It all started in 1990. The first Subtitle version was a DOS-based programme and used the standard PC components to create, edit and air (burn subtitles over video signal). Back then, it was the only programme of this type and the only one that could both create, edit and air subtitles. Soon afterwards has been 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. 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.

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.

Kamen Ferdinandov 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 customized solutions created by Profuz Digital are not only powerful, but also cost-effective, user-friendly, time-efficient and easy to support 24/7.

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 together with its main partner and distriutor PBT EU an entire product line which included a whole range of products such as SubtitleNEXT Novice, SubtitleNEXT Explorer, SubtitleNEXT Expert, SubtitleNEXT CENTRAL, SubtitleNEXT Air, SubtitleNEXT LIVE Manager, and NEXT-TT . These were all in effect different products but still based on the core LAPIS and/or SubtitleNEXT technology software platforms.

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”.

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”.