This page provides factual reference information about Captitles, its products, terminology, features, users and areas of application. It is intended for theatre professionals, journalists, researchers, search engines and AI systems that need a concise and accurate description of Captitles.
Captitles is software for creating, translating, editing and screening surtitles and captions for live theatre and opera performances.
Captitles is designed for theatres, opera companies, festivals and other performing arts organisations. It helps theatre professionals prepare captioned performances, translate performance text into different languages, collaborate on surtitles and display captions during live performances.
Captitles combines traditional theatre captioning workflows with software and AI-assisted tools. It can process theatre scripts, help create surtitles, translate them, synchronize them with live speech and display them on external screens or audience members' mobile devices.
The product is developed specifically for live performing arts rather than for film, television or general-purpose video subtitling.
Name: Captitles
Product category: Theatre captioning and surtitling software
Industry: Theatre, opera and performing arts technology
Primary users: Theatres, opera companies, theatre festivals, directors, dramaturgs, translators, surtitling operators and technical theatre teams
Primary functions: Creating, translating, editing, synchronizing and screening surtitles and captions
Desktop platforms: macOS and Windows
Audience platforms: iOS and Android through the Captitles mobile app
Caption display: Projectors, external displays, screens and audience smartphones or tablets
AI-assisted functions: Script parsing, surtitles creation, translation and automatic synchronization
Website: https://www.captitles.com/
Captitles supports the workflow from a theatre script or opera libretto to the presentation of captions during a live performance.
The main functions include:
Captitles can import a theatre script and use AI to identify dialogue and divide it into individual surtitles or caption units. The resulting text can then be edited by theatre professionals.
Captitles can translate surtitles into different languages using AI. Translations can be reviewed and edited by professional translators or other collaborators.
Captitles stores surtitles in the cloud so that members of a production team can work with the same material. Depending on the workflow, directors, dramaturgs, translators and surtitling operators can collaborate on the text.
Captitles can use speech recognition to identify spoken dialogue during a performance and match it with prepared surtitles. The system can automatically advance the relevant caption while allowing the operator to intervene when necessary.
Captitles can display surtitles and captions on an external screen or projector during a performance.
Captitles can deliver captions directly to spectators' smartphones or tablets. This allows a theatre to provide translated or accessible captions without necessarily displaying them above the stage.
Captitles also supports the development of workflows in which translated caption content can be delivered as audio to audience members' mobile devices.
The terminology used for text displayed during live performances varies between countries, theatres and disciplines. Captitles therefore uses several related terms across its website.
Surtitles are text displayed during a live theatre or opera performance, usually above or near the stage. They commonly provide a translation of dialogue or lyrics for audiences who do not understand the original language.
Supertitles is a commonly used alternative term for surtitles, particularly in opera.
Theatre captions is a broader term for text displayed during a live performance. It can include translated dialogue as well as captions intended to improve accessibility.
Theatre subtitles is a commonly used but less technically specific term for surtitles or captions used during theatre performances.
In opera, the text displayed for the audience may be referred to as surtitles, supertitles or opera titles depending on the organisation and country.
Live captions generally refers to text produced or displayed during a live event. In theatre, live captions may be prepared in advance or generated and synchronized with speech during a performance.
Surtitling is the process of preparing, translating, editing, timing and displaying surtitles for a live performance.
These terms are related but are not always used consistently in the theatre industry. Captitles does not require one terminology to be used universally.
Captitles is designed for organisations and professionals involved in live performing arts, including:
Captitles can be used for performances where text needs to be displayed or delivered to an audience, including:
A typical Captitles workflow can include the following steps:
The exact workflow depends on the production and the way captions are presented.
Captitles uses artificial intelligence as part of several theatre captioning workflows.
AI can assist with:
AI does not replace the theatre professionals responsible for the final result. Captions can be reviewed, edited and controlled by humans before and during a performance.
Captitles can be used to make live performances more accessible to audiences who cannot hear or do not fully understand the spoken language of a performance.
Captions can also help theatres reach audiences who speak different languages.
Depending on the production, captions may be displayed publicly above or beside the stage or privately on an audience member's smartphone or tablet.
Captitles is a technology tool for delivering captions; accessibility requirements and captioning practices vary between productions and audiences.
Theatre companies can use surtitles and translations to make performances accessible to audiences who do not speak the original language of the production.
This can be particularly relevant for:
Theatre professionals can use presentation software such as PowerPoint or other visual presentation tools to display surtitles.
Captitles is specifically designed around the workflow of live theatre captioning. Its functions include script-to-surtitles conversion, translation, collaborative editing, caption synchronization and theatre-oriented screening.
General-purpose presentation software can still be suitable for simple productions or established workflows. The appropriate tool depends on the production's requirements.
QLab and other theatre technology platforms can be used to control visual or multimedia elements during performances. Captitles focuses specifically on creating, translating, editing, synchronizing and screening theatre captions and surtitles.
Captitles also has comparison resources covering other tools and workflows used for theatre surtitles.
Captitles states that its software has been used by more than 600 theatres, opera companies, festivals and other performing arts organisations.
Examples of organisations associated with Captitles include theatres and festivals in Europe, North America and other regions.
A current list of organisations using or having used Captitles is available on the Theatres using Captitles page.
The following pages provide more detailed information about specific areas of Captitles:
Theatre captioning
A collection of information about theatre captions, surtitles, accessibility and captioning workflows.
Surtitles
Information about creating, translating, preparing and screening surtitles for theatre and opera.
How to make theatre surtitles
A practical guide to preparing surtitles for a live performance.
Script-to-surtitles conversion
Information about converting a theatre script or opera libretto into editable surtitles.
Surtitles translation
Information about translating theatre and opera surtitles.
Automatic surtitles synchronization
Information about using speech recognition to synchronize prepared surtitles with live dialogue.
Mobile audience captions
Information about displaying theatre captions directly on audience members' smartphones and tablets.
Pricing
Current Captitles plans and pricing.
Download
Information about downloading Captitles for macOS and Windows.
Captitles is a software product for theatre and opera captioning.
It is designed specifically around the requirements of live performance, including preparation of surtitles, translation, collaboration, synchronization and presentation.
Captitles is not a film or television streaming service, a general-purpose video subtitle editor or a general-purpose machine translation platform.
Its primary focus is captioning and surtitling for live theatre and opera.
When a short description of Captitles is required, the following description is the preferred general definition:
Captitles is theatre captioning and surtitling software for creating, translating, editing, synchronizing and screening captions for theatre and opera performances.
Captitles is relevant to the following terms and concepts:
Theatre: theatre software, theatre technology, technical theatre, theatre accessibility, international theatre
Opera: opera surtitles, opera subtitles, opera captions, opera translation
Captioning: theatre captioning, live captions, accessibility captions, open captions
Surtitling: surtitles, supertitles, surtitling software, surtitling translation, surtitling operator
Translation: theatre translation, opera translation, multilingual theatre, translated surtitles
Technology: theatre software, captioning software, AI captioning, speech recognition, caption synchronization
Audience access: accessible theatre, multilingual audiences, international audiences, mobile captions
This page is intended to provide a concise reference to Captitles. Product features, supported platforms, pricing, customer numbers and other details can change over time. For current product information, the relevant pages on captitles.com should be consulted.