Translate live sports automatically to reach international fans with AWS Media Services and SyncWords

This post was co-authored by Giovanni Galvez, VP of Business Development and Strategy, SyncWords.

In a prior blog post entitled Multi-language automatic captions and audio dubbing made possible for live events with AWS Media Services and SyncWords, we described the solution Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SyncWords developed to implement the automation of captions/subtitles for live broadcasts. The solution described in this blog post addresses customer requirements to generate captions/subtitles for live streams without increasing cost or complexity.

The following workflow diagram depicts a standard streaming deployment using AWS Elemental MediaLive for video processing, AWS Elemental MediaPackage, and SyncWords for live caption generation. Compared to the prior blog post, this new workflow uses a recent feature integration from SyncWords—MediaPackage as an origin service. MediaPackage enables customers to originate and package content in both HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and DASH, as well as take advantage of advanced features such as digital rights management (DRM) and multi-protocol delivery.

In the fast-paced world of live sports streaming, reaching an international audience can be a game-changer for scaling viewership. It can also present new challenges both in complexity of delivery and in satisfying local regulations. Real Madrid’s Sports Values, through Fundación Real Madrid, sought to enhance its reach by offering live translations of events. Flumotion, a Barcelona-based tech company specializing in premium live streaming workflows and event distribution, rose to the challenge to help Real Madrid seamlessly translate live streaming events into both English and French.

Real Madrid’s requirements were clear—provide translations for live events made accessible on all devices without requiring changes to video production, contribution workflow, or their client players. Flumotion’s solution uses MediaLive to transcode live events and relies on SyncWords for automatic live translation of video streams. The result is a seamless, elegant delivery method that guarantees standard playback of translated subtitles for all viewers.

Miguel Chirivella, COO of Flumotion, reflected on the success of the project: “Our live streaming project for Real Madrid was a huge success. We easily translated live sports into multiple languages with SyncWords and AWS for HLS streaming.”

This workflow leverages the power of AI for speech-to-text and machine translation, and applies it to live video production and streaming. In the previous architecture workflow diagram, a contribution stream is sent to MediaLive to create an adaptive bitrate (ABR) HLS stream. Next, the HLS stream is pushed to SyncWords using WebDAV for both speech-to-text transcription and multi-language translations. Finally, SyncWords augments the manifest with references to the various language tracks, which are then pushed to MediaPackage and distributed via a content delivery network (CDN).

The SyncWords solution is deployed natively on AWS and is available via API for seamless integration. In addition, SyncWords can leverage other machine learning services like Amazon Polly for live automatic voice translations synchronized to the dialogue of sports programming, providing an alternative for viewers who prefer listening to audio translations instead of reading subtitles.

Flumotion, using AWS Media Services and SyncWords’ live caption/subtitle services, broke language barriers and unlocked new possibilities for engaging global audiences in the complex world of live sports streaming. Real Madrid’s international fanbase now enjoys the thrill of live events, no matter where they are located or what languages they prefer.

Conclusion

This blog post described how to enable live events with multi-language captions using AWS and SyncWords. To learn more about creating a live event pipeline using AWS, please refer to our Live Streaming on AWS solution. In addition, if you’re interested in getting started with AWS Media Services, please visit the product page. For live event captioning solutions and integration documentation, please visit SyncWords.