Setup Documentation

Requirements

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

• A modern browserChrome, Edge, or Safari. Firefox works for most features.
• Microphone or audio interfaceAny input device your browser can see will work.
• Azure account with Cognitive ServicesThe free F0 tier is enough for most events.
• A stable internet connectionA wired connection is recommended for live events.

Launching the App

There's nothing to install. The full app runs in the browser.

1. Open the app

Visit the hosted app in any modern browser:

https://multi-language-captions.littlebigideas.ca

2. Grant microphone access

Your browser will ask for permission to use the microphone. Click Allow. The app needs this to stream audio to Azure for transcription.

3. That's it

You'll land on the credentials panel. Enter your Azure key once and it's saved to your browser's local storage for next time — it never leaves your device.

Azure Speech Setup

The app uses Azure Cognitive Services for real-time speech recognition. You need a Speech resource key and region.

Create a Speech resource

1. 1Go to portal.azure.com and sign in.
2. 2Click Create a resource and search for Speech.
3. 3Select your subscription, create a new resource group, choose a region close to your event, and select the Free F0 pricing tier.
4. 4Once deployed, go to Keys and Endpoint in the resource menu. Copy KEY 1 and your Location/Region.

Enter your credentials

Paste your key and region into the credentials panel on first launch. They're stored in your browser's localStorage — nothing is sent to or stored on our servers.

Azure Translator Setup (optional)

If you want to add a third language in addition to English and French, you can enable the Azure Translator service for on-the-fly translation of the transcribed text.

Create a Translator resource

Follow the same steps as for the Speech resource, but search for Translator instead. Then, in the credentials panel, expand Advanced and paste in:

• ›Translator Key
• ›Translator Region (e.g. eastus)
• ›Translator Endpoint (defaults to the global endpoint)

Without this, the app runs in two-language mode (EN + FR) using Azure Speech's native multilingual recognition — no additional configuration needed.

Running a Session

Select your audio device

From the device dropdown, pick the microphone or audio interface input you want to transcribe. Click Start Captioning.

Share the viewer URL

Once a session is live, share this URL with your audience:

https://multi-language-captions.littlebigideas.ca/viewer

Anyone with the link can open it in any browser — desktop or mobile — and see captions update in real time. No login required.

End the session

Click Stopwhen you're done. The viewer page will show a “Session ended” message. You can start a new session any time without re-entering your credentials.

Troubleshooting