Guide
How to Use SCAPTION with a Blackmagic ATEM: Live Captions in 5 Steps
Live captions on top of your ATEM program, for rooms where the switcher has no NDI. SCAPTION draws the captions on a solid colour and your ATEM keys the colour out. Five steps, about ten minutes.
Also in: Español · Français · Deutsch · Português · Italiano
SCAPTION has not tested Blackmagic ATEM ourselves. These steps follow the maker's own documentation, and menu names can change between versions.
- 1Choose your plan
- 2Set up SCAPTION
- 3Connect it to the ATEM
- 4Key the colour out in ATEM Software Control
- 5Send it to the screen in the room
Choose your plan
To translate (for example French speech into English captions) you need the Event Pro plan. Buy it as a single-event pass for one event, or as a monthly plan if you caption regularly. The Accessibility plan gives you the same NDI output but transcribes only, with translation switched off.
Want to try it first? Every new account includes a free one-hour trial, with no expiry date.
Set up SCAPTION
- Open SCAPTION on your computer.
- In the Audio card, choose what to listen to: a microphone for a speaker in the room, or This computer's audio for a video, a stream, Zoom, Teams or Meet.
- In Languages, set the Spoken language, and in The venue screen shows pick the caption language, for example French to English.
- In Output, switch on Chroma-Key HDMI Fallback. In HDMI settings, pick the screen output that goes to the ATEM and a Chroma colour (green or blue).
Connect it to the ATEM
- Connect that HDMI output of the computer to one of your ATEM inputs.
- The captions fill that screen on the chroma colour you picked.
Key the colour out in ATEM Software Control
- Open Palettes, expand Upstream Key 1 and open the Chroma tab.
- Set Fill Source to the input you connected.
- Click Chroma Sample and sample the background colour.
Send it to the screen in the room
- Switch Upstream Key 1 on: the captions key over your program.
- Send the program to the screen in the room as you already do.
After the event: an AI summary
When the event ends, you can ask for an AI summary of the day. You can open it for 30 days. After that it is deleted automatically.
Before the event
- Edges of the text look off? Adjust the chroma settings in ATEM Software Control, and pick a chroma colour that is not in your picture.
- Do a test with real speech or a video, a few minutes before you start.
- Need help? Write to [email protected] and we answer with the highest urgency.