Live translated captions in OBS.

OBS can show a web page as a source, on top of your cameras. Every Voclyn room has a screen link: a web page of the service’s finished sentences, in the languages you choose, with nothing behind them. Put it in a Browser Source above your camera, and the captions become part of the picture you send to YouTube or Facebook.

There is no plug-in to install. Voclyn hears the service from the sound desk, as it does for the phones in the room, so OBS needs no extra audio set-up for the captions.

• A Voclyn plan with the big screen (Chapel, Church or Campus), or the free month. On Free, the link shows a notice instead of captions.
• Your room’s big screen link, from Rooms › your room › “Big screen captions”. It looks like voclyn.com/<your-link>/screen.
• OBS Studio, with your stream to YouTube or Facebook already working.
• An internet connection on the OBS computer: the page connects to Voclyn the way a phone does.

1. Build the link. For Spanish captions on a see-through background: https://voclyn.com/<your-link>/screen?langs=es&layout=lower&bg=transparent&lines=2. For English and Spanish together, use langs=en,es.
2. Add a Browser Source. In the scene you stream during the sermon, add a source of the Browser type (with the + under Sources, in most versions) and paste the link into its URL field. Menus vary by version.
3. Set its size to your canvas. Width 1920 and Height 1080 for a 1080p canvas, or 1280 and 720 for 720p; the default 800 × 600 is too small. Leave Custom CSS as it is.
4. Fill the canvas, on top. Make the source cover the whole canvas, and keep it above your camera in the list of sources. The captions sit in the lower third, inside the title-safe area.
5. Stream as usual. Go live to YouTube or Facebook the way you always do, and hold to go live at the sound desk. The captions appear as the service begins.

Rehearse once before Sunday: go live at the desk with OBS recording, read a few sentences in each language you expect, and watch the recording back.

Language codes are the ones in your per-language links, after ?l=. Settings go after a single ?, joined by &.

OBS’s Browser Source keeps a page’s transparent background, so bg=transparent needs nothing else in OBS. Choose bg=chroma only when the captions travel through something that keys a colour instead, such as a video switcher or a capture from another computer, and key out the same colour there. In OBS itself, a Chroma Key filter on the source does it.

Either way, the letters carry a dark shadow and outline, so they stay readable over a bright stage.

• Before the service. A small plate with your QR code, “Scan for your language” and your link, so people at home can follow on their phone.
• During the sermon. Each finished sentence in one or two languages, labelled with the language’s own name and “Original” or “AI translation”. In English, Spanish, Korean and Chinese, a Bible reading the pastor names comes from a published Bible, the one your church sets in Rooms › Languages, marked “Published text”.
• During worship. A small “Worship” plate with your QR code; songs aren’t translated. Hide the source during songs if you’d rather keep the picture clear.
• At the end. “Thank you for worshipping with us”.

These are open captions: part of the picture, the same for every viewer, and kept in a recording of the stream. They aren’t a caption track that viewers turn on or off. Each one appears once its sentence is finished, so it follows the pastor’s voice by a moment. Viewers who need another language can open your church’s link on their phone and choose their own. More about the screen link.

• The whole picture turns black. The link is missing bg=transparent.
• The captions are tiny or in the wrong place. The source is still 800 × 600, or it was scaled down. Set Width and Height to your canvas and make it cover the whole canvas.
• “Big screen captions come with the paid plans.” Your church is on Free; choose a plan in Billing.
• Your QR code shows, but no captions. The room isn’t live at the sound desk yet, or the desk has marked worship.
• “This church link isn’t active.” The word after voclyn.com/ doesn’t match a room; copy the link again from Rooms.
• A language is missing. The room doesn’t offer it, or it is third in langs: a lower third shows two.
• A coloured box around the captions. With bg=chroma, add a Chroma Key filter set to the same colour, or switch to bg=transparent.
• Nothing changed after you edited the link. In the source’s properties, press “Refresh cache of current page”.
• The captions take a moment after a scene change. If “Shutdown source when not visible” is ticked, the page reconnects each time its scene comes back. Untick it to keep the captions ready.