FAQs

3Play Media is a leading provider of video accessibility and localization solutions, using proprietary AI technology and human expertise to deliver high-quality services like closed captioning, subtitling, dubbing, and audio description at scale.

We support captioning, subtitling, dubbing, transcription, and audio description in 50+ languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and many more.

See our full list of supported languages.

We integrate with dozens of video platforms (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, Kaltura), lecture capture systems (e.g. Mediasite, Panopto), learning management systems (e.g. Blackboard, Canvas), and cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, Box). These integrations can be set up in a matter of minutes and greatly simplify your workflow.

See full list of integrations.

3Play Media offers a full suite of video accessibility and localization services, including closed captioning (pre-recorded and live), transcription, subtitling, dubbing, and audio description.

Other vendors claim 99% accuracy, but test results show that many don’t live up to their claims—not even close:

We provide a range of turnaround options (down to 2 hours), but what sets us apart is our proven ability to consistently meet those deadlines. Historically, we have met 99.72% of 4-day turnaround, 99.77% of 48-hour turnaround, and 99.62% of 24-hour turnaround. In the rare case that a file is overdue, we automatically discount to the achieved turnaround level.

Please see the detailed comparison of 3Play Media versus Rev.

Please see the detailed comparison of 3Play Media versus Verbit.

The acquisition of Captionmax and its subsidiary NCC in February 2022 immediately scaled 3Play Media’s operations and broadened its capabilities, particularly in live captioning and media accessibility.

By combining their complementary strengths, 3Play Media can now accelerate product innovation and provide a complete suite of tools and services for customer peace of mind in the rapidly changing media landscape. Learn more about the acquisition.

We offer three pricing plans to suit your needs. The Express plan is for light captioning/transcription needs and basic publishing requirements. The Pro plan is for steady captioning/transcription needs and more advanced features.The Enterprise plan is for heavy captioning needs, advanced features, and custom configurations.

Yes, volume pricing is available with the Enterprise plan.

You can either pay by credit card or get an invoice.

A contract is not required, and you only pay for what you use.

No, these features are always included.

Plugins are included with the Enterprise plan.

No, our price includes both captions and transcripts in over 50 different output formats.

Yes, we treat audio and video files the same way.

The Express plan has no minimum. The Enterprise plan has a minimum initial commitment.

There is a 1-minute minimum for Closed Captions and Audio Description services, and a 5-minute minimum for Subtitling and Dubbing services. Service charges round up to the next minute.

We offer several ways to submit video/audio files for processing:

• Desktop (secure HTTPS upload)
• Secure FTP (SFTP)
• Proxy URL (paste links)
• Video platform integration (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, Kaltura, Mediasite)
• Cloud storage integration (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, Box)
• API

We support most video/audio formats that don’t use a proprietary codec.

You can download caption, transcript, audio description, subtitle, and dub files in over 50 different formats. The format you need depends on the player or platform you’re using to publish your video. If you need captions or audio tracks embedded directly into the video, you can order open captions, encoded captions, or embedded audio tracks.

Turnaround is dependent on the service you select and your business needs. Several options are available at time of order.

Our secure, cloud-based, multi-platform account system provides numerous capabilities for uploading and monitoring job status, downloading captions, subtitles, dubs, transcriptions, or audio descriptions, and editing output files.

The system is flexible and supports large organizations with numerous groups and users. It allows for various billing, operational, and reporting requirements.

No, everything is web-based and cross-platform compatible.

We offer personalized support during the implementation period and anytime thereafter. This includes training of the account system and help setting up integrations. Online support is available 24/7. Phone support is available between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM ET for Enterprise plan customers. We provide a library of video tutorials, how-to guides, and help articles.

Enterprise customers receive personalized onboarding and dedicated customer success support, including account training and help with integrations. Express and Pro customers have access to our 24/7 online support.

Phone support is available for Enterprise customers between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM ET. All customers can access our library of video tutorials, help articles, blogs, how-to guides, and whitepapers.

Together, we will have a widely enhanced shared set of resources and services to offer. Potential customers should anticipate new service offerings, increased capacity and scale, and a true full service video accessibility solution.

Security and privacy are a critical part of our business and we offer a HIPAA compliant workflow. We have passed rigorous security audits and all of our staff are bound by confidentiality agreements. We provide secure control over data and user access.

3Play Media’s services are designed to help customers comply with major accessibility standards, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), typically up to Level AA.

Additionally, our solutions align with key U.S. federal laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), as well as international regulations such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA).

We excel at servicing videos with technical or academic content, diverse speakers, heavy accents, background noise, overlapping voices, and poor audio quality. We have developed advanced technologies and trained our staff to ensure the highest possible quality and accuracy under all circumstances.

We adhere to rigorous best practices and quality standards across all of our video services, including accurate labeling of speakers, sound effects, and non-speech elements.

Our standards ensure consistent formatting, precise handling of technical terminology, proper treatment of numbers, dates, times, and other details, and high-quality outputs even in challenging audio or video conditions.

Yes, as you process content, our system automatically learns the correct spelling of terminology, proper names, and words specific to your business. This significantly reduces errors over time.

Yes, you can submit a cheat sheet with specialized vocabulary, acronyms, names, or places. This helps our team decipher the spoken words.

While our 99.6% accuracy output for captioning is considered very high quality, it is not perfect. 99.6% accuracy leaves up to 0.4% error, which means that a 10-minute file with 1,500 words could have up to 6 errors.

If a word contains a typo or is misspelled, that counts as one error. Our standard process aims to transcribe all content exactly as it is spoken, including false starts, while omitting certain unnecessary utterances, such as “um” and “uh”.

For our other video accessibility services, including transcripts, audio descriptions, subtitles, and dubs, we maintain rigorous quality standards to ensure accuracy, clarity, and consistency, though accuracy cannot be measured in the same word-by-word way as captions.

3Play Media uses AI in combination with software tools and human review for all of our products. This process allows us to produce everything from AI only outputs to exceptionally high quality outputs based on the customer’s goals.

Anything that goes through our full human review process is guaranteed to comply with major accessibility laws and guidelines.

3Play Media is highly secure, ensuring the protection of your sensitive media and data with enterprise-grade security protocols.

We are HIPAA compliant and maintain SOC 2 Type II certification to ensure your content is safeguarded. Learn more about our security.

Yes. All our services rely on a large, vetted network of highly skilled independent contractors who perform the crucial work of editing and refining the content generated by our AI models to meet our quality guarantee.

3Play Media uses AI in a hybrid approach. We blend proprietary tooling, advanced AI technology (like Automatic Speech Recognition), and human expertise to deliver highly accurate and scalable accessibility and localization services.

Yes. We offer outstanding customer support, including dedicated account management for enterprise clients, extensive online resources, and technical assistance to ensure your workflows run smoothly.

You can view our support documentation here.

Yes, we provide comprehensive onboarding to help your team integrate our solutions seamlessly into your existing video platforms and workflows.

Yes, all 3Play Media services are designed to ensure your content is fully compliant with all major regulations and guidelines, including the ADA, Section 504/508, CVAA, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and EAA.

Check out our content around legislation and compliance.