GalaPro

I rarely write reviews but I read a lot of them and after reading some of the negative experiences in here, I felt compelled to share my first experience with this app. I Just came from watching Hamilton in NYC, where this app was used for Captions. Nearly all of the show it was right on with the dialogue and that was better than I expected given the rapid fire delivery in this play. Setup was easy enough following the Instructions. I couldn’t see the text well enough at the default brightness, but in the settings you can fix that and also change the font size. Having the captions on my phone on my leg -without bothering anyone nearby - was a game changer for me during many of the parts of this play. Thank you developers and the Hamilton production for making this available!

extremely hit or miss if the captions are actually timed correctly. I’d forgive some lag on captions but they pause for up to a minute sometimes and then would completely skip captions. Some captions are attributed to incorrect characters. I can still hear but for someone who would need this to understand the show this would be atrocious.

Not good for hard of hearing who want to follow the show! Too slow, too fast, intermittent, didn't work, did work, etc.

Don’t waste your time with this piece of garbage app. Doesn’t work!

I am hearing impaired and was pleased to find out, a few weeks ago, that closed captioning was available for To Kill a Mockingbird in Orlando, through GalaPro. Unfortunately, it was a lesson in frustration. Setting it up and logging into the Wi-Fi was easy enough, but the captioning raced ahead or lagged behind or froze and skipped ahead and then the signal dropped. After reconnecting and having successful captioning for a few minutes it threw an error message that said the password was incorrect. I reconnected again and restarted the app, which remained out of synch with actual dialog for a few minutes and it disconnected again. At that point my (brand new) iPhone went back in my purse and I attempted as much lip reading as possible (not much). Today my husband and I attended a different stage show at a different venue and during intermission I found out that captioning was available. After setting up my phone and logging in to the Wi-Fi, the app showed “intermission”. As the second act started, the screen changed to “End of Act 1” and then displayed the final line of the chorus that was sung at the end of that act. No Act 2 dialog ever appeared. I restarted the app and reconnected to the GalaPro Wi-Fi but that same last line of the prior act was all that appeared. Again, the phone went back in my purse. Maybe the third time will be the charm? Somehow, I doubt it.

I love this idea, but I feel like a few features could be added. I have an auditory processing disorder, meaning sometimes I hear something but don’t quite know what was said. I would love it if they could add a feature that makes it lag behind a few seconds! Also sometimes the subtitles were a bit too early and I would read it like 5-10 seconds before it was said. I love the idea and thank you to the developers for making theatre a little bit more accessible for people like me!

Galapro worked for about a minute before freezing. Tried several times to restart it, including rebooting, to no avail. It would hang each time. Very frustrating because for that minute, it was quite helpful. I’ll find another app that works next time.

Could not get it to do anything at all…

Used this today at a touring Production of Tina. You do need to have the app downloaded and an account created while you have an internet connection and in advance of the show starting. It worked very well throughout. There were a few very minor sync issues but they didn’t last for more than a line or two. I found the brightness and font size very easy to adjust. I’m hoping a lot more productions make use of technology like this to help further increase accessibility to the theatre.

Used in Atlanta. Absolute game changer for hearing impaired, was on the verge of tears of happiness that I could participate again. FYI, it was kinda tricky to setup. Had to go to the smoking section outside to get enough cell service to load the app, and then once I was in the setup portion, I had to return to my seat to find the special wifi.