Global Peace Ambassador and bestselling author Prem Rawat communicates his timeless message of peace in a wide variety ways: through live events, videos, podcasts, radio, TV, media interviews, books and websites. With the advent of the worldwide pandemic in 2020, livestreaming has increasingly become one of his most popular platforms. From the comfort of their own home, people all over the world with an internet connection and a subscription to his media platform, TimelessToday, now have easy access to his global talks.
These days, Prem Rawat’s global audience is comprised of 50% non-native English viewers. Understandably, watching his livestreams only makes sense if they can view them in their native language.
Easier said than done, however.
Translating Prem Rawat’s talks into multiple languages is both a complex and challenging task – one that is the responsibility of TimelessToday’s global team of translators, technicians and project managers.
If you are a TimelessToday subscriber, tuning into Prem Rawat’s livestreams is simple to do. You log in at the appointed time, choose your native language, sit back and enjoy his presentation.
For the people behind the scenes, however – and there are many of them in several countries – the process of delivering livestream service to a global audience is anything but simple.
Here’s how the process works:
During each TimelessToday livestream, a team of translators is on duty in real time – sometimes as early as 3:00 am. They listen to Prem Rawat’s presentation and translate it in the moment. Then, their translation is mixed, live, with the original audio by a sound engineer, whose job it is to make sure that the sound levels are just right – with the best possible balance between Prem Rawat’s voice and the translation. The resulting content is then streamed live or via replay at a later date, with the video on the TimelessToday app and website.
If there are any technical or quality issues during the livestream, the translation will be re-recorded – a time-consuming process that will cause a delay in the publishing of the Replay on the app and website.
Voice-Over (Audio Translation) & Subtitles
Due to technical and resource constraints, only a limited set of languages can be offered on a TimelessToday livestream. As soon as possible after the livestream, additional languages will be published in voice-over mode, some of them published with subtitles.
Creating subtitles is also a labor-intensive process. First, a professional subtitler needs to create a version with English subtitles – a product that serves as a template for other languages. Once accomplished, other translators translate English subtitles into their own native language. Only then can Prem Rawat’s talks be published on the app and website.
In addition, a closed caption version of the livestream is produced for hearing impaired viewers in English. This version of the livestream will eventually also be enjoyed by TimelessToday subscribers whose grasp of English is limited, allowing them to listen to Prem Rawat’s message directly and view the English captions in order to help improve their understanding.
Adding New Languages
Given Prem Rawat’s increasing popularity, TimelessToday regularly receives requests to add new languages to the app and website. In the spirit of responsive customer service, these requests are always carefully considered. Ultimately, the decision of which specific requests can be honored is influenced by a variety of factors: the number of viewers who speak the requested language, technical and financial constraints, available personnel, and the start time of each event in different time zones.
While demand from subscribers for more languages is likely to always exceed TimelessToday’s limited resources, the TT translation team remains committed to exploring all possibilities in service to their subscribers
