Live Captions
Live Captions is a paid add-on subscription that uses AI-powered speech-to-text technology to make classrooms more inclusive and accessible. It captures the teacher's audio and displays real-time captions on the classroom display and student devices, with support for live translation into 75 languages.
Prerequisites
Before enabling Live Captions, ensure the following requirements are met:
Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
Vivi Box | 200 Series or Vivi Display App |
Teacher / Student Device | Windows, MacOS and Vivi's Web App are supported |
Microphone | A microphone must be accessible by the teacher's device. A wireless or lapel microphone (e.g. wireless lavalier or wireless mini microphone) is strongly recommended for the best experience. |
USB Audio (optional) | Live Captions supports USB audio. Connect your classroom sound system to one of the USB ports on a 200 Series Vivi Box and select "Classroom Audio" as the audio source in the Vivi Client. Only one USB audio source is supported per Vivi Box. |
Room Enablement | Live Captions must be enabled for specific rooms or locations under Subscription > Configure Access. |
📘 For step-by-step room enablement instructions, refer to the Subscription Configuration section below.
Hardware Requirements
Scenario | Requirement |
|---|---|
Using Live Captions from a Laptop / Client Device | No additional hardware required beyond an accessible microphone. |
Using USB Audio from a Classroom Sound System | Connect the sound system to a USB port on a 200 Series Vivi Box. Only one USB audio source is supported per Vivi Box. |
Supported Platforms
Device / Platform | Status | Available From |
|---|---|---|
Vivi Box (200 Series) | ✅ Available | 3.12.0 |
Windows Client | ✅ Available | 3.12.0 |
Mac Client | ✅ Available | 3.12.0 |
Vivi Web App | ✅ Available | 3.12.0 |
What is Live Captions?
Live Captions uses AI-powered speech-to-text technology to make classrooms more inclusive and accessible. Key capabilities include:
Live Captions: Accurate, real-time captioning of spoken English.
Translation: Supports live translation into 75 languages (see full language list below).
Activation & Deactivation
Open the Vivi client and enter your enabled room.
Click on Live Captions.
Use the purple Pause button to temporarily stop captions.
To end the session completely, click the red Stop All button in the top right corner.
Settings
Setting | Description |
|---|---|
Audio Source | Select your preferred microphone from the dropdown. If your classroom sound system is connected via USB to the Vivi Box (200 Series), it will appear as "Classroom Audio". |
Volume Meter | Indicates your microphone's input level. |
Live Caption | Stay on the Live Captions tab to show English captions only. |
Translation | Toggle "Translation" to display a second language, then select the target language from the dropdown. |
Classroom Display | Check to show captions on the main classroom screen. |
Students | Check to stream captions to the Student App. Required for students to view captions on their devices. |
Font Size | Adjust the Classroom Display font size (Small, Medium, Large) using the slider. |
Export | Export the transcript as a PDF or DOCX file during the session. Transcripts are not stored by Vivi and cannot be retrieved after the session ends. |
Presenter View
When Sharing Your Screen
Activate Share Screen as normal. Live Captions will appear at the bottom of the classroom display.
(Live Captions must be started before that)
When NOT Sharing Screen
Captions will take over the entire display - large, focused captions ideal for classroom discussions or instructions.
Student View
Students can follow along on their own devices using the Student App.
Activation: In the Vivi client, enter the enabled room and click on Live Captions.
Student App View: When "Students" is enabled from the Presenter view, live captions appear at the bottom of the student app.
Stream to Students: When the teacher streams their screen to student devices, captions appear as an overlay at the bottom of the shared content.
Language Selection: Students can individually select their preferred language in the Student App when the Presenter toggles Translation.
Subscription Configuration
In Vivi Central, navigate to Organisation > Subscription to manage Live Captions.
Check Usage
The Live Captions Usage section shows a progress bar with hours used against your allocation. Usage Details (Last 12 Months) breaks down billable hours by month and day - expand a month for a more detailed view.
Configure Access
Click Configure Access.
Tick "Enable Live Captions for all rooms in the selected locations", then choose locations from the list.
Switch to the Rooms tab for room-level granularity if you only want a subset of rooms enabled within a location. (Make sure Enable Live Captions for all rooms is unticked)
Configure Limits
Click Configure Limits.
Configure Limit
To set the concurrent live session limit for your organisation, click "Configure Limits" and specify the maximum number of concurrent live sessions permitted across the organisation.
Supported Languages
Region | Languages |
|---|---|
African Languages | Afrikaans, Amharic, Hausa, Swahili |
Arabic & Middle Eastern | Arabic, Dari, Farsi (Persian), Hebrew, Pashto, Turkish, Urdu |
Asian Languages | Bengali, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Filipino/Tagalog, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Korean, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Mongolian, Punjabi, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Uzbek, Vietnamese |
European Languages | Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, French (Canadian), Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish (Mexican), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Ukrainian, Welsh |
Other | Haitian Creole |