AI BLOG – AI Sound-off with Profuz Digital

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With AI dominating the headlines, from OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman as well as the recent AI summit held in the UK last month hosted by the British Prime Minister on regulation, the Profuz Digital Blog reporter decided to find out industry opinion on all things AI and how it will influence them.

The first person we approached to share insights on this important topic is developer Kamen Ferdinandov – CTO of Profuz Digital and creator of SubtitleNEXT, Profuz LAPIS and NEXT-TT.

We sat down with Kamen to find out his thoughts:

Q&A on AI with CTO Kamen Ferdinandov from Profuz Digital.

Question 1: What are your thoughts on AI right now and the direction it is moving in generally?

Kamen’s response: AI is not a trend, it is here to stay and will advance.

Artificial Intelligence has been around for a very long time, in fact for the past 50 years. I have personally been working with AI for over ten years already. It started to become a hot topic due to the Large Language Models that have drawn mainstream media attention such as the likes of ChatGPT and so forth. It reflects how we are starting to see the quality of large language models improving dramatically now and picking up pace in these areas.

AI is also making progress in image recognition and so many other areas. AI excels at its speed to search data – using it in practice in our industry, it can cut down on manual and laborious functions that tie people down from getting on with the creative work they could be focusing on.

AI is actually a very broad term and is the outer shell definition of many technologies that include machine learning, deep learning, large language models and more. It’s important to differentiate AI from humans and to remember that AI is not human – it doesn’t have empathy, it can’t walk and it can’t learn by itself as humans can. Although we know AI can be self learning, this means it is learning existing patterns or information it can access, unlike how humans learn and experience and learn from experience of life. In the large language models (LLM) domain, it appears we can communicate with AI, and it seems to provide fairly good info and copy.

AI can play a major role, and already does, in the area of statistics – it can assess patterns and analyse data faster than any human can manage in the same time-frame.

Question 2: Do you have any security concerns about AI – could it get out of and decide to exterminate us as Elon Musk says could happen?

Kamen’s response: No, I am not concerned that AI will do something against humanity all by itself. The reason there is fear, is people do not understand the technology.

I do, however think it is wise for regulation of AI and this is good. However in terms of could AI become a weapon for example as a worst case scenario? I foresee that it could be possible, but that it is probably no different to what a human can do.

Question 3: Do you think AI will replace humans or do you see it being a co-pilot assistant role and helping humans work better?

Kamen’s response: The way to look at AI, is that it will be business-driven, and essentially the question to ask will be what do businesses need – what is the purpose and what is driving AI? How will AI enhance businesses?

As with any new revolution or technological change that happens, businesses either adapt or disappear. If we read history, we can see that it is no different to any other revolution we have encountered such as the industrial revolution and with training and correct regulation, AI can be a positive tool.

If AI is not trained to handle copyright materials, for example, this course can be an area of concern, however, the same applies with human beings at work and security measures will be applied to reinforce security breaches that could happen, as they can now already.

How I see it is that AI needs to be embraced because it is not going away and it will help us complete many tasks a lot faster and with accuracy. If we look at how technology has affected us historically, we can see that working together with tech, helps us accomplish a lot, faster, together. I don’t believe AI is going to replace human jobs as such, however some jobs will inevitably dissolve as new technologies evolve, and this is what happens in technological revolutions, but those people will find other jobs.

On the one hand, many people right now in the industry are afraid and threatened by AI possibly taking their job away because this will also mean employers don’t have to pay wages, so it lowers outgoing costs. On the other hand, businesses require quality results which AI might not be able to do without human QC or intervention. For example, small TV studios that have to adhere to mandatory regulations to air captions with all their shows, might find it more profitable to use AI, however quality could be inferior compared to human subtitling professionals at the helm. Therefore having both makes more sense.

The motivation for businesses using or not using AI will vary in the years to come. I think businesses that choose not to embrace AI, will eventually disappear. Some businesses will adopt AI purely because they are doing what they are seeing others doing and want to maintain a competitive edge. Others will take a risk and use new technologies and innovations from the start and will exploit AI for their advantage and will evolve.

These are just my thoughts on AI generally at this current stage, however we have a great deal of respect for our customers and their concerns are our priority. We listen to what they want to suit their specific requirements. We are proud of our innovative approach and offer customised technology that helps to future-proof an organisation to help them work more efficiently in a cost-effective manner. Although we advise, we don’t dictate to our customers and we work with them to find solutions that work in their unique environment, whether it involves AI in future or not at all, is their prerogative.

Kamen’s forward-thinking Profuz LAPIS digital asset management technology has caught the attention of many high profile organisations including most recently, the Council of Europe that went on to invest in the system, along with many other companies that use LAPIS technology. The Council is a body designed to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe, and is renowned for pioneering new standards, which have progressed to become global benchmarks. It is the role of the Council of Europe to ensure that human rights, democracy and the rule of law are protected and promoted in the digital environment including AI.

Other organisations that have already adopted Profuz Digital’s technology include London’s Titles-On, EMG, Tarjama in the UAE, IT Pros Italy, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, Polsat, Kino Polska, The Bulgarian National Radio, Belgium’s Max Live Media Access, Biovisjon, Doli Media Studio, Cube Cinema Technologies, Tring TV, Bulgarian National Television, Canal Plus, AMC, HD Media, KU Leuven University of Leuven, Belgium, University of Rome Tor Vergata, University of Warsaw, University of Ghent, European School of Translation, Hellenic American College of Greece, the Complutense University of Madrid, and many others.

Many of these companies will be able to take advantage of Profuz LAPIS and SubtitleNEXT’s AI capabilities in the future as they are added to the system as and when required.

Visit Profuz Digital at www.profuzdigital.com to find out more.

If you would like to contribute to this topic, please email info@profuzdigital.com and we will interview you and share your responses in our upcoming blog series.

WHAT SUBTITLING AND DUBBING OFFERS

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DESPITE ALL, WE’RE IN A GOOD SPOT by Bente Ottersen, CEO of Titles-On

The media localization industry is a bridge between the language service providers and the media services providers, each forecasted to grow significantly in the next few years with CAGR of 7.92% and 7% respectively. The main drivers for our industry are growth in online video entertainment and National legislation/regulation. Despite a chastening 2022, streaming remains strong, billions are still being deployed on content, and the name of the game is international expansion.

Media localization is a rapidly evolving field, driven by changing consumer preferences, technological advancements, and evolving business models. As the demand for localized content continues to grow, our industry will continue to experiencee skills shortages, including translators from non-English languages and real-time subtitlers.

With the rise of live streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube Live, real-time localization has become essential to ensure that content is accessible to a global audience in real-time.

The decision to localize into a particular language is of strategic importance for media entertainment companies since adding new language options opens up new audiences and geographical revenue streams. Localization is therefore considered to be a revenue driver in media entertainment. However, as 2022 was a year of uncertainty for the media entertainment industry, the focus is now more on the bottom line and cost saving and customers are looking for smarter and cheaper solutions as their need for localization grows.

As media entertainment companies are keeping their eyes on the bottom line, requiring cheaper and better services with tighter timelines, a system of tiered assets seems to be emerging. At the lower end: Basic, perhaps autogenerated, subtitles or captions, and for high profile content: Bespoke subtitles created by the best of audiovisual translators.

TECHNOLOGY

There is an expectation that technology, including speech recognition, machine translation and voice synthesizing, has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and quality of the media localization process and help address the talent shortfall in the industry.

There’s no denying that machine translation has improved by leaps and bounds over the past couple of years. There is a strong economic advantage brought by the use of language technologies, promising a reduction in market prices for a greater number of language combinations.

While these technologies have made significant progress in recent years, they are not without drawbacks and adverse effects. We as industry professionals know that it is crucial to use them in conjunction with human resources as a tool to enhance efficiency rather than as replacements for human resources.

The dubbing industry has undergone significant changes with the advent of synthetic voices, which have the potential to revolutionize the way voice-over work is done. However, the use of synthetic voices in the dubbing industry raises various legal and ethical concerns that must be carefully considered before they are widely adopted. It is important to strike a balance between the benefits of using synthetic voices and the potential risks associated with their use.

On the positive side, seen from a purely cost-saving perspective, AI-generated voices could potentially reduce the cost of dubbing by eliminating the need for human voice actors. It could also speed up the process by generating dialogue more quickly than human actors. AI-generated voices could potentially improve accuracy by generating dialogue that perfectly matches the lip movements.

However, AI-generated voices may not be able to fully replace human voice actors in all scenarios in the foreseeable future. There are certain nuances and emotions that only a human actor can convey through their voice.

From a legal perspective, there are also important implications of AI for copyright law. In general, copyright law protects original creative works by granting exclusive rights to the creators of those works. However, the use of AI in the creation of creative works raises questions about who the actual creator of a work is, and whether the use of AI algorithms to create a work is sufficient to qualify for copyright protection.

These are complex legal issues that are still being explored by legal experts and policymakers. As AI continues to evolve and become more prevalent in creative fields, it is likely that copyright law will need to adapt to ensure that creators and artists are adequately protected.

A NEW ROLE FOR LOCALIZATION COMPANIES

Media entertainment providers tend to prefer working with fewer vendors based on master service agreements, pushing localization providers into offering more adjacent services, such as mastering, versioning, distribution and more.

The most forward-thinking localization companies are outgrowing the traditional, transaction-based language services concept. Much like the role local film distributors had before the streaming revolution, we are increasingly becoming strategic partners and advisors for our customers’ global needs.

By offering shows and movies that resonate with local audiences, video streaming providers can deepen the connection that subscribers feel to their service, which can lead to increased loyalty and higher retention rates. Another factor driving the trend towards original local content is the need to comply with local content regulations in many countries. Many governments require streaming providers to produce a certain percentage of local content as a condition of doing business in their countries.

DOWNWARD PRICE PRESSURE

The language industry, including the media localization segment, is highly fragmented, with many small and medium-sized companies competing for a share of the market, resulting in a reverse “auction-type” of situation, where suppliers compete for the buyer’s business by underbidding one another.

This increase in competition among localization providers has led to lower prices for buyers, while at the same time, translators, who are in high demand, often refuse to work for the usual rates or choose to leave the industry.

Many established Localization companies face talent shortages and struggle with too high workloads and tight or unachievable deadlines. Despite fierce competition for resources as well as customers, companies are not intent on owning the majority of the market share and often sub-contract to other localization companies to meet targets and deadlines.

While new entrants may disrupt the industry and threaten large companies that have significant control in the market by introducing innovation, offering products or services at a lower cost, targeting niche markets, being more flexible and agile, and introducing disruptive business models, the trend is towards competitive collaboration and frequent buyouts and consolidations. This trend of Mergers and Acquisitions may in turn change the market dynamic.

WE ARE IN A GOOD SPOT

The language services industry has all the features of an industry that will attract funding from private equity and venture capital investors. Highly fragmented and with consistent revenue growth even in years such as 2022, a somewhat annus horribilis for many industries.

With geopolitical uncertainty, a looming energy crisis in Europe and global inflation, the global language industry remained resilient and private equity was very active in 2022 as language and localization companies are also perceived as the beneficiaries of the ongoing AI boom as most of us already have a deep understanding of how AI can be added to real-world, useful workflows.

Concluding on an optimistic note – a dynamic company that recently caught my attention are the developers of subtitling and digital management software platforms. Their understanding of the industry’s requirements ahead of time concerning dubbing and subtitling engaged my interest. Profuz Digital’s CEO Ivanka Vassileva told me she saw the need for hybrid (human-enabled) live subtitling services that expand outside of the traditional media industry. It can be used in many other areas such as for online meetings, where automatic transcription and translation have already been incorporated via online meeting platform providers.

Ivanka shares her insight on the dubbing subtitling topic here, “Our approach is that dubbing and subtitling processes should be organised in parallel within the same platform, and not separately, as we’re currently still seeing majority of the time. The preparation work needs to be synchronised and shared, as this greatly improves quality and final delivery of the material, including content that has been both dubbed and subtitled. Recent Oscar award-winning winning films “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” illustrates how to creatively use dubbing and subtitling effectively at the same time to enhance a viewer’s experience.”

Furthermore, Ivanka notes, “What is very exciting is that dubbing services applications are finally extending outside of traditional movie dubbing alone. Dubbing is now used by TV and radio broadcasters, streaming operators, corporates, and others, which opens it up to a wider audience and endless opportunities. So echoing Bente’s thoughts, Dubbing and Subtitling is most certainly in a good spot and well-placed for organisations to invest.”

www.titles-on.com
www.profuzdigital.com

Hellenic American College in Greece applauds SubtitleNEXT Workshop for empowering AVT students with career-boosting insights

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SubtitleNEXT recently held a dynamic customised workshop at the Hellenic American College in Athens to help prepare their ambitious AVT students destined for careers in competitive translation and creative industries.

Following a recent request from AVT teacher, translator and subtitler Alexandra Papamanoli for a dedicated subtitling workshop session for her students, the SubtitleNEXT team enthusiastically jumped into action to present a helpful workshop session.

The SubtitleNEXT Workshop presented the latest features in the system to inspire budding AVT pros how to further enhance their skills and streamline their work in real-life projects.

The SubtitleNEXT platform equips the future generation with tools that localize content for every major studio, OTT platform, and broadcast company, at the pace defined by fast growing global consumer demand.

The Hellenic college invested in the SubtitleNEXT system back in 2019, making it the very first college in Greece to offer the platform for its Masters in Translation (MAT) Program and Audio-visual Translation Lab.

The MAT is one of 14 academic degree programs of the US-accredited Hellenic American University which the College offers in Greece. Students in the MAT program acquire the credentials to begin a career in translation, audio-visual translation and editing.

The MAT Lab was originally using freeware before upgrading to the SubtitleNEXT platform for its program. The recent SubtitleNEXT Workshop therefore covered key aspects of subtitling, including the differences between using freeware and professional subtitling software platforms such as SubtitleNEXT.

The session outlined how SubtitleNEXT plays a major role in helping students with the technical aspects of subtitling such as timing, checking and fixing subtitles.

Alexandra noted, “These topics can be quite challenging for students, and it was really useful for them to see how SubtitleNEXT can simplify key aspects of their work. We thank the team for their ongoing support and enjoyed the workshop immensely as it was informative and productive.” 

SubtitleNEXT continues to be embraced by student and teacher alike at Hellenic College, as adding immense value to the MAT program, ensuring students have access to performance-leading professional programs that conform to industry standards.

Back in 2020, at the start of the pandemic, with the cooperation of the SubtitleNEXT team, the educational set-up at the Hellenic College was quickly adapted for remote working and virtual study.

With the help of the SubtitleNEXT platform, chosen for the Masters in Translation (MAT) Program and Audio-visual Translation Lab, students were still able to continue working on SubtitleNEXT remotely to complete their courses without disruption throughout 2020 during the Covid pandemic and beyond.

“We were proud that due to the powerful features in SubtitleNEXT as well as the collective team spirit, this allowed students to continue their learning, and enabled them to progress to the next stage of their educational journey.” PBT EU’s CEO Ivanka Vassileva said.

The university was developed to facilitate modern learning methods, and is situated on a 16,000m² campus outside Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece with an uninterrupted history of 2,300 years.

The college boasts state-of-the-art facilities, such as virtual classrooms, electronic library, IT labs, Digital Manufacturing and Materials Characterisation Laboratory and Molecular Ecology/Molecular Biology Lab create an environment conducive for higher learning and research for students.

SubtitleNEXT is a flexible subtitling timed-text system that can run on a wide range of hardware. It is a popular and affordable system that is highly regarded for captioning live events and offline content. It can stream content in multiple formats that are suitable for linear broadcasting, including VOD platforms and social media platforms. Defined as a dependable subtitling software platform, it is no surprise as to why SubtitleNEXT is referred to by many professionals today as the “subtitler’s lifesaver.” Delivering to high industry standards, the system has an array of immediate resourceful tools and features.

The SubtitleNEXT subtitling platform provides subtitling professionals with many toolsets that can significantly enhance their work, one example being the “live dictation” function which can be used in live subtitling workflows in order to caption news and events in real time which is quite an exciting new development. Many more exciting features have been released and more are on the horizon for 2022-2023. The team at SubtitleNEXT support hearing impaired charities and have a great interest at making their lives easier by supporting Bulgaria’s Listen Up organisation which champions their cause to be heard.

Filmmakers and broadcasters can benefit from subtitling software that provides them with flexibility so they can enjoy a seamless in-house network to share live output across multiple different production teams on a global scale. With reliable and affordable software systems on the market, subtitling is not burdensome or expensive.

SubtitleNEXT already has a proven track record of success. The company continues to support customers anywhere in the world, owing to its flexibility and remote capabilities. The SubtitleNEXT platform is used for both offline and real-time captioning for all kinds of media formats. Some of the many organisations, that have already adopted SubtitleNEXT include Titles-On, EMG, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, Polsat, Kino Polska, University of Rome Tor Vergata, the University of Warsaw, University of Ghent, European School of Translation, Max Live Media Access, Biovisjon, IT Pros Subtitles, Doli Media Studio, Cube Cinema Technologies, Tring TV, Bulgarian National Television, Canal Plus Myanmar, AMC, HD Media, European School of Translation, the Complutense University of Madrid, and many others.

Keep an eye on the SubtitleNEXT website for updates in 2022 as there is lots in store with exciting new features and tools on the horizon. www.SubtitleNEXT.com

Comments about the sessions are most welcome including how they have helped you in your work, future ideas you would like to see covered and also things you feel we can improve on whether it be in the presentation itself or the tools and features. Please send your feedback to sales@subtitleNEXT.com as we appreciate hearing from you.

What do subtitling professionals around the world think of SubtitleNEXT?

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For those not yet familiar, SubtitleNEXT is a highly popular and affordable subtitling system that is used for captioning live events and offline content in real time. SubtitleNEXT streams content in multiple formats attuned for linear broadcasting, including Video On Demand and social media platforms. Delivering to high industry standards, it boasts an array of immediate resourceful tools and features.

Defined as an exceptionally dependable subtitling software platform, it is no surprise as to why SubtitleNEXT is referred to by many professionals today as the “subtitler’s lifesaver.”

Following SubtitleNEXT’s successful virtual presence at APTRAD and Languages & the Media digital events last year, suggestions were made at both events, by prominent subtitling professional to run a series of workshops to help equip subtitlers out there, with new ideas to help enhance skillset efficiency.

The SubtitleNEXT team responded with enthusiasm and held a series of informative hourly Friday digital workshops that were completely free of charge for attendees, these are summarised at the end where a You Tube link is provided for those who could not attend at the time.

We caught up with some of the industry’s brilliant and talented subtitlers who attended the SubtitleNEXT workshops, APTRAD and other subtitling forums, in order to gauge their opinions of the SubtitleNEXT subtitling system currently taking the AVT world by storm.

SubtitleNEXT’s advanced features set it apart in the Cloud

APTRAD raffle winner at SubtitleNEXT’s virtual booth, Portuguese translator Paulo Fernando, who specialises in audiovisual translation, namely subtitle translation and creation, said this is an area he has been fully dedicated to for 18 years. He has collaborated with several companies, ranging from small local companies to large OTT Language Serviced Providers in a plethora of subjects, with his favourite genres being animation, certain documentaries, and fantasy.

He briefly shared his thoughts on SubtitleNEXT, “I had heard of SubtitleNEXT and PBTEU before, but only came in contact with the software at their virtual booth at APTRAD’s first international audiovisual translation conference in Portugal, where my curiosity was further enticed into other audiovisual areas I could branch out into, like voice-over or Respeaking, and now I’m counting on SubtitleNEXT as a partner in these new avenues.”

Paulo added, “SubtitleNEXT is a highly customisable software platform, designed for subtitlers, offering all the features a professional subtitling tool is expected to offer today, with a large array of exporting subtitle formats. It handles multiple media formats and all the editing and timing options.

In all honesty, what I think is interesting about the software are the options and opportunities it provides, with regards to contemplating the future, so to speak.

In today’s day and age, when the cloud capabilities and proprietary software of some large OTT companies and distributors reign, the “basics,” so to say, implies that features of subtitling software are covered. Therefore, I think that the more advanced features will set the software apart in this area, and SubtitleNEXT is already setting a trend!

I’d like to point out the precision of the software too in detecting spot changes, including the use of customisable styles for creative subtitles, without resorting to third party software, and its Dictation mode all impress me. These are all extremely promising features in speech recognition and possibly the next big step forward technologically for the audiovisual translation industry. Respeaking is something that’s just starting to be talked about in some sectors, but it’s already applicable in SubtitleNEXT.”

SubtitleNEXT is the first system subtitlers turn to

SubtitleNEXT Workshop raffle winner Zoya Katsoeva is an experienced audiovisual translator, who specialises in subtitling. She translates subtitles for features, television series, and documentaries for many major streaming services.

After attending the SubtitleNEXT Friday workshops, the team caught up with her to find out how she was getting on. She outlines her experience using SubtitleNEXT, “I merit SubtitleNEXT for all the settings that are available. I also like the extensive range of technical options the SubtitleNEXT platform provides. Whenever I need to work using my own software, not my client’s online platforms, and when the source subtitles are not perfect, and require a lot of retiming and repositioning around shot changes and so forth, SubtitleNEXT comes to my rescue and is the very first software program I reach out for.”

Alba Multimedia introduces SubtitleNEXT to Russia’s AVT community

ALBA Multimedia is a translation firm based in Russia that offers high quality translation and interpreting services to individuals and corporations worldwide. They recently partnered with PBT EU as an exclusive reseller of SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT products within the region which marks a major expansion in footprint for the software.

Successful debut of SubtitleNEXT at “Translation Forum Russia” with ALBA Multimedia, as major partner of the event , August 2021, Courtesy ALBA Multimedia

Following the partnership, the SubtitleNEXT team launched an initiative with ALBA Multimedia recently that involved a SubtitleNEXT presentation, quiz, and a raffle. The winner was AV specialist Uliana Gorshineva, who tried out SubtitleNEXT. With SubtitleNEXT entering a brand-new market, it was interesting to receive her feedback on the industry as a whole and her trust in PBT EU’s partner and excellent products they represent.

Uliana noted, “I have been specialising in audiovisual translation for several years, and I like following the news in this sphere so that I know what features the software developers have added to subtitling software. But sometimes it might be a problem to find the software that would meet all the requirements of the project and would have a variety of different functions.

It is also interesting for me to find out what software is used by professional translation agencies and dubbing studios.

I always follow the social media of ALBA (I get notifications of their new posts) as they always publish some interesting and up-to-date information.

The audiovisual translation market is growing rapidly, and I want to keep abreast of its innovations. Alba’s team are real professionals, so I want to keep up with them, and it is twice as pleasant that I can get first-hand information from them.”

New SubtitleNEXT version 5.11 enables direct translation from audio in real time

A major new feature that stands out in SubtitleNEXT V5.11 allows for the direct translation from audio in real time. This significant capability can be used for automatic translation work and to generate subtitles directly from sound.

In addition, the new version of SubtitleNEXT provides users with the ability to self-administrate their own licenses, namely static licenses, used offline on one PC, or in a dynamic capacity that requires sign-in. The licensing models can be switched between licensing modes, as required. Other highlights include streaming of subtitles to Zoom, irrespective of text length.


An inspiring note from CEO Ivanka Vassileva

 

PBT EU’s CEO Ivanka Vassileva comments, “We have had an incredible start to 2022 already, despite the challenges the pandemic situation still presents. We continue to listen to our valued customers, academics, and localisation professionals concerning the industry’s growing needs. Our focus is always on our customers, and we’ve already been hard at work on new developments to meet the challenging demands and tight turnaround times that our customers face. The new user-friendly tools and resourceful features in our latest version 5.11 of SubtitleNEXT provides users with excellent advantages. This coming year holds many opportunities for subtitling pros out there.”

 

Watch the SubtitleNEXT Friday Workshops on You Tube

The SubtitleNEXT Workshop sessions, presented by developer Kamen Ferdinandov covered fundamental areas in subtitling such as creating subtitles from scratch, through to tips on how to improve efficiency across skills such as checking, editing, correcting, fixing, and finalising subtitles for delivery. Further tips were shared on how to translate subtitles more efficiently, how to creatively style and format subtitles using SubtitleNEXT and how subtitlers can use SubtitleNEXT for live subtitling of TV shows, live events, online meetings, and video streaming platforms. The workshops also helped familiarise attendees on how companies and teams can collaborate and successfully perform online subtitling with NEXT-TT and SubtitleNEXT used in tandem. The workshops outlined NEXT-TT’s innovative management features that are specifically designed to help subtitlers are equipped with the latest generation subtitling tools and knowledge skillsets required to enhance the incredible work they do.

Recordings of the SubtitleNEXT Workshops are available on You Tube so you can catch up: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFMPWFADMbyUopPfcb_uK-5EUo7LYhpem

Who uses SubtitleNEXT?

SubtitleNEXT already has a proven track record of success. The team at SubtitleNEXT support hearing impaired charities and have a great interest at making people’s lives easier by supporting Bulgaria’s Listen Up organisation which champions the important cause to be heard.

Throughout the entire pandemic, SubtitleNEXT’s team have continued to support customers, owing to its flexibility and remote capabilities. Many of the companies that have already adopted SubtitleNEXT include Polsat, Kino Polska, OiV in Croatia, AMC in Hungary, Hayat, HD Media, OBN, University of Warsaw, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Doli Media Studio and The European School of Translation. Others include Europe’s largest Belgium-based production company Videohouse where SubtitleNEXT was used for well-known TV series such as Big Little Lies, Sirens, Vikings, and others.

 

Keep us updated on how you use SubtitleNEXT

If you use SubtitleNEXT and would like to tell us your story or share a recent project you worked on using SubtitleNEXT, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us at marketing@pbteu.com

 

SubtitleNEXT Series of Friday Workshops prove to be a Hit providing subtitlers with key tools and skillsets to tackle real live projects

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To round off a successful 2021, following SubtitleNEXT’s virtual presence at successful APTRAD and Languages & the Media digital events this year, suggestions were made by professional subtitlers for the team to run a series of workshops.

SubtitleNEXT responded with enthusiasm and the devoted team got to work and ran a series of informative free online workshops, which took place for an hour, every Friday from October 15th.

The series comprised of eight sessions were hosted by the developer and creator of SubtitleNEXT Kamen Ferdinandov. They were an enormous success, with a fantastic turnout of attendees, that interacted and engaged in the Q&A that took place after each session.

Key feature topics were covered across the 8 comprehensive Friday workshops, summarised below:

  • The October 15th SubtitleNEXT Workshop demonstrated how to create subtitles from scratch or from a source.
  • The October 22nd SubtitleNEXT Workshop gave subtitlers tips on how to work more efficiently when checking, editing, correcting, fixing and finalising subtitles for delivery.
  • The October 29th SubtitleNEXT Workshop covered ideas on how to work more efficiently when translating subtitles.
  • The November 5th SubtitleNEXT Workshop revealed how to creatively style and format subtitles using SubtitleNEXT.
  • The November 19th SubtitleNEXT Workshop taught subtitlers an array of valuable tools and skills such as how to use SubtitleNEXT for live subtitling of TV shows, live events, online meetings and video streaming platforms.
  • The November 26th SubtitleNEXT Workshop familiarised viewers with how companies and teams can collaborate and successfully perform online subtitling with NEXT-TT and SubtitleNEXT.
  • The December 3rd SubtitleNEXT Workshop outlined NEXT-TT’s innovative management features to help subtitlers gear up and be well-prepared to confidently face 2022 and the challenges ahead in their upcoming projects.
  • The final SubtitleNEXT Workshop on December 10th, included a bit of festive cheer, concluding with a quiz for participants to enter the raffle for a chance to win a free SubtitleNEXT license. This final session of the year ensured subtitlers were armed with the latest generation subtitling tools and knowledge skillsets they need to enhance their work.

Recordings of the SubtitleNEXT Workshops can be found on You Tube for those who missed out: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFMPWFADMbyUopPfcb_uK-5EUo7LYhpem

SubtitleNEXT is a highly popular and affordable system that is used for captioning live events and offline content in real time. It can stream content in multiple formats that are suitable for linear broadcasting, including VOD platforms and social media platforms. Defined as an exceptionally dependable subtitling software platform, it is no surprise as to why SubtitleNEXT is referred to by many professionals today as the “subtitler’s lifesaver.” Delivering to high industry standards, the system has an array of immediate resourceful tools and features.

The SubtitleNEXT subtitling platform provides subtitling professionals with many toolsets that can significantly enhance their work, one example being the “live dictation” function which can be used in live subtitling workflows in order to caption news and events in real time which is quite an exciting new development. Many more exciting features have been released and more are on the horizon for 2021. The team at SubtitleNEXT support hearing impaired charities and have a great interest at making their lives easier by supporting Bulgaria’s Listen Up organisation which champions their cause to be heard.

Filmmakers and broadcasters can benefit from subtitling software that provides them with flexibility so they can enjoy a seamless in-house network to share live output across multiple different production teams on a global scale. With reliable and affordable software systems on the market, subtitling is not burdensome or expensive.

SubtitleNEXT already has a proven track record of success. Throughout the entire pandemic, it has continued to support customers, owing to its flexibility and remote capabilities. Many of the companies that have already adopted SubtitleNEXT include Polsat, Kino Polska, OiV in Croatia, Listen Up in Bulgaria, AMC in Hungary, Hayat, HD Media, OBN, University of Warsaw, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Doli Media Studio and The European School of Translation. Others include Europe’s largest Belgium-based production company Videohouse where SubtitleNEXT was used for well-known TV series such as Big Little Lies, Sirens, Vikings, and others.

Keep an eye on the SubtitleNEXT website for updates in 2022 as there is lots in store with exciting new features and tools on the horizon. www.SubtitleNEXT.com

Happy New Year and all the best of success in 2022 – continue learning more about subtitling from the SubtitleNEXT team!

Comments about the sessions are most welcome including how they have helped you in your work, future ideas you would like to see covered and also things you feel we can improve on whether it be in the presentation itself or the tools and features. Please send your feedback to sales@subtitleNEXT.com as we appreciate hearing from you.

Subtitling enriches the best of both worlds of Noise and Silence

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We live in a world of noise. We experience busy cities, bustling towns, crowded service stations, hectic roads, airports, and shopping malls. Loud announcements, traffic, road repairs and planes flying by, all bombard our air space with decibels that drown out what we might be trying to listen to or watch on screen at the time. Even at airports or railway stations, for example, schedule announcements are constantly interrupting our concentration. Wherever we are, be it at home, or on the road, we are regularly faced with visuals that seem to scream at us vociferously – from large giant plasma screens, bright flashing digital signage ads through to our own home televisions, laptops, or mobile phone screens.
Whether we are able to hear or have impaired hearing, we can find ourselves in blaring environments that make it very difficult and challenging to hear a news broadcast we might be playing that we need to concentrate on, or a message we want to hear on our phone. The solution is clear – we simply just need to switch on the subtitles in our preferred language, and they immediately allow us to step into a new world of clarity.
Subtitles play a hugely important role in making us feel included in all situations and help us to still take part despite the clamour around us. Whether we are watching a news broadcast on a public TV screen with a lot of background noise or trying to watch a movie on our laptop in a busy airport lounge or as a hearing-impaired person attending a conference or watching a movie at the cinema or a play at the theatre, subtitles help to bridge the communication gap and welcome everyone in to the circle of communication.
Following new regulations for broadcasters that require AV content to be made accessible to everyone, including hearing-impaired people, subtitling is finally being recognised as essential, making subtitles a valuable asset to programme makers.

Imagine being in a world where your sense of hearing has completely gone, and a wall of silence surrounds you wherever you go. It can be a lonely, isolating, and frightening place if you are not able to sense what is being communicated in a public space and if you feel cut off from everything. In this scenario, it is important that everyone is included and has access to public messages in public places, as well as being able to access news, plays, movies and television programmes, just as much as everyone else can and this can be achieved via subtitling options.
Hearing loss is an extremely important subject. The more it is brought to the forefront of debates, even if awareness is raised in the form of a sci-fi movie, for example, the better society will learn to take great care of those who struggle with their hearing. To raise awareness of the experiences that our hearing-impaired friends and loved ones endure is vital.
Owing to the disruptive chaos caused by the health crisis, it is a positive move in media to see more stories focusing on marginalised groups and demographics within the mainstream.
Empathy can be evoked, and perceptions can be changed by more nuanced cinematic depictions of what deaf people have to live with. Recent films that touch on this well include Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck (2017) and Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal (2019). In addition, Coda is another movie worth mentioning and is this year’s most anticipated drama release about a deaf family that live and work on the Eastern Coast of the United States. John Krasinski’s directorial debut, A Quiet Place (2018) has proven to be a great success for the deaf and hard of hearing community with deaf co-star Millicent Simmonds and the film’s use of American Sign Language throughout. This engaging thriller glances into a world where silence is golden, and where sound brings grave danger in a post-apocalyptic America, where the characters have to move in absolute silence to avoid alerting a mysterious pack of creatures that have intense levels of hearing.
Sound and silence become personified as characters in the film, helping to build up the tension, with the camera enabling the viewer to see a different perspective and to hear the world through the ears of the protagonist. These scenes powerfully help to shine a spotlight on the personal struggles people with hearing loss have to cope with. The scenes portray the sheer courage required to navigate through a silent world and depict the very real challenges that hearing loss can present to people in multiple situations.
These excellent films have brought the issue out in the open, giving deaf people the visibility they deserve. Hopefully these brilliant movies will inspire more filmmakers to look to the deaf and hard of hearing community in creative ways and to use subtitling to be more inclusive to everyone including those who speak different languages.
Filmmakers and broadcasters can benefit from subtitling software that provides them with flexibility so they can enjoy a seamless in-house network to share live output across multiple different production teams on a global scale. With reliable and affordable software systems on the market, subtitling is not burdensome or expensive.
SubtitleNEXT is a very popular and affordable system that is used for captioning live events and offline content in real time. It can stream content in multiple formats that are suitable for linear broadcasting, including VOD platforms and social media platforms. Defined as an exceptionally dependable subtitling software platform, it is no surprise as to why SubtitleNEXT is referred to by many professionals today as the “subtitler’s lifesaver.” Delivering to high industry standards, the system has an array of immediate resourceful tools and features.

The SubtitleNEXT subtitling platform provides subtitling professionals with many toolsets that can significantly enhance their work, one example being the “live dictation” function which can be used in live subtitling workflows in order to caption news and events in real time which is quite an exciting new development. Many more exciting features have been released and more are on the horizon for 2021. The team at SubtitleNEXT support hearing impaired charities and have a great interest at making their lives easier by supporting Bulgaria’s Listen Up organisation which champions their cause to be heard.
SubtitleNEXT already has a proven track record of success. Throughout the entire pandemic, it has continued to support customers, owing to its flexibility and remote capabilities. Many of the companies that have already adopted SubtitleNEXT include Polsat, Kino Polska, OiV in Croatia, Listen Up in Bulgaria, AMC in Hungary, Hayat, HD Media, OBN, University of Warsaw, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Doli Media Studio and The European School of Translation. Others include Europe’s largest Belgium-based production company Videohouse where SubtitleNEXT was used for well-known TV series such as Big Little Lies, Sirens, Vikings, and others.
SubtitleNEXT user, Veronique Denis creates accessible audio-visual content for the hearing and visually impaired and is an accessibility professional and specialist in real-time subtitling and Co-founder of Max Live Media Access Services in Belgium. She shares, “We strongly believe in media accessibility and in the fact that if you open up content for a smaller group, such as people with hearing impairment, there’s always a much larger group that can benefit from it as well. Think of the mother rocking her baby to sleep while watching a video or a neurodivergent person who gets overwhelmed at a busy railway station trying to obtain information. With today’s technological possibilities, which SubtitleNEXT showcases perfectly, not providing subtitling is almost equal to actively choosing to exclude a part of society. Luckily, over the last few years, awareness for inclusive media has increased and subtitles are now often expected as a standard service. This may be challenging for broadcasters wanting to meet accessibility standards and who want their content subtitled on different platforms. SubtitleNEXT enables us to meet broadcasters’ demands and high standards by being our one stop shop for all of our subtitling needs: live, semi-live or pre-recorded, the result is always of high quality.”

Veronique Denis, Co-founder,Max Live Media Access Services

Sonya Chakarova who is the Sales and Marketing Director at Pro Systems adds, “We are impressed with PBT EU’s refreshing approach and their impact in the broadcast sector with SubtitleNEXT. This remarkable software platform is playing a relevant role, not only in exceptionally constructive and helpful areas such as advancing accessibility for the hearing-impaired, but also in helping to improve communication and boost subtitling creativity in the broadcasting, media, and creative industries with a viable and affordable solution.”

Sonya Chakarova, Sales and Marketing Director, Pro Systems
Visit www.SubtitleNEXT.com for further updates.

Subtitling recognised as essential to Broadcasters to meet Accessibility Goals

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New regulations have come into force that require audio-visual content to be made accessible to everyone, includinghearing-impaired people. As a consequence, this has generated a seismic shift in the broadcast industry’s attitude towards subtitles, resulting in increased demand for subtitling and captioning solutions. Broadcasters all around the worldnow have to ensure that their scheduled programmes have sufficient subtitling to meet these new guidelines.

Optimistically, subtitling is finally being recognised as essential, and no longer merely an optional add-on, as previously perceived. This positive move has revealed how valuable subtitles are to programme makers and filmmakers, as they not only promote growth, but they also dramatically increase profits by reaching out to vast global audiences in different languages.

Until recently, regulators only specified legal targets for linear channels. With OTT platforms dominating the market, the focus on regulating access services is switching to this area of content delivery.  Targets for accessibility are set by regulatory bodies in each country. For example, in the UK the targets are set by Ofcom, and other regulators include ACMA in Australia, FCC in North America, CRTC in Canada, CSA in France and CNMC in Spain.

However, meeting these guidelines can seem like a daunting challenge for broadcasters that have to work in fast-paced environments that demand constant live content and consistently updated news. This is where companies such as PBT EU come in and can confidently ensure that their broadcast customers are well-prepared ahead of time, to meet these obligations.

CEO of PBT EU Ivanka Vassileva notes, “There is a growing understanding of accessibility, and the definition is broad – from motor disabilities, sensory, to cognitive, the key element is to ensure that content is made accessible to everybody and that no one is excluded. Broadcasters need software that provides them with flexibility so they can enjoy a seamless in-house network to share live output across multiple different production teams on a global scale. With reliable and affordable software systems on the market like SubtitleNEXT, subtitling should no longer be a regulatory burden for broadcasters. SubtitleNEXT is a convenient all-in-one solution that can be used for captioning live events and offline content in real time. It can stream content in multiple formats that are suitable for linear broadcasting, including VOD platforms and social media platforms.”

SubtitleNEXT can also be set up to be based around remote working. Working in live news environments, a system enabling subtitlers to have access to newsrooms running orders is vital, as is the ability to deal with late schedule changes and breaking news.

In addition, it is crucial that skilled professionals working in subtitling have a good command of the language they are working in with regards to spelling and grammar.  Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is becoming more prominent and used by many of PBT EU’s partners and customers such as Linxstream in Dubai and AppTek in the States. AppTek hasintegrated its award-winning NMT, ASR and Intelligent Line Segmentation (ILS) technologies directly into SubtitleNEXT captioning, subtitling and localization platform, further enhancing SubtitleNEXT’s subtitling and captioning workflows.

Veronique Denis is a well-respected accessibility professional and specialist in real-time subtitling with speech recognition and also Co-founder of Max Live Media Access Services in Belgium. She has already been creating accessible audiovisual content for the hearing and visually impaired since 2015. She shares her thoughts on the topic of media accessibility, “Over the last few years, people have started consuming media in a different way: they consume audiovisual content anywhere and anytime. This is challenging for broadcasters wanting to meet accessibility standards and want their content subtitled on different platforms. SubtitleNEXT enables us to meet broadcasters’ demands and high standards by being our one stop shop for all of our subtitling needs: live, semi–live or pre–recorded, the result is always of high quality.”

Sonya Chakarova who is the Sales and Marketing Director at Pro Systems adds, “We are impressed with PBT EU’s refreshing approach and their impact in the broadcast sector with SubtitleNEXT. This remarkable software platform is playing a relevant role, not only in exceptionally constructive and helpful areas such as advancing accessibility for the hearing-impaired, but also in helping to improve communication and boost subtitling creativity in the broadcasting, media, and creative industries with a viable and affordable solution.”

When it comes to film and television production, Professor Agnieszka Szarkowska who works at the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw, passionately believes that subtitling is a creative process which requires ample time, experience, and imagination and believes that in order toensure the highest quality in subtitling, filmmakers should be interested in how their subtitled films can “speak” to audiences across the globe. She told the SubtitleNEXT team that she believes subtitling is crucial for the international success of a film, or TV series. “And yet”, she says, “It is surprising how little attention filmmakers typically allocate to subtitling, which – from their perspective – is probably merely an afterthought, a minor part of the post-production process.”

Professor Szarkowska adds further, “I am surprised how many content owners tend to downplay the role of subtitling by resourcing it to people with no experience or by allocating scant amount of funding for subtitling. Filmmakers and content owners need to realise that good quality subtitling is an excellent investment, a brilliant way for their films to travel across borders, and definitely not something where they would want to cut  costs.

Having put so much effort into creating credible film dialogues, filmmakers wouldn’t want their text to be stifled by unidiomatic turn of phrase and poorly synchronised subtitles. When done unprofessionally, subtitling – instead of enabling the viewers immersion into the story world – only shatters their suspension of disbelief, annoys them, makes them switch off and feel disappointed with the film as a whole.”

Defined as an exceptionally dependable subtitling software platform, it is no surprise as to why SubtitleNEXT is referred to by many professionals today as the “subtitler’s lifesaver.” Delivering to high industry standards, the system has an array of immediate resourceful tools and features.

SubtitleNEXT already has a proven track record of success. Throughout the entire pandemic, it has continued to support customers, owing to its flexibility and remote capabilities. Many of the companies that have already adopted SubtitleNEXT include Polsat, Kino Polska, OiV in Croatia, Listen Up in Bulgaria, AMC in Hungary, Hayat, HD Media, OBN, University of Warsaw, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Doli Media Studio and The European School of Translation. Others include Europe’s largest Belgium-based production company Videohouse where SubtitleNEXT was used for well-known TV series such as Big Little Lies, Sirens, Vikings, and others.

Recently Spain’s UCM and Hellenic American College of Greece adopted SubtitleNEXT to equip Masters in Translation students with key localization skills to prepare future subtitlers with a definitive career path to face the pace of demand in the translation and creative industries.

The SubtitleNEXT subtitling platform provides subtitling professionals with many toolsets that can significantly enhance their work, one example being the “live dictation” function which can be used in live subtitling workflows in order to caption news and events in real time which is quite an exciting new development. Many more exciting features have been released and more are on the horizon for 2021.

Visit www.SubtitleNEXT.com for further updates on the latestnews and join the SubtitleNEXT club to stay in the “know”.

More about Ivanka Vassileva, CEO of PBT EU, please visitwww.pbteu.com  

CONTRIBUTORS’ CREDITS



Picture courtesy Liesje Brockley Photograph

 

“The Minari Controversy”

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Following the Korean-language movie success of Parasite, which made history in 2020 by becoming the first film in a foreign language to win a best picture Oscar, new American film Minari received a Golden Globe and is now the talk of Tinseltown.

It was directed by American film director / screenwriter Lee Isaac Chung and filmed in America. Minari is unlike “Parasite,” which was a dark satire about class and society in South Korea.

The SubtitleNEXT team approached a few prominent professional language specialists in the industry to get their views on Minari, with regards to subtitles and the awards controversy generally.

The Director of Localization of the Americas at Pixelogic Media as well as the co-founder and Administrator of ATA’s Audiovisual Division, Deborah Wexler offered to share her thoughts on the topic.

Deborah comments on what the Minari controversy is all about, “Minari is an American movie by an American writer filmed in the United States. The film portrays the life of an immigrant family from Korea with two different American Dreams (the wife’s and the husband’s), but seemingly with no place for both. Minari won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Picture instead of Best Picture.”

Deborah further points out, “Because most of the movie’s dialogue is in Korean, it does not qualify for the Best Picture category. According to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association rules: ‘Motion picture dramas, musicals or comedies with 50% or more English dialogue are eligible for the Best Motion Picture – Drama or Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy awards.’” ¹(See Footnote)

“To add fuel to the fire,” Deborah says, “It appears as though there have been exceptions to the rule, and those exceptions were not made for Minari.”

Deborah continues, “The diverse linguistic backgrounds of the US population create the engine that keeps pumping rich and vibrant words that are embraced by the English language as a whole. Some languages have the same number of words in their dictionary as they did three decades ago, but English just keeps expanding its vocabulary.

With the explosion of international  content creation, I would understand if the HFPA felt the need to distinguish between an American film award and an international film award to create a clear geographical distinction (with its own caveats, mind you).

If that is the goal, then one of the possible solutions would be to distinguish language from country of production. Perhaps something like Best Foreign Picture and Best American Picture. That would take language out of the equation.”

Deborah remarks, “This controversy reminds me of a joke I heard back when I was a kid:

[Jill: “I am French and speak French.”

Jack: “I am English and speak English.”

Paul: “I am American and speak English.”

Jack: “Why don’t you speak ‘American,’ Paul?”]

I think Minari does speak ‘American,’ Jack.”


On the topic concerning subtitling, a film like Minari is certainly good news for boosting subtitles as Professor Agnieszka Szarkowska, who works at the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw, believes that in order to ensure the highest quality in subtitling, filmmakers should be interested in how their subtitled films can “speak” to audiences across the globe. “I think it’s great to see another success of a non-English speaking film reaching out to international audiences. I am happy to welcome more and more non-English language content which we can be accessed thanks to subtitles.”

Valentina Roldós is a subtitling and translation specialist based in Montevideo in Uruguay where her company Living Subtitles creates subtitles for films, television, DVD, VOD, and online streaming. She provides the following comments on Minari, “It started with Parasite, but once again a Korean-language film is making waves and challenging the mainstream cultural status quo. Minari is not a black comedy, but a sweet family drama. It cannot be just a coincidence that a new Korean-language film, also subtitled, is getting so much attention. Minari has already won multiple awards nominations, including the Golden Globes. It seems that things are definitely starting to change, and subtitles are starting to become more familiar for new audiences worldwide.”

Senior Researcher in Media Localization at the Computer Technology Institute & Press “Diophantus” in Greece, Dr Stavroula Sokoli shares her observations, “Interestingly, the film director of Minari, Lee Isaac Chung, considered making more of the film in English ‘to dodge the subtitling issue’. He had prepared a second version of the screenplay; in case he couldn’t get financing for a Korean-language film. According to Chung, it was thanks to the production company’s Plan B and the fact that its producer Christina Oh is also Korean American, that he was able to shoot in Korean. But maybe it’s also the fact that, especially after the success of foreign language films like Parasite, subtitles are not seen as such a big barrier any longer.”

Honorary Professor in Translation and Filmmaking at the University of Roehampton in the UK as well as Director of GALMA (Galician Observatory for Media Accessibility) at the Universidade de Vigo in Spain, Pablo Romero-Fresco notes, “Minari is a lovely film and I’m happy to see it’s been nominated for Best Picture at the forthcoming Oscars. It’s a modest but masterful film about the difficulty involved in sinking roots in a foreign land. It’s only fitting that it resorts to subtitles as the modest and deeply-rooted bridge that for so many years has enabled cinema to tell stories across languages and cultures.”

Footnote:

¹Golden Globe Awards Eligibility Descriptions. https://www.goldenglobes.com/sites/default/files/golden_globe_awards_eligibility_descriptions_2020_revisions_approved_3-19-20conformed_5-27-20.pdf

 

CONTRIBUTORS’ CREDITS

Multilingual Film Productions rely on efficient Subtitling

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SubtitleNEXT creator Kamen Ferdinandov talks through “what’s NEXT-TT in subtitling software to equip subtitlers”

Subtitles support upcoming filmmakers by providing accuracy and fluency. They play a vital role in ensuring that directors receive the recognition they deserve on the regional and international stage.

Subtitles are beginning to feature in international films. They help movie makers gain global recognition and even win awards.

Now in 2021, subtitles are a hugely important topic more than ever before. Subtitles recently hit the radar again with Minari receiving the Golden Globes award for best “Foreign language film”. The multi-Oscar award-winning South Korean black comedy thriller Parasite made history by winning best picture, a feat that no other subtitled film achieved in the 92-year history of the Academy Awards. The film’s director Bong Joon-ho used his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes to champion subtitles and encouraged audiences not to be put off by international films. He said that once audiences “overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” they will be introduced to so many amazing films, further noting that we use only one language: “the cinema.”

This outlook reflects the mindset of Profuz Digital’s CTO Kamen Ferdinandov, a passionate and inspiring developer who also believes in opening audiences up to a whole new world. By creating a subtitling application to help surpass language barriers, he hopes to make subtitling more widely accessible and user friendly.

SubtitleNEXT creator Kamen Ferdinandov discusses what’s next in subtitling software to equip subtitlers with efficient toolsets and achieve results that filmmakers require.

From the very beginning, Kamen wanted to make a platform available to everyone at every level. This meant it had to be equipped with familiar text-editing application tools. He set out to make the subtitling software-only platform SubtitleNEXT to achieve just this.

Kamen notes, “No longer are subtitles only deemed necessary for those with impaired hearing but are perceived as imperative to anyone wanting to watch content when in noisy places or with the sound off.”

He points out, “When conducting timed text representations of the spoken text in another language, in other words, translating spoken text from one language into written text into another language, especially in the audio-visual field, you need to pay attention to the time restrictions and cultural differences. Therefore subtitling is never pure text translation, as there should always be some adaptation involved in order to transmit the message of the speaker. However, localisation is key to account for the viewer’s cultural references. The SubtitleNEXT system we have created, offers many helpful tools to assist the translation and interpretation processes incorporated into the new Smart Text Assist features for example. The software offers alternatives and suggestions when preparing subtitles which facilitates translation and adaptation processes, but it also provides additional visual materials such as emojis and a variety of text formatting and styling features which are really useful when interpreting.”

 

Kamen established Profuz Digital back in 2014 with his colleague Ivanka Vassileva to develop software solutions for the digital media industry. With headquarters based in Toronto, they use their R&D Centre in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia as a technology hub. Ivanka is CEO of systems integration firm PBT EU in Bulgaria and naturally took the position of CEO of Profuz Digital as well.

Profuz Digital and its SubtitleNEXT team are constantly evolving to meet the needs of subtitlers. Kamen expands further, “SubtitleNEXT stems from a proven and well-established 30-year legacy based on world-wide renowned subtitling tool for broadcasters “SubtitlePlus”, which originally evolved from “Subtitle”, one of the first file-based subtitling tools. 2016 marked the year that SubtitlePlus quickly migrated to the fully-fledged product SubtitleNEXT that is used today by many subtitling professionals. By referencing a system as “legacy” means that it paved the way for the standards that would follow and that it is tried and tested, solid, trusted and a reliable product that has had time to prove itself to the market.”

SubtitleNEXT is used by the likes of the University of Warsaw, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Polsat, Doli Media Studio, The European School of Translation and Europe’s largest Belgium-based production company Videohouse, where it was used on well-known TV series such as Big Little Lies, Sirens, Vikings and many more. In addition, the Hellenic American College of Greece invested in SubtitleNEXT to equip Masters in Translation students with key localization skills to prepare future subtitlers with a definitive career path to face the pace of demand in the translation and creative industries.

Defined as reliable timed-text subtitling software, it is no surprise why SubtitleNEXT is referred to by many professionals today as the “subtitler’s lifesaver”. Delivering to high industry standards, the system has an array of immediate resourceful tools and features. Available in a single compact application, it punches above its weight and can be put to work on heavy deadline-driven workloads.

Primarily aimed at audio-visual translation freelance professionals, through to Language Services Providers, production, post-production companies and broadcasters, SubtitleNEXT has proven itself as a time-saving, but also a productive profit-making product to media organisations worldwide.

Another exciting offering on the market is the localisation platform NEXT-TT – Profuz Digital’s complete cloud solution that combines SubtitleNEXT with Profuz LAPIS – already adopted by the likes of Canal + Myanmar FG, Linxstream Media, Doli Media Studios and IT Pros Subtitles.

“NEXT-TT can be configured to work in a “hybrid” way.” Kamen adds, “ Profuz LAPIS is our dedicated business management system that ties all business processes under one roof and adds an additional layer of security and creates a single environment to control the management, usage, structure, storage of business data and audiovisual processes. We want our customers to enjoy a user-friendly interface that anyone in their organisation can understand, and NEXT-TT is designed to be convenient and easy to use.”

Kamen continues, “SubtitleNEXT’s impact on Profuz Digital due to its historical role has been a positive one. To have an established product that the market already believes in, provides a great foundation to build further features that can bring efficiency speed and proficiency to users in a busy environment. In essence, the Profuz Digital outlook has always been fully committed to deliver simpler and versatile solutions without compromising functionality and performance.”

Kamen concludes, “Our secret is that even if we have a lot of experience we listen carefully to what everyone has to say, and we genuinely care about the challenges the industry faces. As a team, we take an interest. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic we have ensured that our systems can be used remotely where required to serve our clients. We encourage feedback and use it to implement positive changes, develop new capabilities to deliver ground-breaking functionalities that benefit users more than ever before. We never stop evolving, learning, and growing on this exciting journey, and we want to make subtitling fun for everyone to enjoy, across various genres, appealing to the novice and the pro!”

Further information and a free trial, visit www.subtitleNEXT.com and  https://profuzdigital.com/about-us/

Filmmakers are missing a trick when they don’t use Subtitles

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Subtitling is an art form  – it combines linguistic skill, technical expertise and creativity

 

For a film to be a global hit, high quality subtitles are key and a worthwhile investment.

 

Production managers, studios, directors, and producers benefit from being aware of how significant subtitling is in a competitive global market, and that it adds substantial value to the final product.

 

Subtitling is a vital linguistic, creative, and technical skill that can provide lucrative opportunities for film and television businesses.  It includes disciplines such as translation and interpretation and involves adaptation and localization techniques that help the meaning to resonate with multilingual audiences across the globe.

 

A few leading experts in subtitling within the film industry and from major universities across Europe shared their insights with the SubtitleNEXT team recently into why subtitling needs to be considered at the start of production and also what it entails in terms of what the differences are between interpreting and translating and how localization comes in.

 

This week we feature Ivanka Vassileva, who is a dynamic Language Services Professional and also the CEO of systems integration firm PBT EU, resellers of the SubtitleNEXT system designed and developed by Profuz Digital.

 

Ivanka notes, “Filmmakers are missing a trick if they don’t consider subtitles at the start of the process.” Ivanka Vassileva, CEO of PBT EU states. “By using subtitles that appeal to a wider global audience, they can boost revenues and provide content creators with the potential to reach a vast global audience.”

 

Running through a brief overview of what industry-leading experts told us recently on this topic, we heard from Lukasz Dutka, a member of AVT Lab, a research group on audio-visual translation and a trainer in subtitling at the University of Warsaw, Poland. He said that “with eye-tracking technology you can study how people view movies and how subtitles affect the viewing process.”

Dr Vasilis Manousakis, who is the Literature, Literary and Audiovisual Translation instructor at Hellenic American College in Athens, and a skilled successful subtitling artist in his own right, having subtitled and translated a broad range of genres, series and films produced by Disney, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and Netflix, including “Lost”, “The Good Place”, “Star Wars” and “Game of Thrones”,  told us that subtitling is an integral part of any movie that wants to be internationally successful and is a link in the chain of the production of any movie.

 

Riccardo Mimmi, who is an accomplished professional film translator and subtitler in Italy has been translating and subtitling hundreds of high profile movies, TV series, and documentaries from major Hollywood studios, broadcast networks and online streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon over the course of his entire career, such as ‘The Man in the High Castle’, ‘Vikings’, ‘The Americans’, ‘The Office’ and others, points out, “Something apparently as simple as a different cut of the film could result in a different translation choice due to time, colour, sound, or other factors. Part of a subtitler’s job can be regarded as that of a film dialogue author. A paramount goal is to maintain the meaning and especially the impact of the original version while also keeping the dialogue interesting, entertaining, and suited to the target audience, without losing each character’s personality. A plain translation might in fact be faithful to the original but also very boring to the viewers, hence ruining the experience. Adding the technical constraints of subtitles to the equation, the translation might deviate from the most obvious or straightforward solution, so to that end, collaboration and communication with the filmmakers at all stages should be encouraged, ensuring their creative intent and characterization is fulfilled.”

 

Subtitling Team Leader at IT Pros Monica Paolillo recently wrote an article titled “Why subtitling can be considered an art form” where she outlined that subtitling is not just about studying languages or speaking multiple languages fluently. In subtitling, she says, you don’t just transfer ideas and words to make them accessible to the reader in the target language. She insists that “Subtitlers carry a message and stand in-between cultural settings, straddling the languages they work with the way simultaneous interpreters do. They have a profound knowledge of idioms and slang both in the source and target languages.”

 

AV translator and subtitler Valentina Stagnaro told us she works like a surgeon while picking up words and making them fit into character limitations.

 

AVT and transcreation professional Serban Dudau with a wide-reaching portfolio including high-end titles such as `The Crown`, `Black Mirror`, `Mad Men` and many others adds that subtitling in its basic form should ideally be as close to invisible as possible, in that the text which interprets the media for the audience must be so well blended into the experience that nothing important on-screen is missed and the viewer never has to feel as if they are reading instead of watching.

 

Independent writer and AV translator Dorthe Pedersen declares that you need to have good interpretation skills and be able to make a translation that fits in context. You also have to be able to time subtitles and make them readable, and feels that sadly, subtitling often seems like an afterthought.

 

Elena Konotopova who is the CFO of RuFilms LLC (School of Audiovisual Translation) and President of The Association of translators and editors of subtitles “Eurasian subtitlers’ league” (ESL) reveals that the success of Russian cartoons and TV series worldwide was based on skilful localization that was incorporated into the production process from the very start saying, “It wasn’t just a post-production issue. Subtitling as a part of the localization bundle was integrated into the business planning of TV and cartoon producers., and localization really encountered the production process.”

 

Professor Agnieszka Szarkowska of the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw stated, “Subtitling is crucial for the international success of a film, TV series or show. And yet, it’s surprising how little attention filmmakers typically allocate to subtitling, which – from their perspective – is probably merely an afterthought, a minor part of the post-production process. shatters their suspension of disbelief, annoys them, makes them switch off and feel disappointed with the film as a whole.”

 

To round up, Ivanka Vassileva concludes with these words, “Reflecting on all the excellent contributions received concerning this important topic, Monica Paolillo’s words also resonate with the creative industries such as the film industry with production and post-production, in that subtitling is considered an art form. Subtitling is an art in my view too, because it not only requires linguistic skill or language knowledge, but it also demands technical expertise and creativity with regards to adapting and transferring the original message in the best possible way for the viewer.

 

Our SubtitleNEXT subtitling platform offers subtitling professionals many toolsets that can enhance their work, one example being the “live dictation” function which can be used in live subtitling workflows in order to caption news and events in real time which is quite an exciting new development. There is a lot more we have released since then and more to come on the horizon for 2021. Visit our website www.SubtitleNEXT.com for further updates on our latest news. We always have an exciting new feature to try out and we welcome you to join the SubtitleNEXT club!”

More about Ivanka Vassileva, CEO of PBT EU, please visit www.pbteu.com

Note: We conclude this series of blogs in early March, so keep an eye out for final Blog 11 where the team hears from CTO Kamen Ferdinandov, creator and developer of the popular software system SubtitleNEXT.  Kamen is always busy working on the next feature, and he will provide insight on this timely topic, which has become more relevant than ever in the current pandemic.

With more people having to adapt to working remotely and relying on accessible tools online, and in need of staying connected globally at the same time, SubtitleNEXT’s subtitling capabilities play a key role in many media facilities including film productions.  By leading content creators to provide multilingual content, subtitling as a skill plays a major role in helping companies navigate and change how they work for the better.

SubtitleNEXT welcomes further comments from professional subtitlers out there who would like to contribute to this discussion, as we need to keep the topic going and keep the industry engaged. Please send us your words of wisdom and we will feature them in a new series on this topic in the future. Email info@subtitleNEXT.com