Conference Mode: live captions and translation for events
Put live captions on the venue screen at conferences, seminars, and lectures, and let the audience read captions and translation on their phones via QR code.
Conference mode turns a live recording into a full-screen caption display built for events. One laptop and a feed of the room audio puts captions on the venue screen, and the audience reads the same captions on their own phones via QR code. No interpretation booth, no captioning hardware.
Show live captions in large type on the venue screen
Let the audience scan a QR code and read captions on their own phones
Display real-time translated captions for international attendees
Hand off the recording afterward, when the link the audience watched becomes the full transcript page
Conference mode works on the web and the desktop app. You can only turn it on from a live recording whose [Listen In] language is set to [Multilingual], and it appears only while a recording is in progress.
When you start a live recording, set the [Listen In] language to [Multilingual]. If it is set to another language, the Conference mode button stays disabled.
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Turn on Conference mode
Tap the [Conference Mode] button at the top of the recording note to switch to the full-screen caption display. Send this screen to the venue projector or a second monitor.
The Conference mode full-screen caption display. The top toolbar holds the [Translation], [Context], [QR], [Guide], and [Screen Settings] controls, and live captions appear in large type in the body.
[Display Mode] in the [Screen Settings] popover decides where the source and the translation sit. There are three shapes, each with a Mirrored version, plus a translation-only layout, for seven in total.
Horizontal · Horizontal Mirrored: source and translation side by side in two columns. Best for wide venue screens
Vertical · Vertical Mirrored: source and translation stacked top and bottom. Best for tall displays or narrow screens
Fixed · Fixed Mirrored: the source and translation each hold a fixed area of the screen, and captions update in place
Translation Only: drops the source column and shows the translation in a single column across the full width of the screen, so the text runs larger too. A good fit for events where most of the audience doesn’t speak the presentation language
Mirrored swaps which side the source and the translation sit on. If most of your audience is reading the translation, turn on a mirrored mode so the translation lands where the eye goes first.Translation Only shows up in the list only when the [Translation] toggle is on. On the audience screen it appears once the talk’s translation has actually arrived. It doesn’t fill in the source as a stand-in, so a paragraph whose translation hasn’t landed yet may look briefly empty.
The top [Screen Settings] popover. Tune [Font Size], [Content Width], the [Display Mode] options, [Dark Mode], and [Always show header] to fit your venue.
Tap the [QR] button at the top to show a QR code for the audience. They just scan it with their phone camera, and no sign-in is needed. Each attendee can adjust dark mode and font size on their own, and toggle translation on and off when the talk has translation enabled. Set a password on the link, and only people who enter the password shown on the talk screen can view it.
The audience QR screen that opens when you tap [QR]. The left shows the talk title, speaker, and venue the audience will see, and the right shows the scannable QR code and the share address.
Even when the main screen is small or far away, the audience can read at their own pace. Put the QR on your opening slide and seat signage ahead of time so no one misses it.
Turn on the [Translation] toggle at the top and pick a translation language, and the source captions and translated captions appear together. The speaker picks the translation language, and the audience reads the translation in that language. Tiro supports 15 languages, including Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese. If you want the translation shown large on its own without the source, pick the Translation Only layout in [Screen Settings].
The caption display with the [Translation] toggle on. The left column shows the source text and the right column shows the translated captions, lined up sentence by sentence.
Put the talk topic, proper nouns like people’s and company names, and technical terms into the [Context] button ahead of time, and caption accuracy goes up sharply. Beyond text, you can upload files such as the slide deck (up to 5, each 20MB or less), and you can load and reuse context you wrote earlier. You can change it mid-talk too.The Context page covers this in full.
One laptop: connected to the screen you want captions on. A web browser or the desktop app is enough
A feed of the room audio: running the main mixer’s line out into the laptop through a USB audio interface gives you the best caption accuracy, well above the built-in mic
Internet: a wired LAN is safest; on Wi-Fi, aim for at least 10Mbps down and 5Mbps up
Whatever plan you already pay for. Conference mode is included on every paid plan, so there is nothing to buy for the event. For a single-day event, one month of the Max plan and its unlimited usage covers rehearsals with room to spare.
Paid plans record up to 5 hours per note. For an event that runs longer, stop the recording during a break and continue in a new note. The audience QR link is reissued at that point, so you’ll need to share it again.
When the speaker ends the recording, the screen the audience was watching automatically becomes a regular share page. The audience can reread the full talk transcript from the start at the same link. The speaker’s note keeps the usual one-page document, Note, and transcript.
Planning a large event? Our team can handle the setup
A conference for hundreds of people, an international event running in several languages, tracks going at once: that is a lot to prepare. The Conference Mode package exists for exactly that. We hand it to you already set up, with a dedicated event operating account, your event details and language configuration in place, a test link before the day, and a priority support channel through the event week. Multilingual displays, custom branding, large-scale audience capacity, and multi-track operation are all things we can build around your event.Email partners@theplato.io with your event date, running time, languages, and expected headcount, and we’ll come back with a setup and a quote that fits.
The package is a setup and support service, not a way to unlock the feature. Conference mode itself works right now on the plan you already have.
No. If you’re on a paid plan, you can turn it on with nothing extra to buy. For an all-day event, the Max plan and its unlimited usage gives you the most headroom.
Neither. One laptop and a feed of the room audio into it is all it takes. Tiro handles the captions and translation, and the audience reads along on their phones.
A note records up to 5 hours, so you stop between sessions and continue in a new note. The new note reissues the QR link, so share it with the audience again. Planning sessions in advance, like morning and afternoon, makes this easy.
Check three conditions: that it’s a live recording note (file-upload notes don’t qualify), that the [Listen In] language is set to [Multilingual], and that the recording is in progress (the button doesn’t appear on a finished note).
The speaker screen (Conference mode) only turns on from the web and the desktop app. The audience views it by scanning the QR on their phones, so there’s no device restriction.Related pages: Live recording · Context · Sharing · Plans
