History of SubtitleNEXT. Part III. The present – What’s NEXT-TT?

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Part 3 – The present – What’s NEXT-TT?

The NEXT-TT – SubtitleNEXT approach brings something different to the industry as Kamen outlines below.

“We offer something completely different to what is out there right now. We are not restricted to one market area; the product applies to every single company and industry. There literally are no limitations.

To provide an example, typically there are two approaches to providing solutions to customers, and they are either project or custom-based or industry-specific or ‘out of the box’.

The custom/project-based line is an extremely expensive option and can be slow moving. Also, historically from our experience, providers of such solutions are trying to replicate or reuse software that is made for specific situations which could prove to be a nightmare for users in the long run. Their knowledge and know-how are specific as they are focused on a limited number of customers/projects.

Regarding the industry-specific ‘out-of-the-box’ option, this can lack flexibility and needs additional integration work, which means that the company needs to adapt to the software and not the other way around.

Looking at both approaches, we effectively address both and our aim is to further develop and refine them. Of course, every solution has its drawbacks. However, by building certain partnerships, we are fully equipped to deal with challenges as they arise. For example, if an organisation has a requirement for the ‘best of breed CRM’, we would be confident and flexible enough to connect to whichever tool the client needs, and then be able to provide other functionalities much faster and at an affordable rate at the same time.”

The sky is the limit In the Cloud

Kamen expands further that NEXT-TT can provide a complete cloud solution, or it can be configured to work in a “hybrid” way.

“It would be entirely up to the customer and what their needs dictate in terms of the architecture. This adds an additional layer of security and creates a single environment to control the management, usage, structure, storage of various data and processes.”

“So, it is entirely up to you, “ adds Kamen, “If you want, you can have access to all your business-critical files from any web device whether you’re at your desk, working from home or at a coffee shop halfway around the world. Businesses are more mobile today than ever before.”

Advantages worth mentioning involving cloud asset management with SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT include easy implementation, quick adoption, great integration, an intuitive user experience and crucially, security. Fast implementation frees up IT resources and allows you to get started straight away. “We also want our customers to enjoy a user-friendly interface that anyone in their organisation can understand, and NEXT-TT is incredibly convenient and easy to use.”

The SubtitleNEXT team have attended several key events and have had extraordinary feedback and positive results with many freelancers, language service providers and linguist specialists adopting the SubtitleNEXT software. As a team they are always thinking about the next move.

What’s NEXT for SubtitleNEXT?

Kamen concludes, “Our secret is that we listen carefully to what everyone has to say. The team also genuinely cares about what challenges the industry faces and they take an interest. We work with this vital feedback and use it to implement positive changes, develop new capabilities and hopefully bring ground-breaking functionalities that benefit users more than ever before.”

The team has also been hard at work building a sense of community around the product for users to enjoy, which helps them to understand their needs and expectations at all levels. The successful launch of our online members group NEXT Club is a space set up by Profuz Digital for subtitling professionals to share resources, tips & tricks, and contribute to news articles and blogs in the “world of subtitling”.

“We have been overwhelmed by the enormous interest in SubtitleNEXT recently across various international events that we have been involved in such as The Languages and Media forum in Berlin, Media 4All8 in Stockholm and more recently at IBC2019 in Amsterdam followed by the Intermedia Warsaw Conference in Poland as Gold sponsors and Toronto’s Elevate event. The Profuz Digital outlook has always been fully committed to deliver simpler and versatile solutions without compromising functionality and performance.”

This is a company with software capabilities that are definitely going somewhere and here to stay for the long-term.

For further information about the company and SubtitleNEXT and Profuz LAPIS products, visit https://profuzdigital.com

Expanding on the development of subtitling software & timed-text over the year, popularity and trends. History of SubtitleNEXT. Part 2

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Part 2: Expanding on the development of subtitling software & timed-text over the year, popularity and trends

The SubtitleNEXT of 1990 is not the same product that has now evolved into what it is today, but the goals of the creators of the company, helped get them get to where they are now. This evolution eventually led to the present day SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT platforms and has grown to fit user needs over time. It has been masterfully refined into the fully-fledged sophisticated renewed versions that are now available and “market-ready”.

Kamen sums up the advantages that the evolutionary process has brought to the present-day systems SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT,  “Unlike other tech products that tie up users with single vendor dependencies, we prefer to give our clients the freedom to benefit from a variety of dynamic industry-specific technologies, while retaining the distinct advantages that using a single system brings, such as providing a single place to generate searches and reports even across multiple external systems.”

Kamen runs through SubtitleNEXT’s 2019 version’s key features that make it stand out.

“It provides users with a multi-file synchronous browsing editing feature with a standard and text editor-like experience that can create standard and modern creative subtitles and timed text messaging that adapt to all the latest rules, checks and fix-ups to the subtitles (both text and timing).

RegEx Search and Replace engine has been included to allow advanced search and text replacements, for example one can find all Name Family type names and reverse them to Family Name without explicitly listing all name pairs, nor doing it a pair at a time.

The Hybrid platform called NEXT-TT supports both local and online materials such as subtitles, media and metadata. The latter one gives the same experience as in a web application but with the benefits of a desktop application, and uses all available translation and other tools, in case of a limited web application on terms of the webserver’s provision.

SubtitleNEXT has the flexibility to work with all kinds of timed media from video, audio, presentations, and also supports Live Subtitling with one or two stages of “re-speaking”.

SubtitleNEXT also supports non file-based media and direct video signals such as analogue, digital, and streaming which makes it perfect for all types of live shows and events such as festivals, live gigs, the Opera, theatre, presentations, conferences, seminars – you name it.  Its “automation for airing” feature is also useful for live shows and events with prepared subtitles.

The full set of digital cinema and TTML format features are also fully supported in SubtitleNEXT, including text positions, effects, sizes and colours, styling, looks including user configurable screen layouts that can be personalised to suit the project and user convenience.”

Often 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.

In the case with SubtitleNEXT, it is evident, it always and still does provide for the users’ needs.

SubtitleNEXT’s impact on Profuz Digital due to its historical role has been a positive one, and Kamen explains why, “To have an established product that the market already believes in, provides a great foundation to build further on even more incredible features that can bring efficiency speed and proficiency to users in a busy environment – for example – development has also included adding new interfaces including web-based, terminal-based mainframe applications, forward engineering approaches and these have greatly improved and influenced  the legacy software and durability.”

Adding, “Technologists understand the importance of sound architecture right from the start. The best systems in place today are those that embraced well-known IT architectural principles.  Poorly designed systems often don’t last, both because they wear out and because their inherent faults invite replacement. Thus, many organisations are rediscovering the value of both their legacy systems and the theoretical underpinnings of those systems.”

The History of SubtitleNEXT – Part I

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Part 1: – Introduction to the SubtitleNEXT 30+ Year Journey

Defined as one of the industry’s most reliable and emergent timed-text subtitling software packages, 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 is teeming with an array of immediate resourceful tools and unrivalled 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 commodity, but also a productive profit-making asset to media organisations worldwide.

Many of the companies and educational establishments that have already adopted the system and use SubtitleNEXT on a daily basis including the likes of Canal+ Myanmar FG, the University of Rome Tor Vergata, The Hellenic American College, Doli Media Studio, The  European School of Translation and Europe’s largest Belgium-based production company Videohouse, where it has been used on well-known TV series such as Big Little Lies, Sirens, Vikings and many more.

Created by Profuz Digital and distributed by PBT EU, SubtitleNEXT stems from a reliable legacy that has been built up over the past thirty years.  CTO and Founder Kamen Ferdinandov is the brainchild behind the core software  development. With a combination of technological expertise, Kamen is backed by a passionate team with astute business acumen and industry awareness, jointly responsible for SubtitleNEXT’s ongoing growth and success.

Kamen established his company Profuz Digital in 2014 along with PBT EU’s CEO Ivanka Vassileva and Dessie Nikolov who is an experienced Software Product Manager and a Master of Digital Media from Ryerson University, Toronto and currently Profuz Digital’s Managing Director for the Americas. With headquarters based in Canada, Profuz Digital boasts an R&D Centre shared between Toronto and Bulgaria’s capital Sofia.

Profuz Digital was created  as a vibrant hub of technical innovation where business and technologies merge in order to provide game-changing and invaluable cutting-edge software solutions to a dynamic media and entertainment industry. The customised solutions created by Profuz Digital are not only powerful, but also cost-effective, user-friendly, time-efficient and easy to support 24/7.

The development of Profuz Digital’s LAPIS which is a  global business process and information management platform, took place in 2014.  Profuz LAPIS creates scalable customised modules that adapt to every type of complex business structure and connects all the dots that a business interacts with, including multiple-companies, outsourcing, partners, suppliers and customers, while constantly adapting to the needs of the organisation.   Doli Media and Canal + Myanmar FG are recent LAPIS customers, among many others that have installed Profuz LAPIS systems.

In 2016, the migration of SubtitlePlus quickly followed on to the next level, resulting in the SubtitleNEXT brand. Consequently, Profuz Digital was then in a position to offer users an entire product line which included a whole range of products such as SubtitleNEXT Enterprise, SubtitleNEXT CENTRAL, SubtitleNEXT Air, SubtitleNEXT LIVE Manager, NEXT-TT, Profuz LAPIS and the EXEcutor Media Integrator.  These were all in effect different products but still based on the core LAPIS and/or SubtitleNEXT technology software platforms.

The software development milestones Kamen initiated had led to the evolution from Subtitle, one of the first file-based subtitling tools, through to SubtitlePlus, a worldwide renowned subtitling tool for broadcasters.

“Actually, when the first version of Subtitle appeared over 25 years ago, there were no file-based workflows around, and in fact, they were not even on the horizon. Back then, only tapes were used for preparing subtitles and the problem was that the existing subtitling workstations at that time were specialised and expensive devices.  So, my initial concept was to create a software-only solution which would provide the same high-level workstation but with a standard PC, which we  successfully achieved.” Kamen reflects.

“The design was (and still is) independent from any specific hardware as such, but allows for the inclusion of additional hardware support, such as video signals processing and video mixers that create open subtitles over video signals, as well as timecode readers, VCR controllers, and so forth.  This in turn, also prepared the software for upcoming file-based workflows.“

Furthermore, Kamen had the insight to recognise that it made sense to make the subtitling process more accessible to a much wider user group and not strictly for professionals alone. His initiative was to  implement user-friendly and familiar text editing application tools.

“In the development of the product, my aim now is to ensure that any software user, even without a subtitling background, can find it easy to use our subtitling tools.” Kamen adds.

An example of how this development has evolved in SubtitleNEXT, is that unlike many other subtitling tools that restrict users to work on one subtitle at a time, SubtitleNEXT allows you to work with the whole text in multiple subtitles in line with advanced text editing applications that are familiar in the market today.

The Subtitle version was a DOS-based programme and used the standard PC components to create, edit and air (burn subtitles over video signal). Kamen remarks, “I think back then, it was the only programme of this type and  the only one that could both create, edit and air subtitles.”  Soon afterwards, he created the SubtitlePlus version for Windows. “

A year after the first version of SubtitlePlus appeared, the file-based workflow was then included in its infrastructure. I think it was possibly the first ever file-based workflow in the subtitling world and definitely the only one that provided a mixed environment for both tape-based and file-based pipelines.”  Kamen recalls

Another significant innovation break-through that Kamen can take full credit for concerns the independence of existing standards in Subtitle and SubtitlePlus. Kamen explains, “This concept is more relevant today than ever before. Most existing subtitling solutions available on the market, even now, are highly dependent on what kind of subtitles one creates, whether it be in teletext format, or as open subtitles, closed captions and so on.  This means that some knowledge of these standards is still required, and therefore  limits what can be done with the subtitles. The modern standards that broke this mould are compatible in SubtitleNEXT which is a system that has adapted and shows its readiness to handle and serve all the latest formats, resolutions and technical requirements including various fonts, font sizes, looks, positions, appearance, and much more. This allows SubtitleNEXT to widen the scope in which subtitles or other forms of timed text formats are used.”

Between 2002 and 2014, the focus of SubtitlePlus further evolved across its broadcast-related features and the development  of the multi-channel, multi-language automated subtitle airing platform known, as the DVB Subtitle Server, evolved into SubtitleNEXT Central.

In 2016, Profuz Digital focused on the upgrade and further development of the latest version of the software and renamed it as SubtitleNEXT.  Many of the new features, modern standards and formats were then added and have led to the system that we now see today. It is platform-independent and runs smoothly on all major operating systems such as Windows, Linux and MAC OS.

Hellenic American College in Athens invests in SubtitleNEXT to equip Masters in Translation students with key localization skills

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SubtitleNEXT prepares students with a definitive career path to face the pace of demand in the translation and creative industries

We are delighted to announce the adoption of  the SubtitleNEXT system at Hellenic American College in Athens, making it the 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. They have the option of specializing in the creative industries and entering the world of audio-visual translation, gaming localization or translation for museums or advertising companies. Graduates of the program have found work as freelance translators or at  translation agencies, companies, audio-visual companies and the media.

Dr. Vasilis Manousakis, who teaches Literary and Audio-visual Translation at Hellenic American College, explains why he chose SubtitleNEXT for his students, “It brings an advantage as the environment and functions available in SubtitleNEXT offer my students a platform that matches what exists at large AV translation companies across the world.”

Dr. Manousakis is an 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 House of Cards, Lost, The Good Place, Star Wars and Game of Thrones. His diverse professional and creative background has provided him with well-informed teaching material at Hellenic American College in the Master of Translation and Master of Conference Interpreting program.

He adds, “SubtitleNEXT stands out from all the other systems for its functionality and ease of use. It is effective and user-friendly at the same time.  My students have already used SubtitleNEXT to subtitle many projects I assigned to them. They learned how to navigate the system themselves and their reaction has been very positive.  Our industry is made up of companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney; they all require Accessibility Functions (Audio Description and SDH) and it is great to see these incorporated in SubtitleNEXT very soon. That way, we will have an All-In-One package. The most popular SubtitleNEXT tool among my students is definitely the “synchronization” and “in-sub notes” for the QA (Proofreading) task.”

Coordinator of the MAT Program and Associate Director of the Ph.D. in Language and Communication at Hellenic American University, Dr. Themis Kaniklidou notes, “We were using freeware before we upgraded to SubtitleNEXT. This upgrade brings added value to the MAT program, and we can proudly state that our students use professional programs that conform to industry standards. We are delighted that our students are learning top skills with SubtitleNEXT. It accustoms them to working within the kind of professional environment you’d find in the industry. In this sense, the skills will come naturally to them when they approach or are approached by studios and AV companies who want to commission subtitling assignments. SubtitleNEXT is a perfect tool to increase quality and productivity.”

An engaged researcher, Dr. Kaniklidou has observed the growing segmentation of the market, with more translators specializing in fields such as medical or legal translation. The emergence of new fields such as localizing video games and subtitling for streaming services and the immense progress that has been made in machine translation bring new opportunities. She believes that advances in artificial intelligence will repurpose the work of professional translators, with a lot more post-translation editing demands, a task, she confirms, students in the MAT program are already adept at handling.

Under her leadership, the MAT program is responding to these industry changes. She notes,  “We’re providing our students with what the market demands, both in content, with the program’s courses in specialisation translation, translation technology and audio-visual translation, and in technology. We’re doing a very good job for the lucky few students who decide to do the program. With SubtitleNEXT and through their assignments, our students gain experience in all types of AV translation and have a foretaste of the challenges they’ll face in their future careers. MAT is one of the few, if not the only, institution in Greece to be offering SubtitleNEXT to its students.”

SubtitleNEXT Sales and Product Expert Maria Markovska concluded, “We are delighted that the Hellenic American College has chosen SubtitleNEXT for its MAT program, arming a future generation with knowledge of how to effectively localize content for every major studio, OTT platform, and broadcast company and more, at the speed defined by fast growing global consumer demand. As a team that places our customers as first priority, we deeply value the relationship we have with highly dedicated college and faculty members – Dr. Manousakis and Dr. Kaniklidou, and we very much look forward to working with them as they continue to transfer vital and creative subtitling skills in an evolving digital world. Our next cooperation with Dr. Manousakis will be to expose in detail the functionalities in SubtitleNEXT for production of subtitles for the hearing impaired and automations that facilitate audio description.”

Media Information


About Hellenic American College in Greece – https://www.haec.gr/en/master-translation

 

SubtitleNEXT version 5.5 unveiled at September shows

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Profuz Digital Strengthens Global Presence bringing fresh momentum to multiple events with Profuz LAPIS and SubtitleNEXT  at Elevate, Intermedia & IBC for broadcasters and subtitlers


SubtitleNEXT version 5.5 unveiled at September shows

September has been a productive and busy month for SubtitleNEXT’s creator and distributor  – Profuz Digital and PBT EU. They made an official mark on the subtitling market at a series of successful September shows this year which included Elevate in Toronto, Intermedia Warsaw and IBC in Amsterdam. At the same time, they also released SubtitleNEXT’s new version 5.5 unveiling a list of innovative tools and features.

ELEVATE 2019 – CANADA

Profuz Digital’s Managing Director for the Americas, Dessie Nikolov introduced SubtitleNEXT and Profuz LAPIS for the first time to Canada’s Tech Festival Elevate held from 20 – 26 September. Elevate 2019 featured an exclusive line-up of exceptional industry speakers that covered a variety of topics about innovation and the future of creative talent. The “New Media” and “Product” stages at the event hosted high-profile presentations from the likes of Corus, Viacom, Twitter, Hypebeast, Global News, including informative sessions by Vimeo, Asana, Facebook, amongst many others.

Earmarked as powerful systems of choice for content localization and media accessibility, Dessie reported, “We unveiled SubtitleNEXT and Profuz LAPIS’ ability to meet growing demand for more simplified, efficiently managed and localized media content cross multiple industries. We received enthusiastic and positive feedback from show attendees when they saw the benefits of our products’ online / offline inter-connectivity as well as the added advantage of not having to worry about downloading, uploading or transferring material. People were impressed by the functions included such as multiple supported video, timed-text formats along with integration of various speech-to-text tools.”

Noting other key tech trends spotted at the event, Dessie added, “There is a growing interest in 360-degree video and streaming, as well as a continued push towards the simplification of video editing to make it more accessible to a wider audience. The demand for authentic voices in storytelling was a major theme at the show, as well as a drive towards engagement and content consumption geared to Gen Z that includes TV series for youth streamed on platforms such as YouTube (e.g. Awesomeness). All in all, this event delivered on its promise to “elevate”, and we were left inspired by talks from Guy Kawasaki, Akon, and the one and only – Michelle Obama.”

 

INTERMEDIA WARSAW CONFERENCE 2019 – POLAND

The team at PBT EU enjoy contributing and participating in key educational initiatives too and were assigned as Gold Sponsors highlighting their flagship SubtitleNEXT product at their own booth at the 2-day Intermedia 2019 Conference from 19 – 20 September at the University of Warsaw. Preceded by various workshops on 18th September, the conference focused primarily on audio-visual translation with SubtitleNEXT now recognised as a strong contender in this vital sector.

PBT EU’s CEO Ivanka Vassileva outlined the successful outcome, “The Intermedia Conference was a great space to interact with researchers, professional subtitlers, students and professors from across the globe in an intimate and welcoming environment. It was also very rewarding to hear a genuine sense of acknowledgement of SubtitleNEXT as an established Top Tier platform that professionals are now considering for freelancers, universities and media companies.

We take pride in our listening skills so that we can continue an effective ongoing development strategy and deliver helpful toolsets that people actually need. So, it was important to us, as well as interesting to hear about upcoming trends as well as ideas and suggestions for advancements and useful features, some of which were incorporated and released in the new SubtitleNEXT version 5.5 release which we launched and demonstrated. The brand-new toolsets and developments in version 5.5, specifically in the field of live subtitling with “re-speaking” and creative subtitles, following market demand, were applauded.”

IBC 2019 – THE NETHERLANDS

At IBC, which took place between 13 – 17 September at The RAI, the PBT EU team presented the latest version of the specialised range of professional, broadcast-quality subtitling and business process management systems, SubtitleNEXT, NEXT-TT and LAPIS including own-brand EXEcutor broadcast server series at the PlayBox NEO booth where PBT EU’s Sales Director Alexander Stoyanov was stationed to provide advice.

As an IBC veteran exhibitor for over 10 years, Alexander shared his overall IBC experience,  “Everyone I spoke to showed great interest in SubtitleNEXT’s capabilities to integrate multiple speech-to-text functionality, and its machine translation tools which help improve offline and online subtitling processes were positively welcomed. Profuz LAPIS received great feedback for its sheer capacity to align with macro workflows as well as its orchestration layer to legacy systems. The fact it can handle virtually any type of digital assets, regardless of their nature, impressed many. Our LAPIS for broadcast and media solution is still pretty much at the early stages and an innovative concept for which the wider audience is not yet fully aware of, however, the initial reaction provoked several interesting discussions which in the months to follow, are expected to materialise into some very interesting projects.”

“Generally, I believe IBC2019’s overall attendance was smaller by popular opinion, yet much more concise in terms of industry and partner feedback. On the broadcast side, SMPTE 2110 was a trending topic, with many manufacturers claiming they’re “already there”, without making the effort to explain the full picture, along with the advantages to clarify the bottlenecks and drawbacks that this standard brings.”

“Traditionally, the migration to IP, with the strategic goal to feed the ever-growing streaming, OTT and VOD beasts, was fully present in discussions, yet we don’t see this process happening at a scale represented by the marketeers and social media airwaves.”

“4K channels and content origination were also floating in the air, growing slowly in market portion but still with scarcity of premium content, especially for niche channels. Speaking of content, everybody seemed to agree that localization and accessibility are crucial, yet few enterprises had clear vision of how to achieve this. The diversity of distribution and monetisation platforms require a vast array of formats and styles of subtitling and captioning which are foreign to traditional broadcast and content creators. Much of the players on the content supply chain rely strongly on machine processing, ASR and AI to shorten the cycle and lower costs, and this hope was strongly amplified by the avalanche of overrated messages by technology creators on the efficiency and accuracy of their solutions. Practice though proves otherwise, and reality will punch back inevitably.”

Alexander concludes with, “Last, but not least, almost all media and broadcast organisations acknowledged the need to streamline both their asset and process management workflows. Most of them never thought that having this under one powerful singular system was feasible, so this idea resulted in mixed reviews. Keeping the focus on video only in terms of digitising, metadata enriching, indexing, purposing, archiving and repurposing is no longer relevant in the big game of complex processes and media company structures which start to incorporate all sorts of outlets, each one requiring a specialised workflow approach. I foretell that those players who see the potential in solutions handling these kinds of challenges will have the better market leverage in the years to come.”

SUBTITLENEXT VERSION 5.5 – NEW FEATURES

New features in SubtitleNEXT 5.5 include a series of stunning and dynamic tools such as Live Subtitling with one or two stages re-speaking with an optional multi-station live workflow automation; Integration with Dictation applications such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, Microsoft Dictation, and Newton.  Other numerous new exciting features include Film Strips; Short forms support in both offline and dictation regimes, parallel multi-subtitles synchronous preview of multi-language subtitles; keyboard macros recording and library; a global detachable timeline; reading speed indicator; additional subtitling properties such as hidden, forced, draft, marked, properties for appearance type, transitions effects, Support of NEWFOR protocol and FAB Public Teletext protocol outputs and much more all available in detail on the www.subtitlenext.com website.

CURRENT CUSTOMERS USING SUBTITLENEXT AND PROFUZ LAPIS

Many of the companies and educational establishments that have already adopted the system and use SubtitleNEXT / LAPIS on a daily basis including the likes of Canal+ Myanmar FG, the University of Rome Tor Vergata, The Hellenic American College, Doli Media Studio, The  European School of Translation and Europe’s largest Belgium-based production company Videohouse, where it has been used on well-known TV series such as Big Little Lies, Sirens, Vikings and many more.

ABOUT SUBTITLENEXT AND PROFUZ LAPIS  

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 commodity, but also a productive profit-making asset to media organisations worldwide. The software efficiently supports a plethora of disciplines such as translating, editing, subtitle and dubbing adoption, timing/cueing/spotting, verifying layout on text over media, deliverables and much more.

The development of Profuz Digital’s LAPIS which is a  global business process and information management platform, took place in 2014.  Profuz LAPIS creates scalable customised modules that adapt to every type of complex business structure and connects all the dots that a business interacts with, including multiple-companies, outsourcing, partners, suppliers and customers, while constantly adapting to the needs of the organisation.   Doli Media and Canal + Myanmar FG are recent LAPIS customers, among many others that have installed Profuz LAPIS systems.

In 2016, the migration of SubtitlePlus quickly followed on to the next level, resulting in the SubtitleNEXT brand. Consequently, Profuz Digital was then in a position via PBT EU as distributor and systems integrator to offer users an entire product line which included a whole range of products such as SubtitleNEXT Enterprise, SubtitleNEXT CENTRAL, SubtitleNEXT Air, SubtitleNEXT LIVE Manager, NEXT-TT, Profuz LAPIS and the EXEcutor Media Integrator.  All unique products in their own right, but still based on the core LAPIS and/or SubtitleNEXT technology software platforms.

Visit the “home of subtitlers” here to get a full picture and join the growing NEXTclub. https://subtitlenext.com/

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Media Information

About Elevate 2019 – Visit https://elevate.ca

About The Intermedia 2019 Warsaw Summit – Visit https://intermedia.ils.uw.edu.pl/

About IBC2019 – Visit www.ibc.org

About Profuz Digital – Visit www.profuzdigital.com

About PBT EU – Visit www.pbteu.com

SubtitleNEXT named Gold Sponsor at the Intermedia 2019 Warsaw Conference

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19 – 20 September 2019 – Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw

SubtitleNEXT’s creator and distributor –  Profuz Digital and IABM-member PBT EU –  are delighted to confirm their status as Gold Sponsors of the Intermedia 2019 Warsaw Conference from 19 – 20 September. Preceded by various workshops on 18th September, the conference will focus primarily on audiovisual translation and will take place at the University of Warsaw in Poland.

Following on from the success of AVT events organised in Łódź and Poznań in previous years, Intermedia 2019 Warsaw marks the 5th international conference which will be coordinated by members of the Intermedia AVT Research Group. The European Association for Studies in Screen Translation, the Polish Association of Audiovisual Translators and Subtle support the event.

SubtitleNEXT is the latest industry standard subtitling software lab, in a single compact and convenient application. It has already been adopted by many organisations and universities across the world, including the European School of Translation, Italy’s ITPros, Hellenic American College in Greece and many others. SubtitleNEXT is also being used extensively on high-profile series such as Big Little Lies Series 2 for HBO, Siren and Vikings at Europe’s largest production company Videohouse in Belgium.

Linguist Specialist and CEO of PBT EU and Profuz Digital, Ivanka Vassileva, states, “The Intermedia Warsaw conference provides an excellent platform for language, media and subtitling professionals and we are delighted to sponsor this dynamic forum. Some of the key topics threading across the 2-day conference, address current trends and challenges facing audio-visual translation (AVT) today. They include media accessibility services, audience reception, participatory access, experimental research, quality assessment, translator training, cloud solutions and the impact of technologies on AVT. We are eager to engage with attendees and to hear their concerns across all of these key areas.”

PBT EU’s Sales Director & Partner Alexander Stoyanov adds, “The timed-text technologies SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT have been developed to simplify complexities and can be customised to suit individual needs. The SubtitleNEXT team will be at hand at the forum to meet AVT specialists and listen to their challenges. Key features to make your work-life easier, will be demonstrated at the event to show how the software can deliver results with speedy efficiency. Come and stop by to see us if you’re attending. We look forward to the privilege of meeting everyone there.”

In addition to the main conference, two multiplier events of the ILSA (Interlingual Live Subtitling for Access) project will take place covering “new modality of AVT: Interlingual live subtitling”. The Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw (ILS UW) leads the way in live subtitling with re-speaking, having received funding by the National Science Centre (NCN). To find out more about ILSA, read further here: http://www.ilsaproject.eu/

To register for the Intermedia 2019 Warsaw conference and workshops, click here!

To find out more about the Intermedia conference, visit: https://intermedia.ils.uw.edu.pl/

Please note: Regular registration ends 31 July 2019

 

About SubtitleNEXT efficiently supports a plethora of disciplines such as translating, editing, subtitle and dubbing adoption, timing/cueing/spotting, verifying layout on text over media, deliverables and much more. Visit the “home of subtitlers” here to get a full picture and join the growing NEXTclub. https://subtitlenext.com/

About NEXT-TT allows for the efficient generation at blistering speed of timed-text, dubbing and localization services of every conceivable type of content. It can be used to manage teams of translators, audio-visual professionals, and creative freelancers, and provides a secure workspace with toolsets that deliver high quality results every time.

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Media Information

About The Intermedia 2019 Warsaw Summit – Visit https://intermedia.ils.uw.edu.pl/

About Profuz Digital – Visit www.profuzdigital.com

About PBT EU – Visit www.pbteu.com

 

SubtitleNEXT at the forefront of AV, Linguistic & Media industries at Media4All8 in Stockholm

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Cutting-edge SubtitleNEXT establishes itself as indispensable for creative subtitle generation in higher education, AV environments and filmmaking

 

SubtitleNEXT creator Profuz Digital and its EMEA distributor PBT EU, unveiled an impressive array of SubtitleNEXT toolsets for language, media and subtitling professionals that work in the LSP (Language Services Providers), Media and AV markets at the Media 4All 8 event. Held in Stockholm in mid-June this year, the forum attracted international academics, researchers, language practitioners, translators, interpreters, broadcasters, government agencies, support groups and the audio-visual translation and media accessibility industries.

SubtitleNEXT software equips users with state-of-the-art multilingual timed-text tools specifically geared up for AVT, media accessibility and entertainment environments.  It is ideal for media, corporate, health, higher education, university markets and government institutions.

As sponsors of the event, alongside Netflix and Lingsoft, the SubtitleNEXT team held one-to-one demonstrations at a dedicated booth, offering visitors an opportunity to experience key features in real-life examples.

Ivanka Vassileva, CEO at PBT EU reflected on Media4All8, ” Media4All8 has been an extremely successful event and on behalf of my team, we thank the organisers and all those who attended. We met familiar faces and made many new friends. There was general concern about AI and Machine Learning (MT) as it has created uncertainty and unpredictability in many areas. We sensed an increased awareness, acceptance and recognition for the SubtitleNEXT brand as a consistent industry player with helpful and work-life-changing capabilities. There was an even deeper appreciation of what PBT EU and Profuz Digital stand for as  well-respected technology vendors partners and it confirmed our strong commitment for the professionals, at all levels, that we are passionate to serve.”

PBT EU Sales Director Alexander Stoyanov’s adds, “The company is seeing much more interest and penetration in the educational institutions, and a lot of universities are discovering that SubtitleNEXT is a compelling solution to include to their courses and curricula. It was great to see that both freelancers and major language services professionals have SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT on their radar. It’s also a fact that audio descriptions and many unconventional accessibility techniques are expected to grow. Chiefly, the Games industry is one I am keeping an eye on – it is soon projected to exceed filmmaking, and this brings immense potential.”

“Events like these, provide vital feedback for further development. The advent of MT is causing great concern among freelance professionals. We understand from speaking to many people at Media4All, that MT, combined with the lowering level of newcomers, is hitting hard on the quality output of the localization industry. However, this climate also offers great opportunity.” noted Kamen Ferdinandov, CTO of Profuz Digital and the brainchild behind SubtitleNEXT.

“My Profuz Digital development team is already working on the next version of SubtitleNEXT which will incorporate vital feedback received at Media4All.  It will include new exciting feature-sets that will reinforce SubtitleNEXT’s position the “go-to” dependable product for creative subtitle generation, and it is already playing an integral role across the AVT, MA and filmmaking processes.” Kamen concludes.

Another exciting addition that is currently in development, building up to the next sponsored event from 19 – 20 September  called Intermedia 2019 Conference in Warsaw, is a spectacular new workflow, specifically designed to suit the “interlingual respeaking” functionality required by many language professionals.  Watch this space for exciting announcements to follow about SubtitleNEXT’s new upgrades and the Warsaw event this year.

For more information and online demo on the Subtitle NEXT and NEXT-TT applications, visit https://subtitlenext.com/

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Press Information

About Profuz Digital – Visit www.profuzdigital.com

About PBT  EU – Visit www.pbteu.com

Videohouse upgrades its SubtitleNEXT software suites for high-performance subtitling

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Busy Belgium post-production facility moves to the latest SubtitleNEXT software to boost productivity

 

Belgium’s well-established media facility Videohouse recently upgraded its SubtitleNEXT Explorer and Expert software suites from PBT EU, primarily for creating subtitles for numerous high-profile TV series and movies. Videohouse has been at the forefront of the film and television industry, producing films and videos, along with ownership of television and broadcast studios for over 30 years.

Videohouse chose SubtitleNEXT’s licenses back in September 2018, to further enhance its content services department.  Since then, Videohouse has been working nonstop on several projects that have been subtitled using SubtitleNEXT. Recent notable projects using SubtitleNEXT include series Vikings and Siren.

Elisabeth Barber, Videohouse’s Subtitler/Translator said, “It’s been very busy, and it still is with work for HBO series and many other well-known titles. With the latest upgrade of SubtitleNEXT we can tackle these projects with ease and even faster and we achieve excellent results thanks to SubtitleNEXT.”

Alongside the new upgrades and an extremely busy subtitling department, Videohouse is also working with PBT EU on future SubtitleNEXT developments providing valuable feedback and ideas.

Tailored personal preferences have been set up in SubtitleNEXT for each operator with keyboard shortcuts to provide direct access to and from individual workstations so that subtitle artists at the facility can easily switch source devices. Some of the shortcuts speed up the workflow process such as Go to Current Cue In, Go to Current Cue Out, Take In Linked and Take In out.

“Everything is going very well, so we’re still very happy with our transition and investment in SubtitleNEXT technology. We’ve been enjoying using SubtitleNEXT right from the start and it has been in action here ever since,” Elisabeth added.

Ann Van Bogaert, Head of the Subtitling /Translation Department at Videohouse adds, “I use SubtitleNEXT on a daily basis and look forward to translating the upcoming HBO series 2 of Big Little Lies using the software.”

Media Project Manager at Videohouse Willem-Alexander Hameeuw, “The efforts taken by the PBT EU team to follow-up and to develop on the spot are quite exceptional in the broadcast world! A major advantage.” – new quote to add perhaps?

“We are very proud to be associated with Videohouse. The company holds a reputation of pursuing the best technology and expertise. The dedicated team at PBT EU strives to continually develop SubtitleNEXT and equip our customers with ever evolving efficient toolsets that meet the challenging demands in extremely high-pressured deadline-driven environments. The team at Videohouse face enormous workloads, and we are eager to lessen their load wherever we can with innovation that works fast and efficiently and also delivers high-quality.” Maria Markovska, PBT EU’s Sales and Product Specialist confirmed.

Videohouse serves big-brand accounts such as HBO, Endemol, CanalZ, Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament, Fremantle Media, Play Sports, MediaLaan, Ring TV, Rai Italia, RTL TV1, and vrt, to name just a few.

MGM series Vikings, featuring SubtitleNEXT subtitles is a historical drama television series created and written by Michael Hirst for the History channel.

Siren, also with SubtitleNEXT subtitling, is an American television drama series for Disney about a mermaid-obsessed town which is turned upside down when a mysterious girl appears and begins wreaking havoc. Its 16-episode second season has already premiered this year in January 2019.

Big Little Lies is an American drama television series, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty, that premiered on February 19, 2017, on HBO.  Critically acclaimed, the series garnered several accolades including 16 Emmy Award nominations and won eight, including Outstanding Limited Series and acting awards and Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film.

HBO renewed the series for a second season and is set to premiere on June 9, 2019.  It features Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley and tells the story of three emotionally troubled women in Monterey, California, who become embroiled in a murder investigation. Alexander Skarsgård, Laura Dern, Jeffrey Nordling, Adam Scott, Zoë Kravitz, and James Tupper feature in supporting roles. Meryl Streep joined the main cast for the second season.

Find out about the NEXTclub – a growing SubtitleNEXT community sharing tips and tricks, where members can contribute to forums and have access to key industry insights.
Join the Club by visiting the site and applying for free membership https://subtitlenext.com/club/

 

 

Media Information


About Videohouse
Watch this film about Videohouse’s history http://www.videohouse.be/index.php/en/over-videohouse/historiek
Videohouse is also a member of the Euro Media Group formed from the 2007 merger of the Dutch United Broadcast Facilities and French Euro Media Télévision. Euro Media Group is a leading provider of broadcast and film facilities on the European market with a vast footprint across  seven countries which include the United Kingdom, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. Visit www.videohouse.be

SubtitleNEXT named Silver Sponsor at Scandinavian Media4 All Conference

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SubtitleNEXT named Silver Sponsor at Scandinavian Media4 All Conference

17 – 19 June 2019 –  Main Campus, Stockholm University, Sweden

 

The creators and distributors behind SubtitleNEXT, PBT EU and Profuz Digital are pleased to announce their support for the Media for All International Conference in Stockholm with SubtitleNEXT branded as official Silver Sponsor product of the show. Other sponsors taking part at the event from 17 – 19 June, include major industry players such as Netflix, OOONA and Lingsoft.

Host partners of this Conference’s 8th year include The Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies at the Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism at Stockholm University and The City of Stockholm.

The conference will be held at the main campus of Stockholm University aiming to attract academics, researchers, language practitioners, translators, interpreters, broadcasters, government agencies, support groups and the audio-visual translation (AVT) and media accessibility (MA) industry, not only from Europe, but from all over the world.

The main theme titled “Complex Understandings” will be extensively covered at the event and aims to expand on the complexities of our world today combined with the increasing intricacies in AVT and MA. Digital environments and the mediascape such as cinema, TV, video games, computers, smart phones and glasses, social media such as You Tube, and so forth will be explored. The debate will also address the concerns of the visually, aurally and cognitively impaired, including the elderly in our society and language learners, and how they need to be justly catered for as audio-visual citizens.

Attending the event, Linguist Specialist Ivanka Vassileva and CEO of PBT EU and Profuz Digital states, “Following the success of The Languages and The Media Conference we attended last year in Berlin, we are thrilled to be able to sponsor and support this global conference as well.  The timing could not be more pressing, as the industry goes through vast changes and at a rapid rate. It addresses the demands that face LSP professionals involved in captioning, subtitling, timed-text, interpreting, and translating across a variety of media. Language essentially shapes who we are and in turn shapes the industry. How technology fits into the equation as a disruptor provides challenges as well as opportunities.”

SubtitleNEXT Sales Director Alexander Stoyanov looks forward to the event adding, “The conference will provide attendees and academics with an ideal opportunity to sample the growing sector’s pioneering timed-text technologies that can help to make the complexities of our world, simply less complex. SubtitleNEXT when combined with business management system LAPIS transforms into a formidable  web-based hybrid platform called NEXT-TT which launched at NAB 2018. It gives operators the best of both worlds – on the desktop and Cloud environments. Our very latest technology development of SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT  will be showcased at the venue and is vital armoury for professionals to invest in to survive the industry changes ahead. I’ll be taking note of feedback so that we can continue to create new toolsets in our software where required to suit the community’s valid demands.”

NEXT-TT allows for the efficient generation at blistering speed of timed-text, dubbing and localisation services of every type of content you can imagine. It can be used to manage teams of translators, audio-visual professionals, and creative freelancers, and provides a secure workspace with toolsets that deliver high quality results every time.

CTO of Profuz Digital Kamen Ferdinandov, who will also be present at the event, adds, “An event like Media4All plays a much-needed unifying role in bringing together the world’s most skilled professionals to tackle head-on, the issues of our day.  To be able to take part in this forum is a privilege for us, where we can play a role in contributing to the creation of tangible solutions that help to make work-life much easier. It’s positive action to all put our heads together, listen to each other and work to understand all the components involved. We are passionate about providing helpful tools and resources for industry professionals. We believe we can help both freelancers and companies navigate the mediascape and face challenges ahead by equipping them with the best technology to do the job. Being armed with great tools is half the battle in facing the complicated multifaceted digital media environment of our age.”

SubtitleNEXT is the latest industry standard subtitling lab, in one compact and convenient application. It covers the needs of vast and numerous domains, saving users time and energy productively and efficiently supporting disciplines such as translating, editing, subtitle and dubbing adoption, timing/cueing/spotting, verifying layout on text over media, deliverables and much more. Visit the “home of subtitlers” here https://subtitlenext.com/

For more information about the Media 4 All Conference please visit the website to register https://www.tolk.su.se/english/media-for-all-8

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Press Information

 

About Profuz Digital – Visit www.profuzdigital.com

About PBT EU – Visit www.pbteu.com


NEXTClub is a dynamic Resource to help Subtitling Professionals Excel

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NEXTClub is the industry pro’s NEXT best thing

The creators and worldwide distributors behind SubtitleNEXT technology, PBT EU and Profuz Digital, have launched dedicated member site NEXTClub to connect user groups all around the world. NEXTclub was designed with the intention of offering an online gathering place for translators, subtitlers, interpreters and captionists. Freely open to everyone who registers, it welcomes first-time users to experts from every profession and background. Exciting zones to explore in the NEXTClub lounge include NEXTblog, NEXTnews, NEXTtips, NEXTbreak, NEXTacademy, NEXTcommunity and NEXTmembership which can be accessed at https://subtitlenext.com/club/

The NEXTClub is fondly termed the “home of subtitling” by current members and presents a rich resource of information and the chance to become friends with other SubtitleNEXT product users and pros, as well as share tips and get questions answered while having a lot of fun at the same time.

“NEXTClub is a unique digital space to do business for the ambitious, or just to unwind after hours;  – NEXTClub is at the heart of our network. Designed for pros by pros, they’re online havens where members can take time out, or put work in; places to meet a network of brilliant, like-minded people or use them as virtual spaces where significant things happen every day to enhance your work life.” Declares CEO and managing partner Ivanka Vassileva.

The NEXTacademy is evolving into an educational space aimed at equipping students and industry newcomers with the tools to achieve their goals and build confidence along the way. The team behind the SubtitleNEXT software are passionate about preparing students for the workforce by providing access to critical skills they need to qualify for high-demand and high-skill jobs in subtitling and captioning careers.

NEXTacademy manager Eleonora Svetozarova expands on the concept, “We opened the NEXTClub to provide an ideal hub to host our subtitling community. It is a workspace that doesn’t feel like a workspace. NEXTClub exemplifies our vision where everyone is welcome to experience the latest updates in SubtitleNEXT modules, platforms, services and inspiring educational programs and exclusive blogs online.”

Adding further, “The goal is to shine a spotlight on inspirational individuals. We are proud to showcase work that supports, empowers and connects the community positively. We are excited to embrace a growing community and invite anyone interested in the industry to join NEXTClub and benefit from it as well as contribute creative ideas. We warmly welcome all members on board with our incredible partners.”

SubtitleNEXT is quickly being adopted at many well-respected organisations such as Italy’s IT Pros Subtitles® ,The European School of Translation, the New Bulgarian University and Listen Up foundation as well as the largest production house in the Benelux region Videohouse in Belgium, plus many more.

What professionals are saying about SubtitleNEXT

Andrea Spila, Director of Studies at the European School of Translation stated, “We are honoured to partner with PBT EU and very excited to start this joint venture. We are sure that our students will greatly benefit by using SubtitleNEXT during our courses and that they will be fully equipped subtitlers when they enter the industry.”

Lecturer at New Bulgarian University Amelia Mareva says, “SubtitleNEXT is an innovative and well-established software, which offers subtitlers of the future powerful subtitling and timed text toolsets that help professionals to sustain development in this field. It’s a proven and trusted product with over 20 years of industry expertise behind it. It is managed by a highly motivated team who are driven to provide industry professionals with the very best technology. Their ethos is reflected in how they equip experts in the field to make a positive difference in people’s lives. That is why we are proud to adopt technology like SubtitleNEXT in our department at NBU.”  

Elisabeth Barber, Subtitler/Translator at Videohouse currently using the SubtitleNEXT software reveals: “We have been using SubtitleNEXT for a couple of months now, mainly for creating subtitles and proofreading existing subtitles. It’s still relatively new to us, so we still have to get accustomed to it a bit more, but it has already proven to be a decent subtitling tool.”

IT Pros Subtitles®’ experienced subtitler Monica Paolillo who trained a group of translation professionals to master the software notes, “…I am therefore very proud to play a part in such a positive educational scheme using SubtitleNEXT. It does make the hard work enjoyable. This course sets a great example of how applications like SubtitleNEXT can be applied in a business case scenario within a fast-paced high-pressure area …What I like about SubtitleNEXT is that, once you’ve gone through the necessary learning curve, it has potential to do exactly what you want it to do, responding to your own commands and keyboard shortcuts, tailoring your subtitler experience throughout the process, offering “nice-to-have” customisation features that do contribute to making your hard work enjoyable…Full marks to you, SubtitleNEXT. I’d encourage all professionals to get up to speed with it as it is a great tool for our profession.”

Founder & chairperson at the Listen Up Foundation, Ashod Derandonyan states, “PBT EU and Profuz Digital are a fine example of dynamic companies that are fully committed to the Rights of Equal Access to audio-visual content for the Deaf and hard of hearing and are taking positive action with tangible strategies to see change in this area. We welcome their passion and support.” 

To celebrate the opening, PBT EU has provided a comprehensive pilot demo that will provide users with a taster of the tools to pursue their passions within the timed text closed captioning and subtitling profession. Members are encouraged to invite and introduce guests, who we naturally encourage to join us in changing the conversation in a dynamic industry we are proud to belong to. https://subtitlenext.com/demo-download/

To become a NEXTClub member, join here https://subtitlenext.com/club/