Looking for Help: Real-Time Transcription & Content Architecture Improvements

[xtruck]

How can I improve ChurchOverlay's real-time transcription and overall architecture?

Hello everyone 👋

I'm currently developing ChurchOverlay, an open-source project focused on live presentation, overlays, media, transcription, and translation.

Repository: https://github.com/xtruck/ChurchOverlay-

I've reached a point where I would really appreciate technical feedback from experienced developers who can help me understand how I should improve the architecture and implementation.

🎙️ 1. My main technical problem: real-time transcription

One of my biggest challenges is achieving fast, reliable, near-real-time transcription.

The workflow I am trying to achieve is approximately:

Microphone → Audio Capture → Voice Activity Detection → Speech-to-Text → Translation → Display

The objective is to minimize latency while maintaining good transcription quality.

I would like to understand whether my current architecture is appropriate or whether there is a fundamentally better way to implement this pipeline.

I'm particularly interested in feedback regarding:

• Audio streaming
• Real-time speech recognition
• VAD
• Deepgram or other streaming ASR solutions
• WebSockets
• Node.js audio processing
• Buffering and chunking
• Latency optimization
• Error handling
• Reliability during continuous speech

If there is a better architecture than what I currently have, I would be very interested in understanding it.

🌍 2. Translation

ChurchOverlay is primarily a French application.

The user interface should remain French, but the application should support real-time translation between at least:

• 🇫🇷 French
• 🇬🇧 English

I would also like the architecture to make it easy to add other languages later.

The long-term goal is to make live multilingual subtitles and translation as smooth and fast as possible.

📝 3. Content and media management

Another area I want to improve considerably is the way content is created and managed.

I want users to be able to work easily with:

• Text
• Images
• Videos
• Audio
• Presentations
• Overlays
• Live content
• Reusable content
• Templates
• Transcriptions
• Translations

The system should be intuitive for users while remaining clean and maintainable for developers.

If you look at the repository and see that the current architecture could be improved or redesigned, I would really appreciate your technical opinion.

🚀 4. I don't want to simply fix the current problems

This is important.

I'm not only interested in fixing the issues I already know about.

I would also like to know:

What would you change if you were designing ChurchOverlay from the beginning?

Are there technologies, architectures, workflows, or features that I should consider?

For example:

• Better real-time architecture
• Better audio processing
• AI-assisted features
• Better translation
• Multilingual subtitles
• Improved media management
• Better presentation workflows
• Better UI/UX
• Automation
• Plugins/extensions
• Integrations
• Performance improvements
• Accessibility
• Better developer experience
• Better scalability

These are only examples. I'm very open to different ideas.

🏆 5. Long-term vision

My ambition is not simply to create another presentation application.

I would like ChurchOverlay to eventually provide capabilities that go beyond what existing presentation software such as ProPresenter offers, while remaining easy to use.

I don't want to simply copy existing software.

I want to explore what could be done better with modern technologies.

If you see something in the current project that should be redesigned, simplified, replaced, or completely rethought, I would genuinely like to hear that feedback.

🔍 What I would appreciate from experienced developers

If you have experience with real-time applications, audio processing, speech recognition, translation, AI, Node.js, TypeScript, UI/UX, or software architecture, I would appreciate your technical analysis.

In particular, I would like to know:

1. What is wrong or inefficient in my current approach?
2. What architecture would you recommend?
3. What should I change first?
4. Which technologies would you recommend?
5. How can I reduce transcription latency?
6. How can I make the content system easier to use?
7. What important features or improvements am I currently missing?
8. How can I make the project more scalable and maintainable?

I'm open to criticism and alternative approaches.

If there is a significantly better way to build something, please tell me rather than simply suggesting a small patch.

🙏 Thank you

I'm still learning and developing the project, and I've reached a point where an outside technical perspective would be extremely valuable.

If you have suggestions, architectural ideas, examples, or recommendations, I would be very grateful to hear them.

The goal is to make ChurchOverlay:

faster → simpler → smarter → more powerful → easier to use.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any feedback you can provide. 🚀

[github-actions[bot]]

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[ebndev]

Hi @xtruck, thanks for sharing with the community!

Unfortunately, we currently do not allow self-promotion, advertising, or solicitation in Community Discussions. We want to make sure there is space for users to ask questions without overwhelming them with other conversations. Thank you for helping us maintain a productive and tidy community for all our members.

[xtruck]

Thank you for clarifying, and I completely understand.

I apologize if my post came across as self-promotion or solicitation. My intention was simply to ask for technical guidance because I am currently stuck with some development challenges in my project.

I appreciate the clarification and will make sure to follow the community guidelines.

Thank you for taking the time to explain the policy. 🙏