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The Latest Buzz from the Front Lines of the Media Industry

Archive Storage

Those who have attended IBC in Amsterdam at some point in their career know that participating in the show is like briefly transplanting oneself into an alternate universe for 5 days.  What the rest of the world knows as Friday, Saturday, Sunday becomes IBC Day 1, IBC Day 2, IBC Day 3, etc.  Maneuvering between the massive halls of the RAI and trying to find obscure meeting rooms can be like navigating a small city (and without the help of GPS)!  And the amount of sleep one gets due to the post-exhibition activity is probably most akin to a weekend in Las Vegas.

All of that, however, is a small price to
pay for the wealth of benefits and opportunity that can be had while attending
the media industry’s biggest conference outside America. From an efficiency
standpoint, it’s fairly impossible to outmatch the density of meetings one can have
with customers and partners in such a short timeframe. This year this that was
especially true as our Quantum team had our meeting rooms constantly full, not
to mention a packed partner event on the opening day. 

Latest Trends Taking Shape

The other primary benefit is that being at
the show is an outstanding opportunity to learn about where the industry is
going, as well as how these trends are taking shape in the challenges the
vendor community will need to solve next. Given their importance, I think these
are certainly worth sharing – so in no particular order, here are the trends
that seemed to be most topical at the show:

Jason Coari CSI Magazine Awards IBC 2019
Goran Nastic (editor at CSI Magazine), Jason Coari and Paolo Pescatore accepting CSI Magazine’s ‘Best Data Storage Solution’ award at IBC 2019.

Democratization
of Video  

As video has become the dominant communications platform across the world, and is on track to make up more than 80% of the world’s data, both traditional media and non-traditional media organizations are finding themselves in the middle of the evolution to constantly be producing video content. One effect of this transformation means production timelines are shortening and distribution channels are broadening. All meaning that organizations need more sophisticated and flexible storage solutions to support the creation of an immense amount of compelling content. 

Cloud-based
Workflows

Just the day before the show began, Disney
had announced an agreement with Microsoft to do post-production in Microsoft
Azure. This move could certainly be a sign of things to come and is exciting with
the flexibility it could offer those organizations creating content, as well as
efficiencies it could offer by doing more work closer to where the data resides.
At Quantum we are keenly aware of this trend, which is why we are investing in StorNext to
facilitate all stages of the media workflow whether it’s on-premise,
off-premise, or any combination of the two.

Transition
to IP

What was a hot topic at NAB continued to be a hot topic at IBC – and it’s easy to see why.  From lower capital costs to more rapid deployment and streamlined operations, placing massive importance on transitioning to an all-IP based infrastructure.” This is why all the products that Quantum has launched over the past year are optimized to provide maximum performance across Ethernet networking. 

Remote
Production

The fact that this was discussed so broadly
was somewhat surprising. However, as customers shared the benefits of doing
more production onsite, the fact that it’s becoming a bigger trend became more
apparent. Quantum actually has solid experience here working with companies
like The Rebel
Fleet – an innovative post-production team doing onsite production in the
mountains of New Zealand. We also recently launched our R-Series
ruggedized storage system to further facilitate these types of use cases. Could
this become more mainstream in the months to come? I wouldn’t be surprised….

IMG 8039

So that’s a wrap on the top trends from IBC
2019. In closing, I’d like to give one final kudos to the entire Quantum
product and engineering team that had anything to do with designing and
building our F-Series .
The product picked up two more awards at the show and is on track to become the
media industry’s de facto standard for ultra-performance NVMe-based storage. And
stay tuned for some exciting developments in this space over the coming months,
as their work is just getting started!  

To view our Partner blog, click here

Dave Bryant Promoted to President and Appointed to Board of Directors

CMMA Blog

Dotsub’s Dave Bryant Promoted to President and Appointed to Board of Directors

3DavePhotoNiceDotsub has promoted Dave Bryant to president and has appointed him to the Board of Directors. In his expanded role, Dave will provide leadership and guidance in corporate strategy as Dotsub continues its path of growth in the language services industry as well as continuing to run the day to day business.

Dave has been with Dotsub for six years and has served as its COO for the past three. He will retain his COO title and responsibilities.  Dave helped build the growing team at Dotsub and was responsible for the conceptualization and development of Dotsub’s next generation Video Translation Management platform. He will also directly oversee Dotsub’s finance and product management functions.

Dave earned a degree in Computer Science from the University of Easy Anglia in the UK. He later moved to Plymouth University, where he ran the University Computer Center while receiving a graduate qualification in Business Administration.

Subsequently, he moved to the USA, taking a position at a Fortune 500 computer manufacturer. After that, he worked at early stage software companies, one of which he built from zero revenue to over $40M. Along the way he had the pleasure of being involved in two IPOs and a corporate buyout.

All of these positions required spending a significant amount of time flying around the world presenting information in many different countries. Dave learned how hard it was to communicate only in English and became passionate about the role of both video and language and their ability to enable knowledge to be shared throughout the world, both for commercial and socially impactful purposes.

Dave lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and close to his daughter and her family, where he attends music concerts, plays golf and is an attentive member of the NYC food scene when he is not working.

Contact:
Sharon Cunningham
Dotsub
sharon.cunningham@dotsub.com
+1 (212)-991-8685 x807

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Trends in Video Marketing

Advertising

Trends in Video Marketing

Every once in a while, we like to bring up trends which influence the usage and growth of video. Several recent studies have quantified the growth in video marketing to consumers.  There is however almost no available research on the role that languages play in video marketing.  Smartling did an informal poll of marketers to find out.

  • Smartphones continue to grow as a screen of choice for video, rivaling desktop viewership consistently year-over-year. On average, 57% of consumers globally watch videos on a mobile phone every day. (AOL)
  • In first half of 2016, video ad spend for mobile devices had soared by 178% year-over-year. (IAB/PricewaterhouseCoopers).
  • 47% of advertisers expect to increase mobile ad spend by at least 25% in 2017. Advertisers are funding this increase in video by shifting more and more money away from TV budgets. (AOL)

What About the Role of Languages?

The above facts are about video marketing to consumers. One fundamental thing that is not addressed in this research is language. Many multinational enterprises do some of their video ads in native languages. Today, even small and medium businesses can be multinational if they have a web presence. The folks over at Smartling did their own informal poll of 150 marketers. Please note that this poll was about marketing in general and did not address video separately. As video ad spend is a growing portion of their budgets, the results are still relevant.

  • 48% say they have no budget at all for translation outside of the U.S.
  • 59% of respondents do not have any money allocated to reach multilingual audiences within the U.S.
  • Nearly 53% are either not translating at all or are only translating into one language.
  • 86% of marketers admit that they generate U.S.-centric content and then translate it for a particular market.
  • Only 14% create original content, and employ local or native marketers in the countries where they are seeking to expand their business. This despite the fact that 13 languages together cover 90% of today’s online spending power.
  • For those that are translating, a few still rely on machine translation (8.6%); many rely on human translators (42.1%); 14.5% use both; and others are beginning to use translation management software (4.6%).

Find the full survey details in an infographic here .

 

To view our Partner blog, click here

Michael Smolens to Give Keynote at iEARN July 17

CMMA Blog

Keynote Address to iEARN Annual Conference, Marrakesh Morocco – July 17, 2017

YES, IT’S POSSIBLE!

iEARN has 50,000 teachers in 140 countries – with over 1,000 languages and dialects spoken amongst all its countries.

Nelson Mandela said, “When you speak to a man in a language he understands, you speak to his head.  When you speak to him in his native language, you speak to his heart.”

There is an explosion in the creation of all types of knowledge for all purposes – education, training, spirituality, entertainment, religion, marketing, corporate communications, news, etc., a very high percentage of which is in English, or just a few other major languages – most of it is not available in the native languages of over 6 billion people.

There is, at the same time, an exponential increase in the amount of this knowledge being made available in video, which is becoming the dominant way to communicate, tell stories and inspire.

Dotsub, my 9th startup 10 years ago, has a mission to enable all knowledge, of any type, in video format, to be available to all 7.3 billion people in the world in their native language, in all formats necessary including all digital devices including smartphones AND feature phones.

This talk will give three examples of global programs in which Dotsub is involved, which iEARN teachers and students, if they wish, can participate in to help expand global knowledge in music, mathematics and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their native languages. They will be learning new ideas and participating in a global movement, which can in its own way, help increase cross cultural communication and understanding, and a little bit at a time – change the world for the better with the global spread of knowledge.

YES, IT’S POSSIBLE!

  1. Dotsub was asked to partner with a company in the music industry them to do a pilot with the lyrics of 50,000 songs, from primarily English, into a minimum of 15 languages, all done by a global network of volunteer translators – on Dotsub’s platform managed by Dotsub.  This pilot will involve over 2,000,000 Audio Language Minutes (ALMs) which will require about 250 man years to complete by volunteers.

Nothing of this magnitude has ever before been done, as until now, almost all of the billions of lyrics and lyric translations available on the web are illegal, with no rights obtained and no revenue being generated for the music publishers, songwriters or artists.

Since music and songs are a basic global method of storytelling, sharing emotions, and building deep connections between fans of the same artist/song and hundreds of millions of people in all countries of the world sing songs in English, but DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WORDS MEAN.  We have already begun to create a network in India who will be finally, after years of singing lyrics they do not understand with music they love, be able to understand what they are singing.

This is an opportunity for iEARN, to create a program that works for the teachers, to allow those students in any country, speaking any language, to become very early participants in this program.  How the students will be recognized, rewarded, involved is totally up to iEARN, as I have obtained early approval of this exciting project for all its students.

YES, IT’S POSSIBLE!

  1. Global Math Week – 10/10/17 – https://www.theglobalmathproject.org/ – join one million students, teachers, math leaders and adults from around the globe in an astounding mathematical experience. “See mathematics like you’ve never seen it before.”

We are working with James Tanton, founder of the Global Math Project, to enable the entire iEARN community, again if it wishes, on its own terms, to integrate the years of work and thinking of The Global Math Project into individual school/teacher curriculums, while at the same time creating the opportunity to do something on a much bigger global scale with iEARN to become a partner – https://www.theglobalmathproject.org/partners

The Project is focused on the base 10 system of current mathematics – as most   arithmetic and mathematics works on the base 10 system of numbers.  That is why the Global Math Week is on October 10th – the calendar date 10/10/17. Again, this is a totally global opportunity to have iEARN teachers, on their own or in groups, work with a cutting edge global effort, across languages and cultures, to help make math learning fun and collaborative. Teachers or country leaders can become ambassadors – all is possible.

Since Global Math Week is less than 3 months from the iEARN Annual Meeting, time is of the essence to get started with this project for this year, but it will be an annual event.

YES, IT’S POSSIBLE!

  1. SDGs Without Borders – creating a comprehensive global language platform to enable all media, studies, comments, news, or anything else, about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be translated into all the world’s languages using Dotsub platform and volunteer translators. iEARN has been actively involved in studying and including into parts of local curriculums and classes – all determined either at the country or teacher level – with different classes, thoughts, etc.

Dotsub has registered the URL – https://www.SDGsWithoutBorders.com – and is in the very early stages of lining up partners, media companies, NGOs, senior management, funding, etc. to enable the exploding amount of knowledge, comments, media, videos, TV/radio/etc created in any language to be able to be consumed in hopefully hundreds of languages. This will enable all 7.3 billion people in the world, who in total speak 6,800 languages – 85% of which are oral only, to understand what is said and written about each of the SDGs.  The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon created the 17 SDGs starting Jan 1, 2016 –  Dec 31, 2030, following the 15-year program created by the previous UN leader Kofi Annan called MDGs, Millennium Development Goals.

Since iEARN has already embraced the SDGs as a part of their global curriculum, and iEARN countries speak over 1,000 languages and dialects,  active involvement in the program to help SDG related knowledge be available  for all 7.3B people could be a major, long term program for iEARN to embrace,  again in any way it feels, fits into its existing and future agenda.

The above summarizes my thinking into making available to all iEARN teachers and students 3 different global programs – in music/songs, Math, and the SDGs, which will involve cutting edge technology, language, translation, volunteering, learning and huge potential global impact.  That is why I have titled my talk YES – IT’S POSSIBLE.

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Dotsub Upload and Order Changes

CMMA Blog

The Dotsub platform is transitioning to a more flexible method for uploading and ordering captioning and translations for your videos.

As a part of this change, we are retiring the current “Upload & Order” option, that was available for Enterprise clients on the left-hand side panel.

Old menu:
oldmenu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving forward, all uploads can be done by clicking the “Post a New Video” option instead.

New menu:

menu 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should you need to add an order for captioning, translation or burn-in services, you can do so from the convenience of your Project Area, by clicking the “Orders” tab and then the plus sign at the upper right-hand corner, to create a new order.

More information on placing orders can be found at the following link: https://help.dotsub.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2679800-placing-orders

This new approach to uploading videos and ordering services increases the flexibility of our platform, giving you access to a wider range of languages that we currently support, while reducing conversion times for your video files.

To view our Partner blog, click here

Cardiff City Football Club Partners with Dotsub

CMMA Blog

Bluebirds partner with Dotsub to benefit local and global fanbase.

Cardiff – 16 April 2018

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As part of the Club’s award-winning fan engagement and international development programmes, Cardiff City FC has partnered with the video captioning platform, Dotsub.

In addition to social media engagement and accessibility benefits, the Club uses subtitles to localise video content in Mandarin for the emerging Chinese football market and UK-based Mandarin-speaking supporters.

kenm1

Cardiff City FC Executive Director & CEO, Ken Choo, says of the partnership with Dotsub: “Adapting and catering to our fans’ needs will always be at the heart of what we do at Cardiff City, “Not only does our partnership with Dotsub allow us multi-lingual communication with our supporters, but it also improves the accessibility of our video content for the deaf and hard of hearing.

“This is another fine example of our ever-developing fan engagement and international development strategies here at Cardiff City FC.”

dotsub1

Ben Dobson, Dotsub’s Head of Sports Partnerships, said: “The ways in which football fans, particularly millennials, engage with their team is increasingly driven by video across social media.

“The majority of these fans will consume video content on-the-go, with the volume muted, on their mobile device. So, by adding subtitles, the club have taken a timely step to boost their global fan engagement.

“Everyone at Dotsub is delighted to partner with Cardiff City FC. We’re fortunate to count the likes of the NFL and NHL amongst our clients so it’s great to see Cardiff City join this elite group of sporting brands and entities that are leading the way with their fan engagement.”

Editorial notes:

  • Cardiff City FC has recently been nominated for Best Matchday Experience at the 2018 Sport Business Awards in London. This is the club’s second consecutive SBA nomination and comes on the back of another three national and European fan engagement or matchday experience awards in the past two years.
  • Founded in New York, Dotsub is a video captioning platform that allows subtitles to published in any language to boost video engagement and improve accessibility. For more information, visit dotsub.com

To view our Partner blog, click here