By Ivanka Vassileva
The era of media globalization has brought about a strain on the content delivery supply chain. On one hand, filmmakers and media content creators are faced with a challenge. They have to quickly make their content available globally, translated in many different languages at the same time, in a fast, accurate, and secure way. Savvy consumers worldwide demand localized content and expect the highest level of quality. On the other hand, translation companies and professionals are faced with ever-so-tight project delivery timelines, so they struggle to find and retain premium talent who can sustainably deliver that fast with the desired level of quality and very often operate with the friction of quite disharmonious legacy workflows and practices
One possible solution that promises to make all sides happy, and resolve these problems in a sustainable way, is a hybrid system. Hybrid management ecosystems differ from pure cloud or web-based project management systems in that they allow the access, storing, and collaboration on data from multiple web and desktop systems, and devices. What that means for media localization professionals is a standard hybrid platform that combines the benefits of the traditional commonly used desktop programs with the advantages of web-based platforms.
Complete projects for multiple clients in one familiar environment
Hybrid media localization software allows you to complete projects for multiple clients in one familiar environment. This allows you to take on more work, and service more clients faster through their proprietary system or your own, because it connects external systems into the hybrid.
Often, freelance translators are forced to work in many different cloud platforms which are very limited in functionality. They may need to produce annotation for one project, translate for voice-over/dubbing for another, and do subtitling for a third. Hybrid media localization software makes it easy to complete a variety of projects from the convenience of one centralized professional environment, which also connects to other external systems and does not tax the speed of your execution.
This will make you more flexible to take on assignments from various clients.
Integrate all your online and offline dictionaries, speech-to-text engines and translation memories
Hybrid technologies integrate all your online and offline dictionaries, speech-to-text engines and translation memories for your specific language pairs and specialized translation tasks. You can easily integrate more than one web dictionary in addition to the desktop ones available on your personal computer and start using them in the hybrid software in no time. Hybrids also offer the possibility to integrate multiple cloud and non-cloud speech-to-text engines in a single environment and switch between all of them depending on their level of performance in a certain language.
All these integrations allow you to work faster and produce higher quality translation work.
Work online and offline
Hybrid media localization software allows you to work online and offline. This gives you the freedom to work from anywhere, anytime, and be more productive even when a reliable and high broadband internet connectivity is not available.
No more paperwork and heavy legal procedures
Hybrid software works directly with encrypted, watermarked or otherwise protected video materials. This way, translators’ work security is guaranteed without the need to sign heavy contracts and legal documentation in order to secure the privacy of the content they are provided to work with. They directly access and translate the client-protected video material and avoid downloading, storing, protecting, and deleting the movies or entertainment video.
In conclusion, hybrid solutions allow translators and media localization specialists to quickly and efficiently take on more assignments. Hybrid is the better solution, because it draws the best from the benefits of both cloud and desktop (secure as web, and powerful as desktop).