Newey writes the sermon down as it is preached and translates it as the words are spoken. Stage mode puts large captions on the screen at the front of the room, and audience broadcast turns the same live feed into a QR code any phone can scan, with no app and no sign-in. Nobody signs out a headset and nobody has to staff a booth: the computer that already runs your slides runs the captions too, and next week you press Start again.
When to use it
Set it up once, use it every week
A few minutes of preparation keeps paying off, service after service.
Start with the Church & Bible glossary
Enable Church & Bible in the expert glossary list for biblical names, book names, and worship terms. Add your preacher’s name, song titles, and congregation-specific terms to a personal set. Glossaries guide recognition and wording; rehearse important names and references before the service.
Check the preaching mic feed
If your mixer feeds the computer, pick that input (your audio interface) as the microphone device under advanced settings. Clean audio from the preaching mic is what recognition quality is made of.
Rehearse once with a volunteer
Have whoever runs sound or slides speak a couple of verses at preaching pace, then settle font size, line count, and caption position. After one rehearsal, starting the captions is a routine any volunteer can own.
On service day
Start the captions
Choose Field audio and your mixer or microphone input. Set the preaching language and the languages your congregation reads. Max supports up to three target languages; each additional translation uses your shared allowance.
Send stage mode to the screen up front
Stage mode puts a large translation over a black backdrop with the preached wording kept small, legible from the back row. It relies only on the browser's fullscreen capability, so it runs on whatever computer the projection team already uses.
Turn on Share with audience
Press [Share with audience] for a QR code and a link. You can arm it before the service starts: early scanners see a 'starting soon' screen, and the captions begin streaming the moment you do.
Members scan and read along
Show the QR code on the screen or in the slides. Each phone can choose one of the enabled languages, increase text size, or scroll back. Nobody needs an app or an account.
Run it from the sound desk
Space pauses, Shift+Space stops, and font size or line count changes apply instantly while live. [Issue new code] cuts off the old link at any time.
Details & tips
The words you say every week
Add song titles, recurring phrases, and names to the glossary before the service. Rehearse the terms that matter; recognition and translation can still make mistakes.
Sentence display mode
On the big screen up front, the calm Sentence mode reads best. Prefer a live, flowing feel? Use Streaming mode.
Keep the sermon in writing
Outside private sessions the transcript is kept in Session history. Reopen it for the newsletter, for small groups, or for members who could not be there, and export it as TXT or SRT.
Overflow rooms and lobby screens
Open another caption window from the preview card and place one on each screen. The price stays the same however many you open.
Limits & requirements
- Sharing is off by default: captions go out only while audience broadcast is turned on, and the caption text passes through our server for delivery only, never stored there.
- Max can translate one input into up to three target languages. Each phone can choose from the languages the host enables; it cannot request an additional translation. Each viewer needs an internet connection.
- The active glossary set is injected at session start, so mid-service edits apply from the next session.
- Letting the congregation know the service is transcribed and shared is the church's responsibility.