Belgium’s Videohouse chooses SubtitleNEXT

Belgium’s Videohouse media facilities selected PBT EU’s SubtitleNEXT software to further enhance their content services department predominantly for the creation of subtitles. PBT EU develops and provides performance-leading solutions and customisable engineering system integration to empower content providers, broadcast, production, and post-production professionals to operate efficiently at the forefront of an ever-evolving digital environment.

Two levels of SubtitleNEXT, chosen by Videohouse included SubtitleNEXT Explorer and SubtitleNEXT Expert. SubtitleNEXT is a user-friendly, innovative, customisable, intuitive timed-text software platform. Already adopted across various multimedia industries, it easily adapts to any settings, resolutions, and formats across online video, TV, film, theatre, concerts, festivals, conferences and events. It can be applied throughout the entire production process from concept to distribution.

Well-established for over 30-years, Videohouse dominates the Belgian market by producing films and videos, owning television and broadcast studios, and offering TV, news, movie, and B2B production, as well as AV engineering services. Renown for seeking out the best in technology and expertise and owing to its continued success, Videohouse is able to invest in innovative systems, and therefore maintains its status as a forerunner in a competitive market.

Videohouse also boasts state of the art post-production services hosting a versatile department of video editors, audio mixers, colourists and graphic designers who work closely together to obtain the very best creatively. Videohouse also has its own Playout Centre that can be flexibly adapted to the specific needs of the various types of broadcaster.

Maria Maria Markovska, PBT EU’s Sales and Product Specialist at PBT EU says, “We collaborated with the Videohouse team to customise and adapt the SubtitleNEXT software usability and efficiency to match the requirements set by the Subtitling department at Videohouse. The PBT EU team worked to deliver an optimum, high quality, streamlined and future-facing solution within an environment that provides maximum flexibility to meet the varied demands in an extremely busy department that faces a large daily workload of content to complete at tight turn arounds. ”

Ann Van Bogaert, Head of the Subtitling /Translation Department at Videohouse confirms, “Software licenses of SubtitleNEXT Explorer and SubtitleNEXT Expert from PBT EU were recently installed and integrated into our workflow to boost efficiency. We have wasted no time in putting the software to work and we are already systematically implementing it in our day to day work.”

Elisabeth Barber, Subtitler/Translator at Videohouse who is currently using the SubtitleNEXT software on a full-time basis, reveals, “We have been using SubtitleNEXT for a couple of months now, mainly for creating subtitles and proofreading existing subtitles. It’s still relatively new to us, so we still have to get accustomed to it a bit more, but it has already proven to be a decent subtitling tool.”

By creating customised hot key selections and keyboard shortcuts, PBT EU provided users at Videohouse with direct access to and from individual workstations thus allowing Subtitle artists to easily switch between source devices, whenever they need to. Maria at PBT adds, “Maximum flexibility is achieved by allowing every operator set up to a personal preference, essential in subtitle creation within broadcast production, therefore we wanted to create a truly flexible and efficient workflow to make our client’s work life easier.”

Elisabeth at Videohouse expands, “Once the software was set-up to suit our needs  with keyboard shortcuts, subtitle parameters and so forth, it was then really easy to work with. Some of the shortcuts are very useful such as Go to Current Cue In, Go to Current Cue Out, Take In Linked and Take In out.”

The PBT EU team are also very conscious of how crucial security is to the Videohouse team and that their clients’ confidential and highly sensitive material has to be safeguarded and protected at all times.  Elisabeth outlines the advantages of SubtitleNEXT in this vital area, “Since we often work with confidential content, another aspect that is very important to us is that supporting video files are not stored locally. This means that we do not have to erase any folders before we take the computer home to work. All in all we are happy with our transition to SubtitleNEXT. We have received incredibly helpful support and we look forward to working with it in the future.”

Media Project Manager at Videohouse Willem-Alexander Hameeuw affirms, “The efforts taken by the PBT EU team to follow-up and to develop on the spot are quite exceptional in the broadcast world! A major advantage.”

Maria at PBT EU concludes, “Videohouse distinguishes itself from the competition by supplying great services to a wide range of customers in the TV industry. There’s a simple secret to their success and simply that is that they deliver what customers want. This has resulted in successful turnover and coordinates with PBT EU’s own strategy and outlook with regards to attitude to the customer as King. We also ensure that we are responsive to our clients and provide the support they need 24/7.”

Videohouse has worked on high-profile projects such as the Olympic Games to the Eurovision Song Contest, and serves big-brand accounts such as Endemol, CanalZ, Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament, Fremantle Media, Play Sports, MediaLaan, Ring TV, Rai Italia, RTL TV1, and vrt, to name just a few.