Technology Management
Technology Management with Compass Languages
On many different fronts, solutions to global communication challenges faced by corporations and institutions must be solved through applied technology. It is our commitment to know technology developments in our field so that we can bring relevant and true information to our clients. Not all technology can deliver on its promises, and not all situations are right for technology investment.
Compass Languages has maintained a core value of being agile with customers. Essentially this means that we don’t come into a client relationship with preconceived ideas of what applications they should adopt. Our job is to give information on various solutions and let our clients make an informed and preferential choice.
Read on for some of our recent accomplishments and experiences.
For almost six years, Compass Languages has developed and operated continuous translation platforms. These are situations where a client is creating or distributing content 24/7 and 365 sources of content that come randomly but regularly on each and every day.
Compass has created NMT engines during the past three years. Our work is not just in training engines for languages such as Japanese and Spanish, but establishing the protocols for transitioning from a 100% human translation process (TEP) to NMT/PE via a bridge of adding a reviewer step for a period of time. This intermediate step gives us and the client time to analyze edit distance and P.E. time metrics to assure achievement of quality standards.
Text-to-Speech technology is evolving at a rapid pace. As with machine translation technologies, the real work in meeting client expectations is the management of post-editing techniques. TTS output needs both a linguist and engineer to manipulate the text input to generate the correct annunciations of complex words and phrases in the output. This iterative process has been refined by Compass.
Automatic Speech Recognition tools allow transcription of audio into text so that a script can be re-read, translated, or modified. Tools exist that provide speech-to-text conversions in quite a few languages – with varying results.
As the leading eLearning language specialist in the industry, Compass and Global eLearning have processes in localization that involve extensive testing of the new language version in the client’s LMS platform. The functionality of the eLearning module or video may have been impacted by the unpacking and re-packing of audio recordings, translation of the on-screen text, and interaction layers. We make sure that all new language versions do not impede the learning experience.
It is projected that over 80% of all global content will be in video or multimedia formats in the very near future. Our engineering and Project Management staff have been working with these content file types for years, transforming them through adaptations for expanded timing, lip/phrase sync with new language audios, adjustments of special effects, and with the addition of subtitles/captions. Compass manages all of the intricacies in creating every new language version.