Your first service

1. Set up your church and team

Each person has their own login. Your church brings the team, events, and live captions together.

1. Create your personal account, then confirm your email using the link in your inbox. If you open that link on another device, return to the browser where you signed up and refresh your dashboard.
2. Choose Set up your church. Enter its name; we suggest an available web address. Review the membership consent before creating the church.
3. On your church dashboard, choose Create event. Give your service a name, such as “Sunday Service”. Its viewer link stays the same each week.
4. To bring in your team, open Team and choose Invite Member. Give people who run captions the Host role; use Admin for people who also manage the team and church settings.

Already invited? Follow your invitation email, sign in or create your personal account, then choose Join church on the dashboard. You do not need to create another church.

When you return, your dashboard opens your church. If you help at several churches, use Switch church to choose the one you are working with.

2. Test at home first

A short rehearsal helps catch common problems before the service. On your church dashboard, choose Start session on your event, allow microphone access, check the source language (the language the preacher speaks) and choose Begin live captions.

• Read a paragraph aloud and watch the Live preview. Faded italic text is still being recognised; it turns final a moment later.
• Open the viewer link on your own phone and pick a language. Translation for a language starts as soon as someone selects it.
• End the session with End Session. You can download the transcripts from the summary screen.

Translation minutes are counted while captions run, so a five-minute test is plenty.

3. Sound setup

Clear audio helps people follow the service. A direct feed from the sound desk usually gives the clearest speech, with less background sound from the room.

• Sound desk: connect an output of the mixing desk (an aux or matrix send) to the computer through a USB audio interface, and choose that interface when the host page asks for a microphone.
• Dedicated microphone: a wireless or clip-on microphone for the preacher, connected to the computer.
• Laptop microphone: useful for a home test. In a larger room, it may also pick up music and nearby conversations, making speech harder to recognise.
• For clearer captions, use an audio feed focused on the speaker. Music and singing may be transcribed less reliably.
• Plug the computer into power and turn off sleep, so the session is not interrupted halfway through the sermon.

4. Sharing captions

Choose Invite viewers on the host page to copy the link or show the QR code. Everyone uses the same viewer, whether they open it on a phone, tablet or projector.

Put the QR code on a screen before the service or print it for the pews. For a projector, open the same link and press F for fullscreen. Press S for display settings such as text size.

Sessions started from an event share that event's permanent link, which stays the same every week, so a printed QR code keeps working.

5. What viewers see

See all 47 supported caption languages, including their native names.

Viewers do not need an account or an app. They open the link, choose their language and see the sermon appear as it is spoken, with earlier sentences above. They can change the language using the language button, and adjust text size under Settings.

Captions appear after a short delay, which varies with the connection and the speech. A sentence may change slightly while it is still faded; once it is final it stays as it is.

6. During the service

• The Service status panel shows whether audio is arriving, how many people are listening and which languages are active.
• Use + Language to start a translation before anyone has chosen it, for example for the projector. A language nobody watches stops after five minutes.
• Keep the host page open and in the foreground. Closing the tab or letting the computer sleep stops the captions.
• When the service is over, choose End Session. Everyone connected sees that the service has ended.

7. If captions stop

• The preview is empty: check that the right microphone is selected and that the sound desk is sending signal. The audio indicator in Service status should move when someone speaks.
• The connection dropped: reload the host page. The session stays open while the host is away, so it resumes with the same join code and viewers reconnect on their own.
• One language is missing: add it again with + Language, or ask the viewer to select it again with the language button.
• A viewer sees nothing: ask them to check the join code and their internet connection, then reload the page.

Open Session Activity on the host page to see what happened and when. It is the most useful thing to mention when you contact us.

8. Getting help

Email support@sermonbridge.com with the date of the service and what you saw.