Help & Answers
Frequently Asked Questions
Practical answers from real classrooms, sanctuaries and production booths using Zip Captions and our accessibility tools.
Real classroom, sanctuary & production hurdles
Questions from Educators, AV Teams & Event Organizers
Our school board IT department blocks software downloads and refuses to sign vendor student-data agreements. Can teachers still use Zip Captions or EasySpeak?
Yes. Both Zip Captions and Zip EasySpeak run 100% inside standard web browsers (Chrome, Safari, and Edge for free captioning; any browser for viewing or EasySpeak) with zero software or MSI packages to install, require zero student accounts or logins, and never store audio or transcripts on external servers. Live transcripts stay in local browser RAM and vanish when the tab closes—meeting strict Quebec Law 25, FIPPA, FERPA, and GDPR privacy rules out of the box.
Why do live captions miss words when I use my laptop's built-in microphone from across a noisy classroom or church sanctuary?
A laptop's built-in microphone is engineered for someone sitting 18 inches away, so room echo and background chatter will degrade any speech-to-text engine. In a classroom, clipping on an inexpensive wireless lapel (lavalier) mic or routing your Phonak Roger receiver into the laptop transforms accuracy immediately. In a church sanctuary or auditorium, send an Aux or Line-Out feed of the speaker's vocal mic from your soundboard into your laptop via a simple USB audio interface.
When I present Google Slides or PowerPoint in full-screen on a projector or SMART Board, it covers up my browser tab. How do I keep captions visible on top?
Click the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) button inside the Zip Captions toolbar before launching your slideshow. That detaches your live captions into a resizable, always-on-top floating window that hovers cleanly over full-screen PowerPoint, Google Slides, PDFs, or videos. You can also use our free ZipPanel Chrome extension.
Hard-of-hearing or ESL students often refuse to sit in the front row or wear bulky gear because they don't want to feel singled out. How do you solve that?
With Zip Captions Broadcast mode, you share a permanent Room Code or QR code with the whole room. Any student can discreetly follow the live transcript on their own Chromebook, tablet, or phone from any desk, adjust font size, switch on the Lexend dyslexia-friendly font, or enable free Chrome On-Device AI translation into their home language on their own screen.
We used WebCaptioner before it shut down, and our AV booth is run by rotating volunteers. Will they have to set up new links or reconfigure OBS/vMix every week?
No. Zip Captions gives you a permanent, static Broadcast Room Code. You print your QR code pew cards or lobby posters once, configure your OBS WebSocket or free Zip vMix Title bridge once, and every week your volunteer simply opens zipcaptions.app and clicks Start.
Where do you provide on-site event production, custom live captioning, and Google for Education PD training versus remote services?
We are based near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We provide on-site hybrid event production, live event & theatre surtitling, assistive listening AV consultancy, and in-person Google for Education workshops across Greater Montreal, Quebec, and Canada—while our browser apps, virtual event captioning, and remote PD sessions are available worldwide.
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