Wowza Video offers AI-driven speech to text transcriptions that automatically add the transcript as a vtt subtitle to the video and displays it in the player.

There are two ways to automatically transcribe videos:

• Configure Org Settings to transcribe new videos automatically.
• Start a transcription under Manage Files by selecting a transcription language for the video asset.

There may be instances where you don't need automated transcriptions through Wowza Video. For example, you have your own transcription service or you want more control over the transcription results. In this case, you can upload your own .vtt transcription file to use with a video.

Transcribe new videos automatically

To transcribe videos automatically after they're uploaded to Wowza Video:

1. Click your profile in the top left corner of the screen.
2. Click Settings.
3.  Check Enable Transcriptions under the Settings section.
4. Check the Transcribe New Videos Automatically box under the Settings section.
5. Select the Default Language for Transcriptions from the options in the dropdown. 
6. Click Update Settings towards the bottom of the page.
7. Once you upload a video now, transcriptions will automatically start in the language you've specified. Click Manage Files in the Video Details page for a video to see the state of the transcribing file and details about the file.

Start a video transcription

To manually start a video transcription for a selected video:

1. Click Videos in the navigation.
2. Click Manage Files on the Video Details page of a selected video.
3. Select the language to be used for the transcription in the Transcribe Speech field. 
4. If the transcription job successfully starts, you'll see  Transcription in Progress text. When completed, the transcription is available as a WebVTT text track and you can see detail about the file.

Add your own .vtt transcription file

To add your own .vtt transcription file to a video:

1. Click Manage Files on the Video Details page of a selected video.
2. Click Upload .vtt File(s).
3. Select a .vtt file to upload. The file displays in the Text Files list.

Add transcriptions manually

If you prefer to manually add transcriptions instead of using one of our more automated methods above, see our Add Chapters and Subtitles to Wowza Video article.

Supported languages

Wowza Video can transcribe files in many languages. View the Transcribe Speech field under Manage Files to see all of the options.