Your first sound check.

1. Connect clean audio

Use the sound desk’s USB output or a suitable audio interface connected to the host computer. Select that input in the studio. Prefer a feed of speech without music or amplified room noise. Computer speakers should be muted to avoid feedback. If your desk has no USB output, consult its manual or your AV volunteer for the right interface; don’t connect a powered speaker output directly to a computer.

2. Test before people arrive

Open your room, allow microphone access and press Test microphone. Speak and confirm the level moves. Then create a short session, connect the microphone and scan the QR code on a second device. Use headphones and test each output language. This real translation rehearsal consumes allowance.

3. During the gathering

Keep the host computer powered, awake and on stable internet, preferably wired. Watch the usage and connection indicators. Use Pause / music during songs or breaks. Prepared text is reviewed content you can display during these pauses. Resume to continue the same session.

4. No sound?

On the listener phone, tap Start listening, check headphones and media volume. Try Chrome or Safari directly instead of an in-app browser. If the host is paused there will be no new audio. Captions can continue when speech synthesis has trouble. Browser background playback varies; keep the page open during initial tests.

5. Translation falling behind?

Long, fast speech can outpace translated audio. Ask speakers to pause naturally. The studio shows an audio warning when the queue grows. Skip queued audio discards unplayed speech for all listeners to help catch up; captions preserve the text. It cannot remove the time needed for speech recognition and translation.

6. No smartphone or limited connectivity?

A volunteer can prepare a borrowed phone or tablet in the listener’s language, or display captions on a shared screen. This service requires internet. It does not operate as an offline receiver system.

7. Records and privacy

Set transcript retention and sharing before starting. Retention is optional; when disabled the transient live caption buffer is not saved as a session record. Sharing creates access for anyone with the room link. Remove retained records from the studio when no longer needed. Summaries refer back to numbered transcript segments and should be reviewed.

Get help

Email support@listenacross.com with your room or session reference, browser/device and time of the problem. Do not send passwords or payment credentials. You can also use Feedback at the bottom right. Support is asynchronous, not an emergency or on-site service.