MULTIMEDIA LOCALIZATION

Does your website include a company presentation movie?
Does your documentation include instructional how-to videos?
Do you have an e-learning course targeted at different markets?
We’re here to help!

Multimedia: a new way of communication

In today's visual culture, audiovisual content is rapidly gaining ground against the printed word, and audiovisual translation is becoming the fastest-growing branch of the translation market.

To understand the concept of “multimedia localization”, one first needs to understand what “multimedia” is. Put simply, multimedia is content presented in another form than the traditional written document. It is video and audio, images, animation, and any other rich or interactive media.

This type of content involves a more immersive and interactive user experience. Due to being more engaging and attractive to users, it is much more effective for carrying your message across to your audience as opposed to just a simple text, which makes it ideal for a variety of applications, such as digital marketing, home entertainment, corporate communications or e-learning, and training.

Why localize your multimedia content

You need to localize your video and audio content to reach your audiences worldwide. This is where multimedia localization — the process of converting your interactive content from one language to another, making sure it fits the context and cultural norms of the target market — comes in.

There are several approaches to multimedia localization, depending on the intended audience and application, so you need to be sure to select the right one for your content, medium and locale.

Transcription

A transcription is a faithful written recording of all auditory content of your chosen media. A transcription can be useful in many cases: We might transcribe the proceedings of a court hearing or a physician’s recorded voice notes, but the most common use of transcription is as an intermediate step to create subtitles.

Whether you would like a transcription of a business meeting, a speech, an audio file, or a marketing video, there are certain constants that guarantee quality:

  • Accuracy – your audio or video content should be captured faithfully and in full detail.

  • Experience – our transcribers are professional linguists who are native in the target language.

  • Expertise – we can work with a variety of file formats and use transcription software to ensure the highest quality and the shortest turnaround time.

Subtitling and captioning

Subtitling is used to translate spoken audio or speech into the viewer’s language. It should not be confused with captioning, which is essentially an on-screen audio transcription of the narrator's voice or the dialog and is often targeted at the deaf or hard of hearing. Unlike subtitles, captioning does not denote translation. Both subtitles and captions appear as written text, usually displayed in one or two lines, at the bottom of the screen.

The growth of video streaming providers and the dominance of video in advertising, professional training, information sharing, and education have led to a steady increase in demand for subtitles worldwide.

We can provide both captions and subtitles in a variety of languages for many different types of videos, such as:

  • Corporate videos

  • Training videos
  • E-learning courses
  • Product presentations
  • Commercials
  • Webinars
  • Video guidelines
  • Tutorials
  • Conference recordings
  • Social Media videos
  • Video podcasts

Subtitling is a cost-efficient way to reach your target audiences, but it still requires a combination of linguistic creativity and knowledge of the target culture with technical expertise and know-how to produce accurate and correctly timed subtitles.

Our professional native language subtitlers have years of experience in this field, having worked on different types of video and audio localization projects for different clients and across various thematic fields and media types. To execute our projects, we make use of a variety of semi-automated and fully automated subtitling software, ranging from automatic video transcription to video captioning, subtitling, and in-context review solutions.

Voiceovers

With voiceover translation, the original script is first translated and then recorded by a voice talent.

Several options are again available with this method, depending on the type of content, the audience you want to reach, and the impact you want to make. For basic localization, you can opt for the one-voice narrative or consider a dubbing option for high-visibility content with multiple voices.

Whichever option you select, one thing is certain: Voiceovers will guarantee better information absorption and memory retention.

Voiceover translation has many applications, for instance:

  • E-learning & training materials
  • Audiobooks
  • Software & applications
  • Internet videos
  • Animation films
  • Corporate promotional materials
  • Radio & Television commercials
  • Films and documentaries
  • Video games
  • Crisis communications

How we can help

Multimedia localization is a complex process, but it is also a very powerful form of communication. It can enable you to reach new markets, broaden your audience and deliver engaging content across many locales.

The biggest challenge in multimedia localization is ensuring the highest quality of your localized media while remaining true to the norms and expectations of each target market.

We can provide a team of native target language linguists, media localization experts, and experienced project managers who will combine their skills and knowledge with the necessary technology to bring your multimedia localization projects to life, on time and within budget.

Get a quote for your project, find out more about our services or learn about the Trados translation solutions.

If you are interested in joining our team, feel free to check out the available options under our dedicated Careers section.

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