Monthly Archives: August 2010

Why outsource audio-visual services

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Time was when one had a great idea, but could not pass it on to anyone other than the person who understood the language in which this idea was conveyed. Think of Tom and Jerry or Mr. Bean being made in English and no other language, only because the team at these production houses did not know any language other than English.

Place yourself in a situation like this. Would you want your creative work to stay restricted in only the place of its origin because there is no way by which this could be communicated to the outer world? This is where outsourcing audio-visual services are a great tool to reaching out to a worldwide audience. This is a great way of not only communicating whatever you want to, to your wider audience; it is also cost effective.

Outsourcing audio visual services is now made very easy. All that needs to be done is hand over the material that needs to be translated into the required language, into the hands of these outsourcing companies, and the completed product is yours soon. Outsourcing audio visual services is necessary because it is obviously not possible to have command or mastery over at the most, a few languages for any person. Moreover, a passing knowledge is not the same as in-depth knowledge or skill needed to actually put down something on paper.

The reason for which you need to outsource audio-visual services is the same for which any other service is outsourced. The prime factor that works when outsourcing any work, namely high expertise at low cost, applies to outsourcing audio visual services too. Companies that offer audio visual outsourcing for your work have highly trained personnel, from whom they get the translation services done.

Many companies offer different kinds of audio-visual service, such as voice-over, sub-titling and captioning. With the world having shrunk like never before, outsourcing audio-visual services is a wonderful idea to implement. Isn’t outsourcing audio visual services a great way to overcome a major handicap imposed by language?

What is audio-visual services outsourcing

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Undoubtedly, the buzz word that has had businesses worldwide in raptures in the last two decades or so is “outsourcing”. The idea of outsourcing has been explained a zillion times over, but is still worth repeating despite its banality. Essentially, it is all about getting some or most of a business’ work done offshore, usually in a distant country, with the intention of cutting on costs. We have heard about software services being the cream of outsourcing. But there is also another related area that is worth being outsourced, and that is audio visual services outsourcing.

The idea of audio visual outsourcing is simple. Let us assume an Iranian production company produces a documentary for children about the theme of a local folktale. The folktale may be relevant in its theme for children across the continents. But how does what is being narrated in an Iranian language get conveyed to children in the west, or for that matter, in Africa? This is when the production house has to outsource audio visual translation services. The greatest benefit outsourcing of audio visual services carries is that it is able to carry local stories to a wider world.

The globalized world is all about taking ideas from one end of the planet to another, that too, within the quickest possible time. One of the inadvertent benefits of technology is that it has brought peoples of the world together. To draw this paradigm to the situation just explained, the idea of audio visual services outsourcing is easily able to spread this Iranian folktale to the rest of the world. Audio visual services outsourcing has made possible in days what used to take centuries earlier.

However, it has to be mentioned that outsourcing audio visual services is not as simple as getting a few software products developed offshore. There is the human element to it. We are talking about a milieu that is related to a certain point of time in history. More importantly, there is the cultural aspect to storytelling that needs to be taken into account. This makes audio visual services outsourcing a challenging proposition. This is also where expertise really matters. These are just some of the factors one needs to take into account while outsourcing audio visual services.

The enormous potential of film sub titling

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Ours is a nation of innumerable cultures and sub cultures. How have these cultures grown? With the use of language, of course. A culture is unthinkable without the language in which it is conveyed. This is all the truer of this country. There are simply so many sub cultures and dialects that without the connecting languages, English and Hindi, one can only guess how much we can communicate to our countrymen in our native tongues. There is perhaps no better illustration of this than the fact that the 15 wise men comprising our Constituent Assembly, which gave us our Constitution, could not speak to one other in their native language!

This is also what offers enormous potential of film sub titling. If there is one element of Indian life that unites us as much as cricket, it is films. Many regional film industries have grown as much as the main Hindi language industry, Bollywood. This is precisely the point at which we need to explore the enormous potential of film sub titling.

We have heard about many classics being made in regional language films. However, India, being a land of such diversity, insulates one language’s influence on another. This is being felt acutely in regional films, too. We have heard, for instance, about Satyajit Ray’s classic creations in Bengali. The problem is, we have only heard, not understood those films! This where one needs to see the enormous potential of film subtitling

Having voice dubbing done is one thing; getting people to read the titles is another. Yes, there are some inherent issues like improper conveying of the spirit of the language. But isn’t this applicable to all other mediums of translation? There is enormous potential of film sub titling because someone in Andhra Pradesh can get to understand the beauty of a Bhojpuri film. Similarly, some of Puttanna Kanagal’s Kannada classics can be enjoyed in Orissa. Why not tap the enormous potential of film sub titling by making subtitles for immortal films like Chemmeen or Sankarabharanam or Mouna Ragangal into say, Gujarati, Marathi or Dogri? Kannadigas pride themselves about having brought Bismillah Khan to play the shahnai for Dr. Rajkumar in Sanadi Appanna. How many people in even Uttar Pradesh, the Ustad’s home state, would be aware that this film was ever made?

These are just some situations in which one can see a great and enormous potential of film sub titling. There are many possibilities when one thinks of the enormous potential of film sub titling. Some subtitles can be made in English for the urban audiences, while the local language can be used for rural and semi rural screening. These are just a couple of points. Many more can be explored. In short, there sure is enormous potential of film sub titling!

Outsourcing trends to India in 2010

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With outsourcing being one of the major revenue earners for the Indian economy, and with it, for millions of families across the country, what happens worldwide in the outsourcing industry is of deep interest and significance to India. Being one of the key players in the area of outsourcing, and the number one destination for global IT outsourcing, India has a lot to be concerned about outsourcing trends in 2010.

Outsourcing to India is a major business activity that spans a whole host of industries ranging from IT to textiles and aerospace to automobiles. So, when one studies about outsourcing trends in 2010, it will be seen that a major component of their volume will be India-centric. Forbes estimated that in the year 2009, the top 2000 companies on its list totaled over $71 billion in outsourcing. A good part of the share belongs to India. So, what are the scenarios in outsourcing trends to India in 2010 and for the remaining part of the financial year?

First, it has to be mentioned that when one talks about outsourcing trends to India in 2010, we are talking about a topic that is indeed too generic and broad to be confined to a few sentences and paragraphs. As we just saw, the range and scope of sectors and activities that get outsourced to the Indian economy, are simply too comprehensive. Thus, a quick glance at the outsourcing trends in 2010 for India is sure to be half hearted and incomplete

If one were to restrict oneself to the prime sector, namely the IT industry, outsourcing trends to India in 2010 carry some pointers. As they say, to see the future, one has to peep into the past. In making an assessment of the outsourcing trends in India in 2010, one needs to look not into the distant past, but into the previous quarter. In the first quarter of 2010, despite the rather sluggish growth 2009 saw; Indian IT companies, as a whole, saw an upswing in fortunes. As expected, the big ones, led by Wipro and Infosys did well.

However, outsourcing trends to India in 2010 was heartening for other, smaller companies as well. Many of these received a shot in the arm, spurred by major reforms carried out by governments. For instance, President Obama announced a comprehensive healthcare reforms package earlier in the financial year. Carrying out this work certainly entails handing over more work to smaller Indian companies. This is set to be a major component of outsourcing trends to India in 2010.

Similarly, industry-specific trends like cloud computing means more business for smaller companies in India. As we know, cloud computing is a trend that has taken the IT industry by storm. Creating cloud computing is going to be another business prospect that is going to keep smaller Indian companies busy for some time to come, although it may not be anytime soon till we seen Indian companies being the major ones in this area. Seen in their totality, outsourcing trends to India in 2010, especially for the IT industry is beginning to look up. Outsourcing trends to India in 2010 seems poised for a brighter outlook, at least from indications available at the completion of the first quarter.

Coping with the ups and downs of translation business

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They say life is like a balance sheet –it keeps changing every year! If this is what can be said about life, what does one say about a business? Haven’t we known for ages, from the time man learnt to do business, that uncertainty is the only certainty in business? Does this explanation offer us a solution to the problem of coping with the ups and downs of translation business? Is there anything that is different about coping with the ups and downs of translation business?

There are some aspects of translation business that are unique to it. First, most projects are long-term. When a client wants a website or a body of literature to be translated into another language, it is usually not something that is expected to be finished within days or weeks. This perhaps provides the first glimpse or clue about coping with the ups and downs of translation business. Since projects are usually long, planning can be done over time. With proper and efficient time management, coping with the ups and downs of translation business becomes a little easier, because in the time saved on planning, one can go about looking for newer projects.

Another way of coping with the ups and downs of translation business is to expand the areas of one’s business specialty. When all that a translation business offers is one language, it makes little sense to be in the business itself. When looking out for translators who do the work for the company, the business could do well to start out with more languages in which to offer translation services.

Of course, the steps mentioned here need resources, enormous patience and careful planning. But since a business is already into translation; it speaks of its simple business logic to offer more areas. More than anything else, this is a profound way of coping with the ups and downs of translation business, because while doing one major project in one language, a project of another language or languages can act as a buffer! Diversity is a kind of load balancer to the idea of coping with the ups and downs of translation business.