Agora Launches Real-Time Transcription Solution

Agora
(Image credit: Agora)

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Agora has launched a Real-Time Transcription solution. The offering provides developers with the fast, accurate, and affordable automated transcription, and subtitling capabilities that can be easily integrated into any app or service.

"The launch of our new Real-Time Transcription solution provides instant audio transcription to developers and brands, allowing them to boost accessibility and discoverability for their end users,” said Tony Zhao, CEO and co-founder of Agora. “This powerful cloud-based technology is designed to seamlessly integrate with any app or service.”

Key features include:

  • Live Transcription: Transcribe real-time audio and video to include captions to improve audience reach and experience.
  • Speaker Labeling: Easily label who said what with a speaker dropdown to ensure accurate speaker information with the transcription.
  • Searchable Transcripts: Search for words, phrases, and themes across all transcripts. Leverage transcript as input to ChatGPT or other generative AI solutions.
  • Recording Captioning: Play back audio or video recordings with closed captions (CC).
  • Channel-Based Transcription: Transcribe with multiple active hosts in a channel and deliver a transcript to all participants while only paying for the channel duration—not the number of users or speakers.

While closed captioning makes any audio or video content more accessible, the real-time nature of Agora’s solution extends that accessibility to live audio and video, the company reported. 

The transcription service provides instant subtitles for any live meeting, conference, event, cast, or video stream—while enabling other essential services such as content moderation. The solution scales from one-to-one video calls to many-to-many streaming, and can support transcription with up to 100 people in an audio chat group. In addition to increasing accessibility for people with hearing impairments or difficulty understanding a spoken language, Real-Time Transcription improves the discoverability of audio and video content without the need for replay.

"Any industry that is reaching their audience or customers through audio or video will benefit from Real-Time Transcription technology,” said Zhao. "We're excited to see the impact our solution will have on improving engagement with audiences everywhere."

Agora’s Real-Time Transcription solution is currently in public beta, with general availability planned for Q3 2023.

For more information about Real-Time Transcription, visit: https://www.agora.io/en/products/real-time-transcription/.

George Winslow

George Winslow is the senior content producer for TV Tech. He has written about the television, media and technology industries for nearly 30 years for such publications as Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and TV Tech. Over the years, he has edited a number of magazines, including Multichannel News International and World Screen, and moderated panels at such major industry events as NAB and MIP TV. He has published two books and dozens of encyclopedia articles on such subjects as the media, New York City history and economics.