US and New Zealand Technology Innovators respond to global production boom
XL8, a Silicon Valley tech company providing AI-powered machine translation technology, and New Zealand software company Kiwa Digital are moving quickly to take advantage of the global production boom created by tech giants such as Netflix, Amazon, and Disney, launching a new collaboration for audio post-production. Responding to forecasts of explosive demand for localized media content, Kiwa Digital, developers of VoiceQ audio post-production software, announced today a collaboration with US-based XL8, developer of AI-powered machine translation technology optimized for media content.
Content owners and service providers are under increasing pressure to meet the exploding worldwide demand for media titles and deliver hyper-localized translated media to a growing number of platforms. To meet the demands of the market, companies need tools that not only automate and streamline the localization process but also scale to work at the speed of their business. The sector regularly witnesses cases where clients have reported losing 80% of their requested deals due to the lack of capacity.
XL8’s machine translation technology creates opportunities to focus labor on more productive and creative tasks, instead of tedious and repetitive activities that are better suited for automation and AI-powered workflows. Efficiencies gained from less post-editing results in faster delivery times, increased throughput, higher profitability, and reduced costs, thus allowing clients to take on more work while staying competitive with their rates.
Independent blind evaluations reveal XL8’s quality is consistently 20% - 40%+ better than current machine translation platforms due to unique engine training on media and entertainment content that has been 100% hand-curated by professional translators over the past 20 years.
To further increase accuracy, XL8’s technology applies “context awareness,” which enhances the immersive experience for audiences while watching live or pre-recorded streaming or broadcast content.
VoiceQ's dubbing technology makes it easy for translators, adapters, creative directors, sound engineers, and project teams to work together simultaneously, reflecting the industry’s new ways of working. Efficiencies gained from faster, higher quality adaptation and recording improve workflow, delivery times, higher profitability, and reduced costs. VoiceQ’s efficiency is based on the ability to adapt up to 80 script lines per hour, edit and amend scripts in real-time on the fly and record up to 40 lines or 80 cues per hour. VoiceQ’s quality is based on the ability to visually compare the script adaptation with the media file; providing a very precise “word level” guide for creative and technical talent up to 20% better than traditional methods.
Client case studies reveal improved performance across workflows enabling up to 20% more project work year on year. VoiceQ is now recognized for “making sprawling international productions easier, faster and cheaper”
VoiceQ clients can access XL8 by simply entering an API key associated with their XL8 Skroll account. Multiple languages can be captured in one session. Translate directly from Skroll into VoiceQ via API connection. Users can simply right click on a line(s) and select translate, and the service will send/receive from XL8 Skroll.
“Dubbing test case data is compelling. We’ve witnessed scripts over 16500 words machine translated by XL8 from English to French in less than thirteen minutes with +90% accuracy. Supported by professional human quality assurance the total translation process is less than a day compared to 12-15 days with professional human translation. Adaption of the translated script within VoiceQ reveals a further 10%-20% improvement in time and quality. These collective efficiencies are transformational for the sector.” says Steven Renata Managing Director of Kiwa Digital.
“XL8 is proud to offer its Skroll Translation service through an integration with VoiceQ, allowing dubbing facilities and professionals access to the most human-like machine translation on the planet,” says Tim YoungHoon Jung Founder and CEO of XL8. “We're excited to announce this partnership enabling VoiceQ users to access XL8’s unparalleled machine translation quality within a fully integrated workflow. XL8’s machine translation service presents the best quality in the M&E market and will significantly boost the user’s ability to localize their content more efficiently and accurately,” says Jung.
“The industry is calling for global collaboration and efficiency, and for us, this can only be achieved by integrating ‘best in class’ tools. Our focus with this latest development has been on working with the best technology partners available. We reached out to the industry for recommendations on the translation tools they use and were thrilled to find the best of the best was created by XL8 Skroll,” says Renata.
About XL8.ai
XL8 was founded in 2019 by technical executives from Google and Apple, both with an advanced degree in Computer Science from Columbia University. A Silicon Valley tech company at its core, XL8 takes AI-powered machine translation (MT), specially optimized for media content, to the next level. Its advanced technology allows significantly more efficient workflows by providing: in-line editing, automated media transcription with time coding, automated subtitling, synthesized voice dubbing, real-time meeting interpretation, and live subtitling.
XL8’s uniquely specialized translation engines have been built from the ground up utilizing professionally trained, human-perfected subtitles curated from the media industry’s top content producers. XL8’s “secret sauce” offers media-focused translation accuracy up to 40% higher than other generally available MT services. Since its inception, XL8 has surpassed translating 500,000 hours of content and more than 2.5 billion words and currently supports more than 66 language pairs.
For more information, visit xl8.ai.
Follow XL8 on Social Media
Twitter: https://twitter.com/XL8_inc[1] [2] [3]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xl8-ai/
Media Contacts:
USA: Season Skuro, +1-818-903-8205 / seasons@bubbleagency.com
UK: Thais, +44 (0) 7718 985 232 / thaisn@bubbleagency.com
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About Kiwa Digital Ltd
Based in New Zealand, Kiwa Digital is a Māori owned tech company working across the media industry in digital publishing, education technology and post production sectors. Its VoiceQ software speeds up the dialogue creation and replacement process in the post production stage of television, film, video and gaming production, enabling precise synchronization and quality performance.
VoiceQ is now used by over 200 studios globally, including 50 of the largest SVOD network partners, with thousands of professionals delivering over 2 million minutes of dubbed international content per annum.
Underscoring this, it has achieved global brand recognition for helping to drive the global English dubbing boom and sector product recognition as “a really clever piece of kit.”Blockbuster international series that have been dubbed into English utilizing VoiceQ software include five of the top 20 Netflix shows, as well as iconic animated and live action films dubbed into indigenous languages such as Disney’s Moana, The Lion King, Frozen, The Lego Movie and the Predator Sequel - Prey.
VoiceQ is also used for high quality lip sync dubbing in the gaming industry in A-grade games such as The Witcher: Wild hunt, Cyberpunk 2077 and PlayStation 5 titles that include Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, Lego Star Wars and Horizon Forbidden West.
For more information, visit www.voiceq.com
Follow VoiceQ on Social Media
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VoiceQpost
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/voiceq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/voiceqpost
Media Contacts:
New Zealand: Steven Renata steven@kiwadigital.com
UK: Jill Tattersall jill@kiwadgital.com
