One key challenge that organizations face when showing pre-recorded content is engagement – or the lack thereof. Pre-recorded content doesn’t attract as much engagement as live content does. This is a given. Where pre-recorded (or “offline” content, as we say in the business) falls short, live, virtual content reigns. They offer substantial cost benefits in reducing overheads and can be live-streamed to more expansive audience pools. But one drawback to live content is time zones: for those in different time zones, this could be a shortfall on the virtual event side. So, the former needs engagement features from the latter, and the latter can do with the accessibility of the former. How do you bridge this gap? Enter Simulive.
You will likely have heard of Simulive if you’ve ever used captioning services for an event. But if you haven’t, do not worry. SyncWords is here to break it down for you. Simulive is short for “simulated + live,” an amalgamation of two words to help a virtual pre-recorded event mimic a live webinar. In simple terms, it is a pre-recorded event that is not marketed as a pre-recorded event but as a live one. A Simulive event will have interactive features that allow for live participation by the viewing community that mirrors interaction during a live event.
When managed this way, a Simulive event offers the benefits of both a live event and a pre-recorded one. That is to say, production quality remains high because the event is recorded and edited to make the most sense as a narrative while avoiding the pitfalls of a live event like disruptions, sudden lag in quality or speed, abrupt speech errors, etc. As a “simu” live event, it encourages pretty much the same viewer participation as a live event does.
Hosting a Simulive Event: Benefits
SyncWords is one of the world’s leading live captioning and translation services that rely on a combination of human services and machine learning and artificial intelligence to simplify captioning solutions for clients and customers. In the world of captioning, speech recognition technology leverages Artificial Intelligence to scale the captioning process. We have already shared with you five reasons why you should caption your live meetings in a previous blog post. We have also detailed our best practices for hosting “hybrid” and virtual events.
Similarly, a “Simulive” event encourages participation from both live and delayed audiences. Here, let’s break down the benefits of hosting a Simulive event.
- For starters, Simulive makes it possible for presenters to pre-record their presentations. This allows them to manage the content in terms of production quality, presentation, and editing before the event. This also allows the presenter to have the content ready if they are unavailable for a live slot.
- Hosting a Simulive event aids in scheduling the event according to audience preference, helping a one-time event get cascaded into multiple time slots and zones. This helps particularly with audience perception of your brand, in that by making your content available at their convenience, you make your viewer/s the priority.
- Adding the “live” features of engagement and interaction makes your content that much more amenable to the social media audience, in that they get to engage both on the event platform and their social media accounts during the “live” cast.
- Because the main content is pre-recorded, it makes it flexible for all, whether the presenter or the consumer. Plus, event organizers will have greater control over the event content as this format melds the production quality of offline content with audience participation of online events.
- You win on one key variable that can make or break a virtual event: internet bandwidth. If, for some reason, there is a bandwidth or outage issue during a virtual event, you don’t lose crucial aspects of the presentations to the vagaries of the cloud. The content remains intact.
- Presenters who are selectively available, owing to time constraints, can sign up to interact with audiences in their time availability window. This greatly enhances interaction as the viewer gets to interact with the presenter, at least in part.
- The content can be repackaged instantly following the Simulive event for video-on-demand available on a platform such as Vimeo, YouTube, Kaltura, or Brightcove. This is because a subtitle file such as an SRT or VTT is readily available for all languages.
What SyncWords can do for Simulive Events
- Pre-recorded content can be subtitled in advance, using human captioners. SyncWords’ captioners are some of the best in the industry, boasting of over 99% accuracy in captioning pre-recorded events.
- Our library of languages for instant translation of captions is expanding to more Asian and European languages. With translated video content, you have the potential to reach millions of native and non-English speakers irrespective of whether you run a domestic business or a worldwide one. No other interpretative technology provides language support in 100+ languages. By making the event inclusive for global audiences via live translation technology, there is no limit to brand reach. Offering translation capabilities for events, whether live or pre-recorded, has a cascading effect on brand awareness.
- Live captioning using AI can be turned on using a simple widget for the “live” aspect of your Simulive format event. SyncWords Live has become synonymous with live captioning in the new world of online meetings and virtual conferences. SyncWords Live helps organizations by providing an intuitive platform to deliver real-time captions to online meeting platforms efficiently.
- If you are hosting a hybrid event, all the more reason to Sync up with SyncWords. Many companies are figuring out ways to plan and execute events with both in-person and virtual components working in tandem, known as “hybrid” events. When you plan your hybrid event, insist on SyncWords as your chosen caption provider. You’re getting the best of both captioning and translation when you choose SyncWords.
Wrapping up
Many studies have shown that captions provide clarity and boost comprehension and retention of information among its participants. When you host features of a live or hybrid event on a Simulive webinar, you get all the benefits of captioning that SyncWords makes possible, including multilingual translations for your captions in 100+ languages.
Sync with us today to learn about all the great things we can make possible via captioning and multilingual translation for your next event, whether virtual, Simulive, or hybrid.
Related Reads on the SyncWords Blog:
- Take your Hybrid Event to the Next Level with Captioning and Translation
- How AI Improves Captioning and Transcribing
- Caption your WebEx Meeting with SyncWords Live
- Why Real-Time Translations During Virtual Conferences are Essential
- Five Reasons Why You Should Caption Live Meetings
