Flash and standard audio

A listener can follow the translation in two ways: by reading captions, or by listening through headphones. The spoken translation can come either from Sanalive’s servers (Flash voice) or from the listener’s own device (Standard audio). This page explains how the two differ, and which one to use when.

Flash

Flash is Sanalive’s own translation voice, streamed from our servers. When Flash is on, every listener hears the same voice, whether they have an iPhone, an Android phone, or something older. You can configure Flash voice — for example choose a male or female voice, and how fast the interpreter speaks. Flash also starts speaking sooner than Standard audio, so the translation reaches the listener sooner.

With Flash, a guest does not need to prepare anything in advance. They scan the QR code, pick a language, put on headphones, and listen. That is why Flash works especially well when many people in the room are first-time visitors.

Flash audio works for about sixty languages. If a language does not support Flash audio, it is translated, and the audio is provided with Standard audio.

Standard audio

Modern phones include a built-in model that can turn text into speech. Standard audio uses that: Sanalive sends text to the listener’s phone, and the phone turns it into audio. This is a more cost-effective way to offer translation, but it has a few trade-offs:

1. Standard audio may require downloading a language voice to the phone. With Standard audio, a listener can almost always hear the sermon in the same language as their phone settings without new installations. However, if that is not the case, or they want to listen in another language than their phone's language, they will most likely need to download a separate voice pack. If the right voice is not installed, they can still follow captions in their language. See How listeners join.
2. Standard audio has a slightly longer delay. It starts only after captions have arrived on the phone. Flash in the cloud can start speaking as soon as the first part of a sentence is ready. In practice, short sentences are about 1–2 seconds behind Flash. In long, complex sentences the gap can be more than 5 seconds.
3. Standard audio quality varies. Different phone makers use different text-to-speech models, so the voice depends on the phone and its settings. On older phones it can sound robotic; on newer phones the quality can be very good.

So Standard audio is fully usable, as long as you are aware of the points above and can help new guests with voice downloads when needed. Standard audio is a good, cost-effective option for languages with lighter demand, or if Flash hours run out.

How they compare

Depending on how many languages are in use, Standard captions can be about a second slower than with Flash.

When to use Flash

Use Flash when you want fast translation that sounds the same for everyone, regardless of their device.

Because Flash hours are limited unless you buy more, many churches stretch them like this:

Use Flash for the most popular languages. If the operator sees many listeners on a language, they can switch that language to Flash mid-service. If you already know the main language (for example English), set it to Flash before the service so the platform suggests it as the primary language.

Use Flash only during the sermon. During hosting and music you can stay on Standard audio, and turn Flash on for the sermon. That way hours are not spent on songs and announcements.

Leave smaller languages on Standard audio. If only one or two people use a language, it is easy to brief them on Standard audio if it does not start automatically.

If you prefer to keep Flash available, you can set an extra Flash budget in settings. When the Flash hours in your plan run out, Flash can continue seamlessly against that budget.

When Flash hours run out

If the hours run out mid-service, you do not need to stop anything. Captions and translation keep going as before. The only change is that Flash voice stops, and listeners move to hearing the translation on the phone’s own voice. If Flash stops mid-service and Standard audio does not start on its own, refreshing the browser usually fixes it.

Do this:

1. Use the platform Broadcast function to tell listeners they can now hear the translation on the phone’s own voice. Captions are available the whole time.
2. Remind them that the language voice needs to be installed. Steps are on the join page.
3. Do not restart the session over and over. That does not add hours, and you may only interrupt the translation.

When Flash moves to Standard audio, the voice may feel a few seconds behind. You notice the difference at first, then you get used to it quickly.

Getting more Flash hours

If Flash hours are not enough, settings let you set a budget for how much extra Flash your organisation can use. The budget is only charged for actual use. Current rates are on the pricing page.