PUBLISH CATEGORY BaM™ Award Winner – ZOO Digital – Cloud dubbing service powered by ZOOdubs
Thanks to the boom in popularity of OTT services, feature films and TV series are being delivered to more platforms and localized into more languages every day.
Localization service provider, ZOO Digital has developed a cloud dubbing service that overcomes a number of industry challenges – including capacity, voice talent diversity, quality and time-to-market for dubbed entertainment content.
The platform behind the service, ZOOdubs, works like an online recording studio. Unlike the traditional approach to dubbing in which those involved are required to attend sessions in one central studio, ZOO’s cloud dubbing service makes use of purpose-made software to manage the entire process remotely over the internet.
[bctt tweet=”ZOO Digital has developed a cloud dubbing service that overcomes a number of industry challenges – including capacity, voice talent diversity, quality and time-to-market for dubbed entertainment content – BaM™ Award winner: ZOO Digital”]
Giving Content Owners Choice
In the traditional dubbing workflow, voice actors, dubbing directors, recording engineers and other participants assemble in the same physical location, presenting significant challenges for coordinating diaries and travel. Most traditional dubbing studios draw on a relatively limited pool of voice talent living nearby in order to minimize travel and subsistence expenses. This leads to the same voices being heard repeatedly for dubbed soundtracks across multiple titles.
In contrast, cloud technology provides a way for participants to collaborate efficiently online and scale up operations with a distributed team.
The potential for using general recording spaces, vocal booths and even home recording is significant. Subject to adequate acoustic treatment and the availability of a suitable microphone, such spaces give almost limitless capacity for voice capture – and more options for content owners.
Innovative Cloud Technology
ZOO is adopting new ways of working, powered by cloud computing, to boost volume, quality and turnaround. Rather than using technically-complex generalist audio tools, the localization service provider has created purpose-made, cloud-based platform that is designed to be used by the voice actors themselves, thereby reducing costs and accelerating production.
Crucially for the entertainment industry, ZOO’s cloud dubbing service affords higher levels of content security. In traditional workflows, reference video materials are delivered to each dubbing studio. Watermarks and spoilers are applied to protect content from the risk of leaks and piracy. However, cloud computing offers technical innovations with far greater protection – watermarks are personalized for individual voice actors; two-factor authentication is employed and user interactions with original content can be tracked and audited.
[bctt tweet=”ZOO’s cloud dubbing service affords higher levels of content security. In traditional workflows, reference video materials are delivered to each dubbing studio – BaM™ Award winner: ZOO Digital”]
Implementation and Performance
Since the launch of the cloud dubbing service in 2017, it has proved to achieve greater results for clients. Content owners are seeing the productivity of cloud dubbing projects increase by up to ten-times the traditional model – while maintaining quality standards.
Adopted by major OTT operators, studios and broadcasters, the service is now delivering over 300 hours of dubbed content every month.
For voice talent and dubbing directors, the platform is user friendly without requiring extensive training. Subject to their chosen recording environment meeting ZOO’s stringent qualification tests, new voice artists can be on-boarded for projects quickly regardless of their location around the world.
New Opportunities
Improved efficiency leads to shorter time to market for global launches. Reduced costs open up the potential to dub a wider range of content for more territories. By removing the requirement for a central recording studio per country, content owners have access to a larger pool of voice talent – offering greater variation and expertise.
Cloud dubbing is already transforming the localization process for TV and movie content owners – the next step for ZOO Digital is building on this growth.
