Live transcribe Zoom Webinars with Otter.ai

Making virtual events inclusive and engaging

At a time when live events have all gone virtual, event organizers struggle to find affordable and effective solutions to make live content accessible and interactive. Most live captioning and CART services are prohibitively expensive. Their output is laggy, discontinuous, non-interactive, and non-repurposable.

Otter Live Notes for Zoom Webinars adds live interactive transcripts to the virtual events you host. Participants can view, highlight, and comment in the Otter Live Notes opened as a browser window next to Zoom or on another device. Audio transcripts are saved so you can edit, export, and share via groups and links – repurposing and extending the reach of your content.

Otter Live Notes is a paid feature included in the Otter Business subscription.

How to set up Otter Live Notes for Zoom Webinars

One-time Setup

If you haven't already set up Otter Live Notes for Zoom Meetings, please perform these 4 steps first.

Pre-webinar Setup

For every webinar you schedule in Zoom, please perform the following steps:

1. In Otter.ai, click the arrow next to the Import button and then click Zoom Webinar.

2. Schedule a new live transcription session for your webinar.

If you enter the same When and Duration as the actual start time and duration of your webinar, Otter will, by default, be available to transcribe 30 minutes before and after the time range you enter here. If you wish to add extra time buffer for pre-webinar practice dry run or in case the webinar runs long, you may enter an earlier start time and a longer duration here.

3. Switch on Share to Otter Group if you wish to share the live notes and saved conversation to a group of people automatically. Pick from the list of Groups you had created in your Otter account, and specify the desired permission level (i.e. view/highlight, comment, edit).

By default, if Share to Otter Group is set to Off, participants can view (but not highlight, comment, nor add images to) the live notes during the meeting/webinar only. Participants will not be able to access the live notes after the meeting/webinar ends, even if they had bookmarked the URL.

4. Click Generate codes

5. Log into Zoom web portal > Webinars and open the webinar you have scheduled. Scroll to the bottom and click the More tab, then click Add Service.

Note: If you do not see Custom Live Streaming Services + Add Service, please go to Admin > Account Management > Webinar Settings ( https://zoom.us/account/webinar/setting ), scroll down to the In Webinar Settings section at the bottom, click Edit, and check the checkbox for Custom Live Streaming Service and then click Save Changes.

6. Copy the Streaming URL, Streaming key, and Live streaming page URL individually and paste each into the corresponding field in the Add Live Stream Service pop-up in Zoom. Click Save and you're all set.

At-webinar Setup

On the day of your webinar, once you have started the webinar, click More, and then click Live on Custom Live Streaming Service to start Otter Live Notes.

A red LIVE icon should appear at the upper left corner of the Zoom window. Two ways your participants can access Otter Live Notes:

1. Instruct your participants to click LIVE on Custom Live Streaming Service > View Stream on Custom Live Streaming Service to open Otter Live Notes in a web browser

2. Click LIVE on Custom Live Streaming Service > Copy Streaming Link to copy the link to Otter Live Notes, then paste it into Zoom's chat window, so your participants can access it there.

Known Limitations

1. For participants using Zoom on Chromebook, there is no red LIVE icon.
Workaround:
The host can click LIVE on Custom Live Streaming Service > Copy Streaming Link to copy the link to Otter Live Notes, then paste it into Zoom's chat window, so all participants can access it there.

2. For participants using Zoom on mobile devices, there is no View Stream on Custom Live Streaming Service in the LIVE pull-down menu.
Workaround:
The participant can click LIVE on Custom Live Streaming Service > Copy Streaming Link to copy the link to Otter Live Notes, then paste it into a web browser to see the live transcription.

3. Otter Live Notes does not work in breakout rooms
Workaround:
One person in each breakout room can do a side-by-side recording and share the Otter link in the Zoom chat window.

Related Topics

•  Live transcribe Zoom meetings with Otter.ai
•  Transcribe Zoom recordings with Otter.ai
•  How to transcribe Cisco Webex meetings with Otter.ai
•  How to transcribe any video meetings with Otter.ai
•  How to transcribe a video on a Mac with Otter.ai
•  How to transcribe a video on a PC with Otter.ai

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