iWorld
Eros Investments, Wipro sign agreement to develop content localisation solution
Mumbai: Eros Investments on Thursday announced that it has signed an alliance agreement with IT firm Wipro to evolve and scale the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based content localisation solution.
The solution will automate the time-consuming manual content localization process of subtitling and dubbing with near human-level accuracy, driving significant cost and time savings for global media organizations, post-production, and direct-to-consumer over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms.
Eros Investments’ data science experts, in collaboration with Wipro’s technology team, will leverage latter’s Vantage solution, an AI/ML-powered content intelligence platform which uses Google Cloud’s Translation AI suite of services to develop both ‘Speech to Text models’ and ‘computer-generated voice from Text to speech’, including voice cloning, emotion tagging, and speed syncing in various languages.
The first phase of automated translation (Subtitling) will be available in multiple languages, including English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Malay, Bahasa, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and Bengali. The ‘use cases’ will be useful in training models to develop the solution in other languages later. Wipro’s Vantage helps extract intelligence/metadata from various forms of content, video, audio, images, printed text and more.
Eros Investments and Wipro’s joint content localization service will be available to media and entertainment companies in two deployment models: platform-as-a-service and private cloud deployment.
“Organizations across the media and entertainment space are increasingly seeking out solutions that enable language translation with accuracy and at scale,” said Google Cloud managing director- global systems integrator partnerships Victor Morales. “Wipro and Eros Investments’ content localization service, combined with Google Cloud’s machine learning capabilities, will provide customers the functionality they need to deliver audiences everywhere exceptional viewing experiences”.
“In a world where content is taking precedence and crossing the cultural & language barrier, subtitles and dubbing have become a critical component of the video viewing experience,” said Eros Investments director Swaneet Singh. “It is well known that ‘good subtitles can’t save a bad film, but bad subtitles can ruin a good one,’ which is one of the reasons why we are co-investing with Wipro in a robust and automated translation solution. As global content reach grows, accelerated and accurate localization will be key in making premium original and catalog programming available to new global subscribers and audiences.”
“With the ability to scale easily based on client needs, our AI translation solution is ideal for media companies looking to expand their global audience footprint,” said Wipro senior vice president and sector head-communications, media and information technology Malay Joshi. “In addition to improving the accuracy of translated content, our offering will reduce the manual effort involved in translation, bringing down costs and time to market significantly. Improving the ability of viewers worldwide to access and enjoy content from other markets will help increase overall global viewing and OTT platform growth and we are very proud to support this effort.”
Eros Investments is a global media, entertainment and technology portfolio of ventures including Eros Media World, Eros Now, Xfinite’s Mzaalo and others.
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
