Why captions lead on the show floor
At a conference, most people listen. On an exhibition floor, many read. A visitor standing at the edge of an open theatre with a neighbouring stand’s video playing behind them will often follow better on screen than in their ears. That is why live captions are the default for exhibition sessions, with spoken interpretation one tap away for anyone wearing earbuds. Every caption line has “Show original” so a visitor who partly understands the speaker can check a term in the original language.
The second difference is time. A conference delegate sits down for a session; an exhibition visitor gives it a few minutes. Joining has to be instant: scan, choose a language from a list in each language’s own script, and start reading. No app, no account, nothing to return at the exit.
An example from Dubai
Imagine a four-day technology show at an exhibition centre in Dubai with two open content theatres and a conference hall.
- Theatres: each with its own mixer feed, its own session and a QR on the backdrop and the screen loop. Channels in Arabic, English, Mandarin and Russian.
- Conference hall: a full programme with interpretation into Arabic, English, French and Hindi, and two-way panels that switch between Arabic and English.
- An exhibitor’s stand: a ten-minute product demo every hour, with the presenter on a headset microphone and the QR printed on the stand wall.
- Day three: a Turkish delegation visits and Turkish is added to the theatre sessions as a setting.
The exhibitors’ product names and model numbers sit in the glossary, so they come out the same way in every language and every session.
The audio question
Most problems at exhibitions are audio problems. A clean line feed from each stage’s mixer is the single most important thing to agree before build-up. Our page on venue and AV integration explains what we need from the AV supplier: in short, a line output per stage and a small space at the side for our laptop and audio interface.
What the organiser and exhibitors receive
- Recordings of every language channel, per session and per stage
- Transcripts per language in .docx and .xlsx
- Subtitle files for the session videos
- A usage report with languages used, session duration and listeners per language
The usage report shows which theatres drew which language audiences, which helps when selling next year’s stage sponsorships.
Read further
For a closer look at caption-led sessions, read our article on live captions at events. Shows with a large visiting delegation from China should read our notes on Mandarin interpretation. If you still use receivers in your conference hall, compare the options in booths and receivers versus phone-based interpretation.