This was a complex project considering that it included various facets of localisation like text, subtitle, OST (On-screen text) translation, voice over services and integration of these digital assets on the client product platform. The team at Ulatus did a remarkable job in executing this project in a very short & challenging timeline while meeting all deliverables.
Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-based digital curriculum resources for K-12 classrooms worldwide. They encourage lifelong learning for students and teachers alike with award-winning digital textbooks, high-quality content, and the largest professional learning community of its kind.
Serving Classrooms Around the World - Discovery Education serves over 4.5 million educators and 45 million students, approximately half of U.S. classrooms and primary schools in the U.K., and more than 140 countries around the globe.
Programs for Teaching and Learning - Discovery Education supports K-12 teachers and feeds student curiosity with award-winning curricular resources and dynamic professional learning.
Discovery Education was seeking to localise their entire digital curriculum from English to Brazilian Portuguese. The scope included classroom content, images, videos, subtitles and OST (On-screen text) integration. The wordcount was more than 100K words for translation and around 200 videos for voiceover and OST (On-screen text) integration. We had to complete the localisation in the given phased timeline to ensure the curriculum was launched in the targeted market on time.
Localisation of digital assets has its own sets of challenges. We had to carry out multiple services like translation, voice over, OST (On-screen text) integration, subtitle review, video editing, subtitle review and video editing as a part of this project. The content for localisation was scattered across various sections of the client product application and it included a lot of links as well, so we had to ensure that we are not missing out any content. Finally, after the translation and post production work, the whole content was being checked and final QA done by the client reviewer before being uploaded in the relevant sections of the product.
A critical component of the project was the handling of video, OST (On-screen text) and subtitle integration after the translation. Ulatus' studio production team that was expected to have good knowledge and experience in handling the video assets as there were going to be more than 1,000 videos in the scope of this project. The placement and integration of on-screen text (OST (On-screen text)) was also an extensive part of the project and had to be managed as well.
The client gave us a very competitive and challenging timeline for completing this project. Due to mutliple services required we had to work on ensuring proper planning and delivery in a phased manner so that the quality review and finalisation could be done on time. For instance, we were finalising and uploading over 230 digital assets and localising a wordcount of over 100k per month, on average.
The client brought onboard a dedicated QA reviewer for this project. The QA lead, being an expert in Brazilian Portuguese and from a journalist editor background, was very thorough and articulate in her review work. She was the final authority on the content finalisation and our team had to ensure all the changes were done as per their recommendations. And we had to update everything that came up as a part of the QA review process on an immediate basis, i.e. within 24 hours.
Ulatus assisted Discovery Education in localising their digital curriculum for Brazilian Portuguese in a very short time frame ensuring all assets were released on the product in the agreed time lines. We managed to meet all client requirements, through some of the key efforts mentioned below:
Ulatus team broke down the services required by the client in a logical manner to help in managing the high volumes and also speed up timelines by working on them simultaneously. Services included were translation, voice over, OST (On-screen text) integration, subtitle review and video editing. We first completed all the translation work and then had it reviewed by the client's QA reviewer before starting the studio production parts like voice over, video editing, integration etc. Once the final QA was done, we uploaded the final studio boards on the client application which could then be accessed by the students.
Our expert localisation and digital studio production team worked very closely in providing the required localised digital content in Brazilian Portuguese to the client. The entire execution was done by the in-house team of experts at Ulatus and our internal arm expert that specialises in transcription, voiceover, captioning, and subtitling services. The entire content which included text, images, videos, podcast, audio books were handled by our digital studio experts ensuring there was consistency in the audio & video/OST (On-screen text) integration and translation tone & style were maintained as per client requirements.
Having a dedicated full time QA reviewer at clients end made the whole workflow quite seamless and fast. The reviewer would provide us the updates / edits in batches on a daily basis in multiple intevals. As soon as the review was received we would consult with our linguist who was available during the client time zone and get the edits updated within a few hours and if the quantity would be more, then it would be done in max 24 hours. In order to avoid any localisation issues with the video / voice over content, we used to provide the translated content to the client reviewer and once we got a final go ahead we would do the voice recording accordingly and intergrate the video / OST (On-screen text) accordingly on the client application which would eventually be accessed by the students.
For high quantum projects like these the communication between client and localisation partner teams is extermely critical and needs to be managed well. We assigned a highly qualified Project Management lead to this project who managed realtime and continous communication between the client PM team, linguist & the studio team to ensure every minute update was captured, reviewed and executed by the relevant party on a realtime basis. For this we used the client communication tools like SLACK as well as conducted weekly meetings with the client PM team which included the client QA lead and the Production lead. We also ensured that the Brazilian Portuguese linguist who worked on this project was available during client working hours. All these measures helped in providing round the clock service to the client and in delivering the required flawless translation quality output in a faster time frame.
Our team worked tirelessly and literally provided 24/7 service in localising the clients digital curriculum using effective Project Management and collaborative approach with the client project team and ensuring customer delight at all stages of the project. This resulted in us bagging more work where we continue to provide our top class services to Discovery Education.
