BACKGROUND
Aptara’s content solutions help the ten largest publishers in the world to unlock new revenue opportunities in a rapidly evolving digital and mobile-centric marketplace. With world class capabilities in digital content production, publishing, distribution and technology development, Aptara takes source content from any format and transforms it for distribution through any medium, from eReaders and Smart phones to tablets, PCs, Web and print. EQHO Communications regularly completes large scale voiceover projects involving twenty or more languages. One such project for a Fortune 100 company within the biotechnology sector involved recording a Code of Conduct multi-character scenario based eLearning course in 20 languages with complex specifications and a restricted timeframe. These languages were: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, Turkish and Portuguese (Brazil).
CHALLENGES
- Client cost issues associated with working with 160 individual voice artists
- Time and logistical challenges of setting-up recordings for so many artists
- To align available times for voice artists and end-client in-country reviews, while factoring in multiple time zones
- A time-frame of only two weeks for completion
SOLUTIONS
- A close working relationship with the client in order to map the course and determine possible ways in which to work with fewer voice artists and therefore overcome cost and logistical challenges
- In-country reviewer involvement (call-in and on-site) for recordings of all narrator scripts in all languages
RESULTS
EQHO’s centralized production model gave the client an end-to-end solution, from consultancy through to the final execution. In just two weeks, Aptara benefited from engaging EQHO in the following distinct ways:
- Sensible – EQHO developed a plan for voice artists to be assigned to more than one character, by using varying recording styles and voice modulation techniques, while making sure that no talent had a dialog with another character that was to be performed by the same voice artist
- Savings – This plan reduced the overall number of voice talents required, which significantly reduced project costs and logistical challenges. The total number of talents used in the project was 95 and the project was delivered on time and within budget
- Streamlined – With careful planning in the build-up stages, the project was executed seamlessly and all 20 language recordings were completed within the designated two week recording window
- Quality Assurance – Alpha and Beta linguistic and functional testing stages were also carried out within the client’s specified time frames.
- Satisfaction – The end-client was extremely satisfied with the final product and the localized courses were simultaneously released to its 20 global offices.
