Profuz Digital confirms TPN assessment for SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT localisation platforms

For immediate release – 14 February 2024, Sofia, Bulgaria – Specialist systems integration developer Profuz Digital continues to meet high industry standards by attaining TPN assessment. As members of TPN, Profuz Digital completed the self-assessment process for both the company as a whole and its localisation subtitling platforms SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT. This proactive step demonstrates that Profuz Digital continues to prioritise customer content security in a dynamic industry.

CEO of Profuz Digital Ivanka Vassileva states, “We care about our customers and take security extremely seriously, especially when working in the creative and dynamic digital environment that we all enjoy working in. Although TPN participation is voluntary, we have always valued content security, and so we are pleased to confirm the completion of our TPN self-assessment process for our localisation platforms – SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT.”

SubtitleNEXT was designed to create real-time and prepared subtitling and captioning across all media formats. NEXT-TT is a powerful hybrid localisation platform formed by the integration of SubtitleNEXT with media asset management system Profuz LAPIS, giving operators the best of both worlds in order to work on the desktop and in the Cloud.

The Trusted Partner Network (TPN) is owned by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), and is a global initiative that helps create a culture that understands that security is a critical part of the supply chain and is everybody’s responsibility.

TPN plays a vital role in helping service providers prevent breaches of their customers’ TV shows and cinema productions prior to release dates. TPN helps raise security awareness and capabilities to reduce the number of security assessments that vendors have to go through for each film studio. This allows for studios to effectively use a trusted “one-stop shop” for security information.

Service providers are supported by TPN as a centralised source of content security preparedness with a means for securely providing self-reported, and third-party validated, security information with content owners, in order that they may make their own independent, risk-based decision with regard to vendor sourcing.

TPN is accelerating how service providers and software application companies of all sizes report their security status, both from a self-reporting and a third-party assessment basis. This approach helps to reduce duplication for security status reporting and tracking of cloud-based, software application workflows and on-site content security measures.

If existing and future customers are interested in reinforcing content security and if they are already TPN members themselves, they will automatically have access to Profuz Digital’s TPN security status.

“It is vital to be part of a growing digital industry community that is dedicated to raising security standards and we see this as a positive move. TPN updates MPA Best Practices to stay current with evolving industry trends and technology evolution which is a tremendous benefit to our customers.” Ivanka Vassileva concludes.

Organisations already adopting Profuz Digital’s technology include the likes of the Council of Europe, Canal Plus France and Myanmar, London’s Wilco Media, Euro Media Group Belgium, Tarjama in the UAE, Polsat, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, IT Pros Italy, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, University of Warsaw, Ghent and KU Leuven University in Belgium and others.

Find out more about SubtitleNEXT at www.SubtitleNEXT.com;
More about NEXT-TT here https://subtitlenext.com/product-line/platform/

About TPN

Visit https://www.ttpn.org/

Bulgarian National Radio relies on Profuz LAPIS to manage mammoth Data Workflows

For immediate release – 19 December 2023, Sofia, Bulgaria – The Bulgarian National Radio has significantly upgraded its infrastructure by investing in the Profuz LAPIS digital asset management system to help integrate its enormous data workflows. Profuz Digital’s customised scheduling module which utilises the LAPIS software was implemented across all of BNR’s national and regional centres, which includes the BNR’s world service Radio Bulgaria. Data at the BNR is now speedily exchanged and aligned in LAPIS, across the entire organisational infrastructure in Bulgaria, that also extends to its international outreach.

Established in 1935, the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) remains the largest public broadcaster in Bulgaria. It has two national channels, nine regional stations and a multilingual channel which broadcasts providing news in various languages ranging from Albanian, Romanian, English, French, German, Greek, Russian, Spanish, Serbian, and Turkish. The BNR is the only radio operator in the country that broadcasts in FM, AM and short, medium and long waves, including DAB. The BNR also maintains a valuable historical voice archive record of Bulgarian culture.

The BNR required a powerful platform that could handle colossal amounts of information and extensive news-related activities that mainly involves coordinating news reporters out on the field. The organisation specifically chose Profuz LAPIS for its unique ability to centralise complex data activities securely and efficiently across all the BNR’s stations, including online streaming sites, radio websites, sound media, channels and multiple emissions.

A major advantage of having LAPIS is that it is an open and agile system that sits comfortably within an existing infrastructure. LAPIS is designed to adapt and evolve according to the changing needs of the organisation. At the BNR, LAPIS interfaces with all of the organisation’s legacy systems including BNR’s existing digital audio production and playout platform. Within the BNR, all data exchanges and the entire news preparation process takes place within LAPIS, with legacy systems working alongside it for broadcast playout.

The open cloud-native LAPIS software ensures organisations can build future-proof workflow infrastructures that are capable of virtually unlimited expansion. LAPIS allows connectivity through APIs and protocols to various data sources such as RSS, News Feeds, third party MAMs, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, plus others, and can be deployed on physical, virtual or cloud environments such as AWS.

 

“Bulgarian National Radio wanted us to help them unify all of their data handling and to unite all radio stations into using one single system. This way, they could also be kept aware of all the news that was being produced at any given time across all the departments.” Kamen Ferdinandov, CTO of Profuz Digital explains, “Our open LAPIS technology is versatile, and everything now runs in LAPIS at the BNR with all data and processes centralised seamlessly.”

“It was very important to the BNR that everyone working there could access and share relevant material and be kept informed about what everybody else was doing.” Kamen continues, “What LAPIS was able to achieve, was not available in alternative solutions. The LAPIS module was designed and specifically customised for the BNR to handle vast amounts of radio programming data in over eleven languages to serve both regional and world-wide audiences.”

Kamen further outlines, “LAPIS is tasked to efficiently manage ongoing dataflows of incoming news via internal and external feeds, and at the same time, ensure relevant personnel within the organisation have immediate real-time access to the appropriate feeds.”

“We presented our LAPIS system to the various departments at the BNR, highlighting how it can enhance and simplify their workflow in a radically time-efficient way, without affecting the quality of their work. The system was embraced across the board, and within a year we implemented LAPIS giving them flexibility as they started working with it, allowing it to evolve and offered alternative features if something needed fine tuning along the way,” affirms Ivanka Vassileva, CEO of Profuz Digital.

Profuz LAPIS provides flexibility as it allows client adjustments, which means that those using LAPIS at the BNR can modify the system as per their specific needs and unique vision. Our approach with the BNR is for them to embrace LAPIS and make it their own.”

It only takes up to an hour to get trained up in LAPIS as the system is user-friendly. Every person using LAPIS at the BNR has access to their own unique customised interface relevant to their specific role. “We designed the UI to suit all generations to adapt quickly to the technology across a large organisation such as the BNR.” Kamen notes, “Managers can also control and manage where necessary using LAPIS to ensure goals are met and high standards are maintained in the company.”

LAPIS is being used for every requirement across the organisation, and its appeal to the organisation is down to the fact that it is expandable, highly configurable and can implement what they see as the workflow that works best for them, as opposed to dictating a rigid workflow set in stone that might not suit them as many other systems do. LAPIS has enabled the BNR to now develop news material themselves and schedule programmes, news shows, radio schedules and emissions, all within LAPIS.

Other factors that attracted the BNR to adopting LAPIS included its reasonable pricing model and also the fact that Profuz Digital is a reputable Bulgarian company that the BNR can rely on, speak to in their own language and is locally available to help on site. It was key for Profuz Digital to fulfil the BNR’s requirements in every aspect, which included being sensitive to the organisation’s culture and adapting the system to meet these requirements.

Further benefits LAPIS brings to the BNR team is that it works with audio and can automatically transcribe audio files. It also has useful functions such as lightning-speed searching capabilities for material. In addition, it plays a vital role in subtitle creation, where legally required to meet mandatory European laws.

BNR employees can also access LAPIS directly via their mobile phones. Being one single powerful system, LAPIS not only deals with news management at the BNR, but also all the complexities within an organisation’s infrastructure. LAPIS is not only about data management, or traditional Media Asset Management, but also about detailed scheduling and planning that a major evolving radio broadcaster requires.

There have also been new developments in LAPIS regarding security compared to what a traditional MAM system that was built 20 years ago offers, for example. LAPIS is highly secure, and safeguards exterior threats and secures internal defences.

Upcoming AI advancements and future features are in the pipeline. They are not yet available but will include being able to automatically classify genres within texts, news categories, to help speed up manual processes. Another very useful future AI tool soon to be available in LAPIS will be advanced semantic search functionality which finds words and groups of words immediately. LAPIS AI will be able to be used for transcription based on AI image recognition, photos published and so forth.

There are lots of exciting plans in store regarding LAPIS, for example it already is being used for coordinating tasks and managing reporters out on the field. For example a journalist sent to a city to report on an event, will be able to tap in to LAPIS to source transport, equipment and all other logistics required. These can all be arranged using LAPIS to source and coordinate quickly. LAPIS with AI can later also be able to later do the following when and if required: internally as a ticketing system in future, particularly in areas such as resource management, planning, studios, microphones, searches with AI, advanced classification capabilities, assimilation, private data capture, access to Chat GPT functions, instant access to the internet, AI can help improve workflows, speed, data gathering, checking information and no need for laborious manual entry processes. LAPIS is able to advance all of these tasks very fast but still maintaining quality, standards and privacy of data.

AI can later be used within LAPIS to collate statistical information from data, text or images. Due to the open nature of LAPIS, separate AI software technologies and tools can be used in LAPIS.

“We look forward to a long-standing partnership with the BNR and we are proud to support them along the way. With our Profuz LAPIS scheduling tech being successfully received, we are pleased to see positive feedback from everyone using the system there. LAPIS guarantees a future-proof working environment that offers unlimited possibilities. The BNR can request at any time for us to add further options in LAPIS, expand options, and upgrade to AI capabilities when the time is right for them. It is a really exciting period, and the BNR is part of the adventure, as they enter another decade of incredible success ahead of them.” Ivanka says.

“Adopting Profuz LAPIS has been a crucial step in the major digital transformation process of the BNR. An immense volume of content is generated on a daily basis by our 2 national and 9 regional programs, along with 10 of Radio Bulgaria’s foreign language teams. In addition, our team of web editors create a considerable amount of material.” states Program Director of BNR Daniela Kusovska.

“Before we brought LAPIS on board, the vast array of data had become disparate and separated which made it difficult for the various BNR teams to access information and files efficiently. A majority of the content had therefore become inconspicuous and overlooked owing to the inadequate distribution of data flowing between broadcast and digital channels in the BNR system. Working with Profuz LAPIS is now playing a vital role in helping us to invigorate and revolutionise our work processes, particularly in relation to the entire planning, creation and distribution workflow of information. This is really important, not only for our own public mission, but also for professionally maintaining the resources at our disposal responsibly, which LAPIS will effortlessly help us to achieve.”

 

About Profuz Digital
Profuz Digital develops and provides performance-leading solutions for customisable engineering system integration to empower content providers, broadcast, production, and post-production professionals to operate efficiently at the forefront of an ever-evolving digital environment. Profuz Digital’s primary focus is flexibility, futureproof customer-driven product innovation, fast deployment, along with committed teamwork. Creators of the advanced real-time and offline captioning and subtitling software platform SubtitleNEXT and Profuz Digital’s digital asset workflow management platforms, Profuz LAPIS, designed to efficiently centralise processes and data all under one roof. Proven technology already adopted by the likes of Canal PLUS, Jornal do Centro, Council of Europe, Bulgarian National Radio and many other organisations. The NEXT-TT system combines SubtitleNEXT’s functionalities with Profuz LAPIS into an all-in-one powerful hybrid technology-base that provides media professionals with a versatile backbone for enhanced localization services. NEXT-TT can be customised to produce targeted management and efficient workflows. It manages subtitles, dubbing and localization services for media content including the coordination of teams of translators, subtitlers, AV professionals, creative freelancers, while providing users with powerful toolsets in a secure workspace environment.
www.profuzdigital.com
Discover the power behind Profuz LAPIS here www.profuzlapis.com;
Find out more about SubtitleNEXT at www.SubtitleNEXT.com;
Explore the NEXT-TT platform further at https://subtitlenext.com/product-line/platform/

About the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR)

The Bulgarian National Radio is Bulgaria’s national radio broadcasting organisation. It operates two national and nine regional channels, as well as an international service – Radio Bulgaria – which broadcasts in 11 languages. Public service broadcasting in Bulgaria, is financed mainly through a state subsidy. The subsidy has to be spent on the preparation, creation and the transmission of the national and regional programmes. Its volume is determined annually on the basis of the average programme production costs per hour approved by the Council of Ministers, regardless of the programme type

The BNR operates the following national, regional and international stations:

National

  • Horizont: BNR’s most listened-to channel, with round-the-clock news, comment, and music (with the emphasis on modern popular music genres).
  • Hristo Botev Radio: covering science and the arts, documentaries and discussions on cultural and social questions, drama, classical music, jazz, and programming for children.


Regional

  • Radio Blagoevgrad
  • Radio Burgas
  • Radio Kardzhali
  • Radio Plovdiv
  • Radio Shumen
  • Radio Sofia
  • Radio Stara Zagora
  • Radio Varna
  • Radio Vidin


International –
Radio Bulgaria provides news in Bulgarian and also in Albanian, Romanian, English, French, German, Greek, Russian, Spanish, Serbian and Turkish.

www.bnr.bg/

How the Council of Europe is embracing the future using new agile AI-enabled digital management toolbox

The Council of Europe recently invested in what they claim is no ordinary run-of-the-mill digital asset management system. The powerful platform is called Profuz LAPIS, developed by specialist systems integrator Profuz Digital.

The Council chose Profuz LAPIS for every part of the workflow, from content ingest and storage to advanced media searches. It’s used for extensive archiving and interactive database support and can streamline workflows in the Cloud with LAPIS, allowing numerous speaker session recordings in several languages, at various resolutions in real-time. Public access of information at the Council is allowed through LAPIS, which includes parliamentary sessions where MP’s speeches are recorded for example. Video file content is regularly required to be shared promptly across social media networks, allowing journalists and the media to gain immediate access to download, edit, cut down and report on the material.

The Council’s head of innovation, Alain Mielle, along with technology partner Audry Sales from French Value-Added Reseller SAV were recently at Europe’s largest broadcast trade event IBC in Amsterdam to discuss this agile technology at the Profuz Digital stand.

Overview of how challenges were solved

From the outset, Alain Mielle was looking for a digital asset management system that would be “future-ready” and be able to support their European customers including being able to accommodate the media and professional journalists and reporters.

The Council has thousands of hours’ worth of data and footage of recorded meetings, sessions, events that date all the way back from 1949. The idea was to find an easy-to-use solution that allowed the team at the Council to be able to add features as they went along, day to day or month to month as they worked on various projects.

Alain said he did a call to tender, and that’s when he was introduced to the Profuz LAPIS system through Profuz Digital’s technology partner SAV – a French Value-Added Reseller. He went on to describe LAPIS as not just an ordinary asset management solution, but as a useful toolbox in effect. Alain said the response he received from SAV won him over because he knew this system could truly deliver what he wanted, and it was future-proof. Alain felt that particularly with respect to AI, the LAPIS technology was the most powerful choice as it would be able deliver features such as Speech to Text, AI Translation, Face Recognition and many other upcoming AI features that would help reduce costs thereby cutting down on unnecessary time-consuming processes as well.

Alain said the system was really good and he’s has been using LAPIS now for 2 years. After receiving user feedback, modifications in certain areas have been made and refined, step by step to further enhance the system to suit the Council’s specific requirements.

What was so unique about this system?

Alain confirmed that the key advantage of having LAPIS at the Council of Europe is that it is really straightforward to manage. The interface is easy to navigate making searching effortless. In addition, the editing process has been simplified, making it efficient and painless – for example when a journalists interviews a member of parliament, Profuz LAPIS allows them to access that footage which can then be edited using LAPIS, then cut and promptly downloaded, ready to be instantly shared across social media networks without delay.

Another point to note he said is that all the intelligence behind the workflow such as calendars, voice recognition features and so forth are really the beginning of their AI services and it’s a good starting point from which to expand on to further in this area within LAPIS.

How they all got together in the first place

Alain worked closely together with tech partner SAV to implement LAPIS. From the point of implementation to delivery, it took a year, and it was a great success.

Value Added Reseller and technology partner of Profuz Digital Audry Sales at SAV explained what happened from the very first call he received from Alain. Audry said it was an advantage that Profuz LAPIS is actually an innovative toolbox effectively with many useful tools. Furthermore, it allows room for many new tools to be added later on and modified as and when required.

So when Audry went to see Alain and understood Alain’s requirements, he knew that the LAPIS system was perfect for him. Notably regarding AI, LAPIS would provide him with the flexibility and added benefit of being able to put different tools together to fit his requirements. Alain was very impressed by the sheer power of LAPIS and the fact it could move things around and offer versatility on a vast scale.

Audry said that when he won the tender, he made sure from the start that the LAPIS engineering team and Alain were in constant communication with one another throughout the process which established a solid communication link between us all. Profuz Digital developed and customised the LAPIS solution along with SAV’s vital input to make sure that integration took place successfully. “Everything went so smoothly, the solution is on air being used at the Council right now, and everyone is happy, and we’ve done training.” Audry noted.

Audry said it is important for the system to grasped fairly quickly by both AV and non-AV professionals alike. The trick is that in LAPIS, the complexity is hidden, and that the visible user interface is designed to be “user-friendly” and easy to navigate. A bit like a car, Audry remarked, that if you’re driving a sports car, you don’t want to see how the engine works, you literally just want to be able to drive it with ease and make it perform at its best.

“Our relationship with Alain at the Council and with Profuz Digital is strong and we will continue working together going forward for the long-term, the link between the Value-Added Reseller and the editor using LAPIS is very important and it is essential to maintain high levels of communication between ourselves so that nothing is missed and to make sure everything happens.” Audry confirmed.

The Council of Europe upholds 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.

Head of Innovation at the Council of Europe Alain Mielle said, “We have been very impressed with the functionalities and performance of Profuz LAPIS as our media asset management platform. In our opinion it is the “Rolls Royce” platform of this industry sector, offering a competitive and attractive price tag. It is not a run of the mill digital asset AV management system, as it offers so much more in terms of functionality and features, and we have seen significant productivity gains and positive user feedback.”

Alain added, “The LAPIS system is easily accessible, and its search capabilities are exemplary, enabling universities and research groups to access the Council of Europe’s information. We envisage exploiting its AI capabilities in the future – for example permitting journalists and broadcasters to be able to look up past speeches made by world presidents… Companies such as Profuz Digital are well placed to tackle the challenges ahead as we all face the coming AI revolution in this new digital age.”

Organisations already adopting Profuz Digital’s technology include the likes of the Council of Europe, Canal Plus France and Myanmar, London’s Wilco Media, Euro Media Group Belgium, Tarjama in the UAE, Polsat, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, IT Pros Italy, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, University of Warsaw, Ghent and KU Leuven University in Belgium and others. Further information can be found at Profuz Digital’s website here www.profuzdigital.com

AI BLOG – AI Sound-off with Profuz Digital

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.

Profuz Digital hosts Council of Europe Head of Innovation, unveils further enhanced AI Workflows, Bulgarian National Radio using LAPIS, TPN membership at IBC

15 – 18 September 2023 – Stand 8.A03 – IBC – RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre

For immediate release – 4 September 2023, Sofia, Bulgaria – With just two weeks to go ahead of IBC, specialist systems integration developer Profuz Digital reveals additional brand-new AI developments and presentations that will take place at stand 8.A03, alongside demonstrations of SubtitleNEXT, NEXT-TT and Profuz LAPIS platforms.

Profuz Digital is delighted to confirm that their client the Council of Europe’s Head of Innovation, Alain Mielle, along with technology partner Audry Sales from SAV will be available as guest speakers on the Profuz Digital stand 8.A03 throughout the show. The Council of Europe upholds 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.

The Council recently invested in the Profuz LAPIS digital asset management system for extensive archiving and interactive database support, and is used for every part of the workflow, from content ingest and storage to advanced media searches. With Profuz LAPIS working within the Cloud, it has enabled the Council to streamline workflows, allowing numerous speaker session recordings in several languages, at various resolutions. LAPIS allows for public access of information at the Council, which includes parliamentary sessions where MP’s speeches are recorded. Video file content is often required to be shared promptly across social media networks, allowing journalists and the media to gain immediate access to download, edit, cut down and report on the material.

Head of Innovation at the Council of Europe Alain Mielle said, “We have been very impressed with the functionalities and performance of Profuz LAPIS as our media asset management platform. In our opinion it is the “Rolls Royce” platform of this industry sector, offering a competitive and attractive price tag. It is not a run of the mill digital asset AV management system, as it offers so much more in terms of functionality and features, and we have seen significant productivity gains and positive user feedback.”

Alain added, “The LAPIS system is easily accessible, and its search capabilities are exemplary, enabling universities and research groups to access the Council of Europe’s information. We envisage exploiting its AI capabilities in the future – for example permitting journalists and broadcasters to be able to look up past speeches made by world presidents… Companies such as Profuz Digital are well placed to tackle the challenges ahead as we all face the coming AI revolution in this new digital age.”

Other headline news for IBC includes further enhanced AI capabilities that have been made available for the first time in Profuz Digital’s media asset management platform – Profuz LAPIS. The upgrades to be unveiled at IBC, include a brand-new voice synthesis feature. Customers will not only benefit from automatic transcripts and subtitles, but this new feature also allows users of LAPIS to take advantage of improved text to speech functions in multiple languages. This ultra efficient streamlining of dubbing and subtitling activities brings significant cost-savings. Profuz LAPIS uses AI to further accelerate creative workflows and ensures that the user experience is always tuned to expectations, even at very large scale. It streamlines workflows by automatically updating and reassessing assets, seamless integrating data into the content engine and avoiding manual processes.

Other exciting news for IBC includes Profuz Digital’s implementation of a vital news scheduling module that is being used at multiple radio stations for the Bulgarian National Radio corporation based on Profuz LAPIS software. The planning capabilities within LAPIS that were involved in this mammoth project will be demonstrated for the very first time at IBC2023 at stand 8.A03. The open cloud-native LAPIS software ensures organisations can build future-proof workflow infrastructures that are capable of virtually unlimited expansion. LAPIS allows connectivity through APIs and protocols to various data sources such as RSS, News Feeds, third party MAMs, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, plus others, and can be deployed on physical, virtual or cloud environments such as AWS.

Another announcement in time for IBC includes Profuz Digital’s recent move to embrace TPN membership. Owned by the Motion Picture Association, the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) launched to reduce the number of security assessments that vendors have to go through for each film studio. TPN helps leverage the MPA’s best practices using its program with third-party assessors who then validate vendor’s answers. This allows for studios to effectively use a trusted “one-stop shop” for security information from which they can make their own independent risk-based decisions. Profuz LAPIS is already equipped with extensive permissions architecture, that has been designed to ensure users see only assets relevant to them and eliminate the risk of unapproved content being published within any company.

Ivanka Vassileva, CEO of Profuz Digital states, “We are absolutely thrilled to have our VIP guests Alain Mielle and Audry Sales on our stand at IBC and an honour to introduce them to people at the show. We are very pleased about our new membership with TPN and we are currently undergoing the relevant application certification process with TPN for our localization platforms – SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT. Even though TPN participation is voluntary, we value content security, and joined to also be part of a growing industry community dedicated to raising security standards. TPN updates MPA Best Practices to stay current with evolving industry trends and technology evolution and we see this as a tremendous benefit to our customers. We look forward to another IBC and having engaging conversations about the challenges and how we can help.”

Reminder about other features to be shown in Profuz LAPIS, SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT at IBC2023

Other enhancements in Profuz LAPIS across it’s MAM, News Management and Project Management modules for IBC2023 include upgraded AI capabilities for automatic speech-to-text and machine translation, advanced planning and scheduling capabilities, complex media assets, and audio and video chunks. Other features include storage capacity monitoring, the ability to publish content to social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, weekly and monthly program templates, channels’ time zone settings, subtitling and dubbing process management, news feed imports from external news agencies and much more. (Refer to a comprehensive list of new features here https://profuzlapis.com/downloads/)

SubtitleNEXT was designed to create real-time and prepared subtitling and captioning across all media formats, with version 5.12 introducing a range of enhancements to support text in all directions including vertical subtitle writing for East Asian languages. SubtitleNEXT version 5.12 will be demonstrated at the Profuz Digital stand, together with other subtitling modules for broadcasters. These include SubtitleNEXT Live Manager for live collaborative work; SubtitleNEXT Central automation of subtitles – airing in multiple languages and formats; and SubtitleNEXT DVB Muxer for multiplexing subtitles with video.

NEXT-TT is a powerful hybrid localisation platform formed by the integration of SubtitleNEXT with media asset management system Profuz LAPIS, giving operators the best of both worlds – to work on the desktop and Cloud environments. New features in SubtitleNEXT have been made available to all SubtitleNEXT users of both the desktop and SubtitleNEXT LAPIS versions, used in conjunction with NEXT-TT hybrid platforms. NEXT-TT also boasts a new “tree view” of projects, tasks, folders, including advanced filtering upgrades, customised filters, enhanced layout, quick searches and more.

Organisations already adopting Profuz Digital’s technology include the likes of the Council of Europe, Canal Plus France and Myanmar, London’s Wilco Media, Euro Media Group Belgium, Tarjama in the UAE, Polsat, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, IT Pros Italy, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, University of Warsaw, Ghent and KU Leuven University in Belgium and others.

Meet the Profuz Digital team on stand 8.A03 at IBC2023 to find out more.

Visit https://profuzdigital.com/ibc-2023-demo-request/ to get in touch or to book a meeting/demo.

For information about IBC, go to www.ibc.org

Discover the power behind Profuz LAPIS here www.profuzlapis.com;
Find out more about SubtitleNEXT at www.SubtitleNEXT.com;
Explore the NEXT-TT platform further at https://subtitlenext.com/product-line/platform/

Profuz Digital features Cloud and Hybrid Media Workflows at IBC 2023

The Complete Media Lifecycle Management with AI workflows – from Planning to Archiving, from News Gathering to Social Media Publishing, from Pre-Production to Localisation at Stand 8.A03


15 – 18 September 2023 – Stand 8.A03 – IBC – RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre

For immediate release – 24 July 2023, Sofia, Bulgaria – Profuz Digital, the specialist systems integration developer behind bespoke software solutions SubtitleNEXT, NEXT-TT and Profuz LAPIS platforms, will underline how these latest technologies boost quality and efficiency for broadcasters, production and post production at IBC 2023 (Amsterdam RAI, 15-18 September, stand 8.A03). Demonstrations will highlight how creative professionals can seamlessly work anywhere by accessing tools they rely on.


New for IBC2023 in Profuz LAPIS

The ability to use media asset management system Profuz LAPIS is central to project management, distribution and archiving, and allows complex projects and processes to be reshuffled as required between media management and various editing environments that creative teams need to use at the time. Recently adopted by the Council of Europe, Profuz LAPIS provides a central, powerful dashboard from which to search, review, interact and process media and data which is held across a wide range of local, remote and cloud-based storage systems.

LAPIS allows connectivity through APIs and protocols to various data sources such as RSS, News Feeds, third party MAMs, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, plus others, and can be deployed on physical, virtual or cloud environments such as AWS. Adding such an efficient single and system-agnostic interface for both existing and future storage infrastructures and data sources, ensures an all-embracing comprehensive management approach of media and data, while maintaining user-interface consistency, which leads to improved accuracy and reduced user burden.

As Profuz LAPIS is an open, cloud-native system, that can scale instantly and connect to any other open technology, it makes it a practical platform to integrate with other existing systems and can be used as an advanced, dynamic content engine, providing archiving and database functionality within a company’s existing management business process infrastructure. Users of LAPIS can organise and find content instantly, using an intuitive filter structure tailored to the very specific requirements of this high-volume, high-pressure system. LAPIS includes extensive permissions architecture, involving workgroups, to ensure users see only assets relevant to them, and eliminates the risk of unapproved content being published within an organisation.

The LAPIS system can be used for every part of the workflow, from content ingest and storage to advanced media searches. It uses AI to further accelerate creative workflows and ensures that the user experience is always tuned to expectations, even at the very large scale involved. It streamlines workflows by automatically updating and reassessing assets, seamless integrating data into the content engine and avoiding manual processes.

The LAPIS system is a native web application, which means qualified users can interact with data and archives from any location. The open LAPIS software ensures companies can build future-proof workflow infrastructures that are capable of virtually unlimited expansion.

The latest enhancements in Profuz LAPIS across it’s MAM, News Management and Project Management modules for IBC2023 include upgraded AI capabilities for automatic speech-to-text and machine translation, advanced planning and scheduling capabilities, complex media assets, and audio and video chunks. Other features include storage capacity monitoring, the ability to publish content to social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, weekly and monthly program templates, channels’ time zone settings, subtitling and dubbing process management, news feed imports from external news agencies and much more. (Refer to a comprehensive list of new features here https://profuzlapis.com/downloads/)


New for IBC2023 in SubtitleNEXT

Designed to create real-time and prepared subtitling and captioning across all media formats, version 5.12 of Profuz Digital’s SubtitleNEXT introduces a range of enhancements to support text in all directions including vertical subtitle writing for East Asian languages.

Available in both desktop and cloud environments, SubtitleNEXT supports writing text in all directions (from right to left, left to right, top to bottom, and bottom to top) in all languages. It also introduces emphasis (boutens) and rubies which are used in Japanese and other East Asian languages. The new version enables import and export of subtitles with the above features in the traditionally used formats such as LambdaCap, as well as in TTML, WebVTT and SRT. Other new features include the ability to export subtitling error lists in CSV files and adds more error checks for teletext and closed captions.

SubtitleNEXT version 5.12 will be demonstrated at the Profuz Digital stand, together with other subtitling modules for broadcasters. These include the SubtitleNEXT Live Manager for live collaborative work; the SubtitleNEXT Central automation of subtitles – airing in multiple languages and formats; and the SubtitleNEXT DVB Muxer for multiplexing subtitles with video.


New for IBC2023 in NEXT-TT

SubtitleNEXT, when combined with business management system Profuz LAPIS, transforms into the powerful hybrid localisation platform NEXT-TT, giving operators the best of both worlds – to work on the desktop and Cloud environments. New features in SubtitleNEXT have been made available to all SubtitleNEXT users of both the desktop and SubtitleNEXT LAPIS versions, used in conjunction with the NEXT-TT hybrid platform. NEXT-TT also boasts a new “tree view” of projects, tasks and other folders, including advanced filtering upgrades and customised filters, enhanced layout, customised filters, quick searches and more.

Ivanka Vassileva, CEO of Profuz Digital confirms, “We are passionate about providing leading-edge resources for both freelancers and organisations of all sizes to help them navigate the complex mediascape, while armed with the best technology. Our goals are to continually refine AI capabilities in our media asset management system Profuz LAPIS by automatically transcribing recordings to provide full-text metadata, which will make searching ever more powerful. Our team is also looking at using AI in other ways across SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT, to give customers further control. SubtitleNEXT’s new version brings game-changing feature enhancements that further enriches the

user experience. IBC provides the perfect space to showcase these exciting advancements, and we look forward to welcoming people to our stand to show them how our software can benefit them, now and in the future.”

Several high-profile organisations have adopted SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT’s technology including many universities. Some of the organisations that are using Profuz Digital’s technology include Council of Europe, London’s Titles-On, EMG, Tarjama in the UAE, IT Pros Italy, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, Polsat, Kino Polska, Max Live Media Access, Biovisjon, Doli Media Studio, Cube Cinema Technologies, Tring TV, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, Canal Plus France and Myanmar, AMC, HD Media, KU Leuven University in 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 others.

See Profuz Digital on stand 8.A03 at IBC2023. For more information on Profuz Digital’s solutions, visit https://profuzdigital.com/ibc-2023-demo-request/ to get in touch or to book a meeting/demo.

For more information about IBC, go to www.ibc.org


Discover the power behind Profuz LAPIS here
www.profuzlapis.com;
Find out more about SubtitleNEXT at www.SubtitleNEXT.com;
Explore the NEXT-TT platform further at https://subtitlenext.com/product-line/platform/

About Profuz Digital
Profuz Digital develops and provides performance-leading solutions for customisable engineering system integration to empower content providers, broadcast, production, and post-production professionals to operate efficiently at the forefront of an ever-evolving digital environment. Profuz Digital’s primary focus is flexibility, futureproof customer-driven product innovation, fast deployment, along with committed teamwork. Creators of the advanced real-time and offline captioning and subtitling software platform SubtitleNEXT and Profuz Digital’s digital asset workflow management platforms, Profuz LAPIS, designed to efficiently centralise processes and data all under one roof. The NEXT-TT system combines SubtitleNEXT’s functionalities with Profuz LAPIS into an all-in-one powerful hybrid technology-base that provides media professionals with a versatile backbone for enhanced localization services. NEXT-TT can be customised to produce targeted management and efficient workflows. It manages subtitles, dubbing and localization services for media content including the coordination of teams of translators, subtitlers, AV professionals, creative freelancers, while providing users with powerful toolsets in a secure workspace environment.

www.profuzdigital.com

SubtitleNEXT developer Profuz Digital sponsors Media for All 10 Conference in Antwerp

5 – 7 July 2023 – University of Antwerp, Belgium

For immediate release – 27 June 2023, Antwerp, Belgium – Profuz Digital, the developer behind the SubtitleNEXT, NEXT-TT and Profuz LAPIS localisation platforms, is pleased to support the Media for All 10 Conference with SubtitleNEXT branded as official Silver Sponsor product of the show.

The 10th edition of Media For All will take place from 5 – 7 July at the Stadscampus of the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Organised by the TricS research group and the OPEN Expertise Centre for Accessible Media and Culture, the event’s the focus will be on the role of human agents in the translation process. Participants will explore how the roles of users, translators, policy makers, industry and educators have changed over the past decade, under the influence of digitisation and globalisation. Media For All 10 aims to map the changing profiles of stakeholders in the field of AVT and MA, practice and research.

Profuz Digital will participate in an industry round table managed by MESA on the first day of the conference, in addition to a dedicated exhibition space where the team will demonstrate features available in SubtitleNEXT’s new version 5.12, as well as the latest developments and additions to the NEXT-TT platform.

SubtitleNEXT is a popular timed-text platform that produces accurate and fast subtitling and captioning results in real-time and offline across all media formats. SubtitleNEXT, when combined with business management system Profuz LAPIS transforms into formidable hybrid platform NEXT-TT. It gives operators the best of both worlds – on the desktop and Cloud environments.

SubtitleNEXT is currently the only subtitling system to provide extensive vertical text features, including improved vertical video support that allows for smooth aspect ratios settings. Its new vertical writing proficiency accommodates East Asian languages such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese, and offers comprehensive support of vertical text in every possible direction – from right to left, left to right, top to bottom, and bottom to top – along with all the attributes contained within every single language that exists on earth. Emphasis (boutens) and rubies which are the annotations used in Japanese and other East Asian languages that define the pronunciation of a word are fully supported too.

SubtitleNEXT also enables the import and export of subtitles in the all-embracing LambdaCap format which is one the most widely used subtitling formats in Korean, Chinese and Japanese languages.

Other feature highlights in the new SubtitleNEXT 5.12 version that will be showcased at Media for All include the ability to export subtitling error lists in CSV files; Teletext issue checks and closed captioning processing times; including the addition of a speedy “Quick Styles” toolbar default setting, Raised or Top styles when required.

These remarkable new features in the new version 5.12 have been made available to all SubtitleNEXT users of the SubtitleNEXT desktop version and SubtitleNEXT LAPIS version used in conjunction with the NEXT-TT hybrid platform. NEXT-TT also boasts a new “tree view” of projects, tasks and other folders, advanced filtering upgrades, enhanced layout, customised filters, quick searches and much more.

CEO of Profuz Digital, Ivanka Vassileva confirmed, “We are very excited to take part in another Media for All Conference. SubtitleNEXT’s new version brings game-changing advances that enhance functionality and user experience. We are proud to offer customers our unique innovative vertical video to text capabilities that can easily be repurposed according to different screen aspect ratios.

We are passionate about providing cutting-edge resources for industry professionals, both freelancers and companies, to help navigate the complex mediascape and face challenges armed with the best technology.”

Several high-profile organisations have adopted SubtitleNEXT and NEXT-TT’s technology including many universities. Some of the organisations that are using Profuz Digital’s technology include Council of Europe, London’s Titles-On, EMG, Tarjama in the UAE, IT Pros Italy, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, Polsat, Kino Polska, Max Live Media Access, Biovisjon, Doli Media Studio, Cube Cinema Technologies, Tring TV, Bulgarian National Television, Canal Plus Myanmar, AMC, HD Media, KU Leuven University in 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 others.

For more information about the Media for All Conference 10, visit the website here https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/media-for-all-10/

Watch the video about them here https://youtu.be/fQRYwl0SL2U

 

Discover the power behind Profuz LAPIS here www.profuzlapis.com;
Find out more about SubtitleNEXT at www.SubtitleNEXT.com;
Explore the NEXT-TT platform further at https://subtitlenext.com/product-line/platform/

Council of Europe fully embraces the Profuz LAPIS Digital Asset Media platform, boosting Workflows for real time Data and vast Archive Management

For immediate release – 26 June 2023, Strasbourg, France – Profuz Digital is pleased to announce that the Council of Europe has invested in the Profuz LAPIS digital asset management system. Profuz LAPIS is used as an advanced dynamic content engine that enhances collaboration within the Council of Europe, including archiving and interactive database support which plays an integral role in their business processes. The Council of Europe upholds human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe, and is renowned for pioneering new standards, which have progressed to become global benchmarks.

Profuz LAPIS is a powerful “one-stop-shop” for managing digital assets, allowing users to organise and find what is required in an instant with an intuitive filter structure that is tailored to an organisation’s exact needs. Access and usage permissions provide peace of mind that users only see assets relevant to them, eliminating the risk of unapproved content being published. Significant time is saved by the system automatically updating and reassessing assets by seamlessly integrating content data into the content engine, avoiding burdensome manual processes.

The Council of Europe already relies on Profuz LAPIS to conduct a wide variety of tasks such as content ingest, storage, and advanced media library searches, using its AI capabilities to further accelerate creative workflows and automate experience delivery at scale. With Profuz LAPIS working within the Cloud, it has enabled the Council of Europe to streamline its workflows and operations, allowing for numerous speaker session recordings in several languages, at various resolutions.

Profuz LAPIS allows unlimited connectivity with APIs and Amazon. Other features in Profuz LAPIS includes its project management capabilities and meta data functionality. The system creates groups and profiles and has a powerful interactive toolset, with future-proof capabilities and vast archive capacity which is the future of data resourcing.

Meetings are held daily at the Council of Europe and the system allows for public access of information, which includes parliamentary sessions where MP’s speeches are recorded. Video file content is often required to be shared promptly across social media networks, allowing journalists and the media to gain immediate access to download, edit, cut down and report on the material. Council staff members and external bodies are able to find, access and interact with all creative assets within their workflows, ensuring all information passes through the correct channels. Teams are able to minimise time spent switching between systems by running everything through Profuz LAPIS. It is possible to quickly find and share assets directly within their own dashboards.

Alain Mielle, (the Head of Innovation at the Council of Europe) states, “We have been very impressed with the functionalities and performance of Profuz LAPIS as our Media Asset Management platform. In our opinion it is the “Rolls Royce” platform of this industry sector, offering a competitive and attractive price tag. It is not a run of the mill digital asset AV management system, as it offers so much more in terms of functionality and features, and we have seen significant productivity gains and positive user feedback.

The self-service portals in Profuz LAPIS saves time and resources as it reduces the number of people having to be involved in its operation. It is used 24/7 and users can take advantage of Profuz LAPIS’ powerful search engine function that finds historical content quickly.

The system is easily accessible, and its search capabilities are exemplary, enabling universities and research groups to access the Council of Europe’s information. We envisage exploiting its AI capabilities in the future – for example permitting journalists and broadcasters to be able to look up past speeches made by world presidents. These functions will continue to evolve in LAPIS to help us provide valuable accessible archived material.”

Profuz Digital’s French technology partner SAV, which is a high-end audiovisual solutions specialist, introduced the Council of Europe to the Profuz LAPIS platform and played a key role in the collaboration. SAV was the initial link between the customer and the supplier by presenting the LAPIS solution to the Council of Europe and helped define the customer’s requirements. They carried out the follow-up of the project and participated in the training sessions. Today, SAV continues to provide level 1 support for the LAPIS solution.

After meeting with Profuz Digital’s CTO and developer Kaman Ferdinandov for a demonstration of the Profuz LAPIS system last summer, Alain reveals, “We were impressed with Kamen’s vision and expertise – he is ahead of the game, including AI and understands the market. We were won over by the team’s professional approach. They are reliable, super sharp, responsive and friendly too.”

In addition, the Council of Europe will evaluate the use of SubtitleNEXT – Profuz Digital’s subtitling technology – for the transcribing of audio-visual content later this year. Although French and English are the two official languages used by the two statutory bodies at the Council – the Committee of Ministers (PACE), and the Congress of the Council of Europe, German and Italian are also used for some of their work.

On the topic of Artificial Intelligence, Alain shares his thoughts, “I believe AI is not designed to replace humans but to work side by side and to enhance our work processes but there is a real need for regulation. We are seeing the tip of the iceberg of the capabilities of AI, and it will have a huge impact on the way we work in the future. As stated on our website recently, AI presents advantages but also risks to our civilisation. However, 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. The Council’s Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) is already on the case and has been mandated by the Committee of Ministers to elaborate a framework Convention on the development, design and application of artificial intelligence, based on the Council of Europe’s standards which is conducive to innovation. Companies such as Profuz Digital are well placed to tackle the challenges ahead as we all face the coming AI revolution in this new digital age.”

Profuz Digital’s CTO Kamen Ferdinandov notes, “We are honoured to support the Council of Europe using Profuz LAPIS as its core system. With an ever-increasing volume of content, there is a growing demand to deliver more content consistently to more users within their organisation with greater agility for better content experiences. All features within Profuz LAPIS have been customised to enable journalists and IT teams at the Council of Europe to collaborate immediately. The assets are cloud-native, and automatically scale to meet traffic and processing demands, ensuring both the application and experiences remain responsive to change. We look forward to enjoying a long-term partnership.”

Ivanka Vassileva, CEO of Profuz Digital confirms, “We are so proud that the Council of Europe has invested in Profuz LAPIS and placed it on the global map as a world-leading system. It’s excellent to see it play a central role with flexible features that will continue to evolve, according to growing requirements, in order to keep ahead of advancing technologies. We look forward to working with the Council of Europe for many years to come.”

Other major bodies within The Council of Europe include the European Court of Human Rights, and the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM).

###


About the Council of Europe
Find out more here https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal

About Profuz Digital
Profuz Digital develops and provides performance-leading solutions for customisable engineering system integration to empower content providers, broadcast, production, and post-production professionals to operate efficiently at the forefront of an ever-evolving digital environment. Profuz Digital’s primary focus is flexibility, futureproof customer-driven product innovation, fast deployment, along with committed teamwork.

Creators of the advanced real-time and offline captioning and subtitling software platform SubtitleNEXT and Profuz Digital’s digital asset workflow management platforms, Profuz LAPIS, designed to efficiently centralise processes and data all under one roof. Proven technology already adopted by the likes of Canal PLUS, Jornal do Centro, Council of Europe, Bulgarian National Radio and many other organisations.

The NEXT-TT system combines SubtitleNEXT’s functionalities with Profuz LAPIS into an all-in-one powerful hybrid technology-base that provides media professionals with a versatile backbone for enhanced localization services. NEXT-TT can be customised to produce targeted management and efficient workflows. It manages subtitles, dubbing and localization services for media content including the coordination of teams of translators, subtitlers, AV professionals, creative freelancers, while providing users with powerful toolsets in a secure workspace environment.

Many organisations have already adopted Profuz Digital’s technology including Titles-On, EMG, Tarjama in the UAE, IT Pros Italy, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, Polsat, Kino Polska, Max Live Media Access, Biovisjon, Doli Media Studio, Cube Cinema Technologies, Tring TV, Bulgarian National Television, Canal Plus Myanmar, 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.

www.profuzdigital.com

WHAT SUBTITLING AND DUBBING OFFERS

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

SubtitleNEXT makes a major localization breakthrough with transformative vertical video and text capabilities impacting content creators

For immediate release – 17 May 2023, Sofia, Bulgaria – Profuz Digital, the established developer of software technology in localization and digital workflow asset management for global content creators, has made a significant impact in the latest version of SubtitleNEXT, by unleashing its ground-breaking vertical video and text capabilities.

SubtitleNEXT is currently the only subtitling system to provide such an extensive vertical text feature, including improved vertical video support that allows for smooth aspect ratios settings.

Its new vertical writing proficiency accommodates East Asian languages such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese, and offers comprehensive support of vertical text in every possible direction – from right to left, left to right, top to bottom, and bottom to top – along with all the attributes contained within every single language that exists on earth. Emphasis (boutens) and rubies which are the annotations used in Japanese and other East Asian languages that define the pronunciation of a word are fully supported too.

SubtitleNEXT also enables the import and export of subtitles in the all-embracing LambdaCap format which is one the most widely used subtitling formats in Korean, Chinese and Japanese languages.

Other feature highlights in the new SubtitleNEXT 5.12 version include the ability to export subtitling error lists in CSV files; Teletext issue checks and closed captioning processing times; including the addition of a “Quick Styles” toolbar that can speedily set to Default, Raised or Top styles when required.

These remarkable new features in the new version 5.12 have been made available to all SubtitleNEXT users of the SubtitleNEXT desktop version and SubtitleNEXT LAPIS version used in conjunction with the NEXT-TT hybrid platform.

CEO of Profuz Digital and systems integrator PBT EU Ivanka Vassileva states, “Our dedicated team continues to serve customers as demonstrated in this exciting software release. With every new feature developed in response to user feedback, SubtitleNEXT’s new version brings game-changing advances that enhance functionality and user experience. We are proud to offer customers our unique innovative vertical video to text capabilities that can easily be repurposed according to different screen aspect ratios.”

SubtitleNEXT is a popular timed-text platform that produces accurate and fast subtitling and captioning results in real-time and offline across all media formats. Many blue-chip organisations have invested in SubtitleNEXT’s technology including studios and companies of all shapes and sizes, including universities. Some of the 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, Max Live Media Access, Biovisjon, Doli Media Studio, Cube Cinema Technologies, Tring TV, Bulgarian National Television, Canal Plus Myanmar, AMC, HD Media, KU Leuven University in 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.

Discover the power behind Profuz LAPIS here www.profuzlapis.com;
Find out more about SubtitleNEXT at www.SubtitleNEXT.com;
Explore the NEXT-TT platform further at https://subtitlenext.com/product-line/platform/

 

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About Profuz Digital
Profuz Digital develops and provides performance-leading solutions for customisable engineering system integration to empower content providers, broadcast, production, and post-production professionals to operate efficiently at the forefront of an ever-evolving digital environment. Profuz Digital’s primary focus is flexibility, futureproof customer-driven product innovation, fast deployment, along with committed teamwork.

Creators of the advanced real-time and offline captioning and subtitling software platform SubtitleNEXT and Profuz Digital’s digital asset workflow management platforms, Profuz LAPIS, designed to efficiently centralise processes and data all under one roof. Proven technology already adopted by the likes of Canal PLUS, Jornal do Centro, Council of Europe, Bulgarian National Radio and many other organisations.

The NEXT-TT system combines SubtitleNEXT’s functionalities with Profuz LAPIS into an all-in-one powerful hybrid technology-base that provides media professionals with a versatile backbone for enhanced localization services. NEXT-TT can be customised to produce targeted management and efficient workflows. It manages subtitles, dubbing and localization services for media content including the coordination of teams of translators, subtitlers, AV professionals, creative freelancers, while providing users with powerful toolsets in a secure workspace environment.

Many organisations have already adopted Profuz Digital’s technology including Titles-On, EMG, Tarjama in the UAE, IT Pros Italy, Digitalmeister GmbH, Leinhäuser Language Services GmbH, Polsat, Kino Polska, Max Live Media Access, Biovisjon, Doli Media Studio, Cube Cinema Technologies, Tring TV, Bulgarian National Television, Canal Plus Myanmar, 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.