Weekly toolbox talk as a 45-second avatar clip: 52 weeks priced

A weekly toolbox talk can be a 45-second clip from one reusable avatar with your worksite photo as the scene and captions burned in, because many sites are too loud to rely on sound. Fifty-two weekly clips with captions cost $440.96 on Standard, $583.70 on Plus and $1297.40 on Max, counting the fixed $0.20 caption add-on per clip that the API reference says the estimate includes.

The mechanics are in Sume's avatar video guide, read 2026-10-04. This post is about producing the briefing, not about what a briefing must contain: your safety officer owns the content, and a generated presenter does not replace a talk with the crew.

One avatar, one scene photo

Create the presenter once with POST /v1/avatar-1.0/generate; the creation fee is $0.95. For the background pass scene as a photo reference: scene: { "type": "photo", "image_url": "https://..." }. The image must be a public HTTPS URL, and signed or private URLs are rejected before submission. Use a real photo of the area the talk is about, with no faces in it.

The cost of a year of talks

Script rules for a briefing

Keep one hazard per clip. A 45-second script can hold one hazard, one rule and one question for the crew to discuss. Avoid numbers that are not on your own site procedure, and have the safety lead read the script before it goes to the render.

• One hazard per week, named in the first sentence.
• One rule, stated as an action, not a warning.
• End on a question the supervisor asks the crew in person.
• Put the generated-presenter note in the first caption line.

Submit the weekly job

Use the week number in the Idempotency-Key so a retry after a timeout does not create a second paid job.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/avatar-1.0/talking-video \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: toolbox-2026-w41" \
  -d '{"avatar_handle": "site_safety", "aspect_ratio": "16:9", "quality": "standard", "scene": {"type": "photo", "image_url": "https://example.com/site-gate.jpg"}, "script": "This week: ladders. Check that both feet of the ladder sit on firm ground, and keep three points of contact while you climb. Supervisors, ask your crew where the nearest ladder inspection tag is.", "captions": {"enabled": true, "style": "slam", "language": "en"}}'

Review before it reaches the crew

Play the clip before it is shown. Read the captions against the script, because captions.status can come back failed while the video itself is fine. Say in the clip, the caption or the page around it that the presenter is AI-generated; the API does not add that label for you.