captioning, and what their best use case is.

In this article:

1. Captioning

1.1. What is captioning?

1.2. The benefits of captions

1.3. Where captions can be used

1.4. How people access captions

1.5. Types of captions

1.6. How captions are generated

2. Subtitles

2.1. What are subtitles?

2.2. Types of subtitles

2.3. The benefits of subtitles

2.4. Where subtitles can be used

2.5 How subtitles are generated

3. The differences between captions and subtitles

4. Blurring the lines

Most events are, at their core, about connecting people with a shared, valuable experience. From roaring fans at a sold-out stadium to an intimate poetry reading, to an industry-shaping business conference — all attendees are sharing in an experience that’s meaningful for them.

As technology develops, it gives us new ways to create, shape and access these shared experiences. After all, technology has been an integral part of events from the very beginning. Microphones amplified speakers and performers; video broadcasts allowed people around the world to watch events; the internet took accessibility even further and allowed for new degrees of communication and interactivity from attendees.

The "metaverse” is the next technological advancement making waves in the events sphere.

Thanks to modern technologies, it’s easier than ever for businesses to deliver meetings, webinars, and events via the internet. While the move toward virtual and hybrid events meetings was accelerated due to COVID-19 lockdowns and safety concerns, businesses have embraced the opportunity to reach larger and more distant audiences online.

But businesses need to balance these benefits with new risks and threats. This is especially true today, when virtual and hybrid events are reaching maturity and the initial novelty around the format has given way to clearer measures for performance. As organisations are responsible for safeguarding a huge amount of attendee and speaker data, cybersecurity is a crucial concern for online event managers. Depending on their objectives, hackers may attempt to steal your business data, attendee personal and payment data, or they may seek to spread malware to attendee devices.

Robust cybersecurity is key to minimising these risks and protecting your reputation, along with your audience’s data. For organisations, another concern is complying with strict data privacy regulations like GDPR in the EU or American state-specific laws like the CCPA in California. Failure to meet GDPR compliance, for instance, can cost €20 million or up to 4% of annual global turnover.

While Interprefy isn’t a data security company, we are ISO 27001 certified and our Information Security Management Systems is aligned with standards in the area of data security and recommended best practices. Drawing from our expertise and experience with online and hybrid events, we’ve put together a checklist for organisations looking to improve their event cybersecurity. Let’s dive in.

Many consider Cleopatra to be the first recorded event planner in history. She knew the value of bringing people together for celebrations, announcements, and other occasions. Famously, she turned meeting Roman general Mark Antony into a fabulous event. Cleopatra entered the meeting floating down the Nile on the ancient equivalent of a luxury yacht — while dressed as the goddess Venus. Talk about making an entrance.

Cleopatra’s goal for meeting Mark Antony was clear: she wanted to form a close connection with him. The result of her event? Her dynasty got to live on for another day. From seasonal festivals to the modern New Year’s party, events have retained the same underlying goal: to build connections and bring people together for a shared experience.

While the goal of events hasn’t changed, the significant investment required to create modern business events means that there is more at stake. This is especially the case today, with a vast array of technological tools facilitating many parts of event management.

Hybrid and virtual events take this that much farther, as many (if not all) attendees experience the event through their devices. Along with being accessed via devices, online events can be joined from nearly anywhere on the globe. This presents businesses with the opportunity to reach audiences at scale. But is reaching the largest possible audience a sign of a successful event? Some businesses certainly benefit from hosting smaller events that lead to deeper connections and more meaningful networking experiences.

With so many changing factors and business models at play, let’s consider how event “success” has evolved to meet the contemporary business environment.

When holding meetings with partners, customers, suppliers, or peers across multiple countries, language can often pose a big barrier to successful communication.

In the tech world, women are still a minority. According to a European report, only 17% of professionals in the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector are women. US numbers don't paint a better picture, with women representing only 28.8% of the tech workforce.

According to research by PwC, "females aren’t considering technology careers as they aren’t given enough information on what working in the sector involves and also because no one is putting it forward as an option to them."

For International Women's Day 2022 we want to #BreakTheBias for women in tech. To celebrate IWD 2022 we've caught up with some of the amazing women who work in tech at Interprefy and break the bias on Women's Day and beyond.

Ema, Viola, Merlyn, Anna, and Dorotea hold technical positions at Interprefy and love what they do. We talked to them about their experience working in a traditionally male-dominated field, how they got into tech and how they think Interprefy can help #BreakTheBias. 

• Viola Lin, Product Manager, Taiwan
• Merlyn Prosianos, Senior Technician, Philippines
• Anna Ritchie, Senior Product Manager, The Netherlands
• Ema Vuckovic, Senior QA Engineer, Serbia
• Dorotea Lazarevic, QA Engineer, Serbia

The International Organization for Standarization (ISO) defines interpreting as "rendering of spoken or signed information from a source language to a target language in oral or signed form, conveying both the register and meaning of the source language content". Add "remote" to this definition and it then seems obvious that we are referring to the act of interpreting in the distance but, is there only one way of doing it? and, where is it used?