Language is often a barrier to effective communication in the modern digital world. A person cannot imagine going about their daily routine or working online if they cannot comprehend the language in which it is being spoken, written, or expressed (Kumar Adhikary et al., 2023). While general content types such as blogs and articles can be easily translated into multiple languages by translators working remotely, the translation of webinars and podcasts is a much more challenging task.

For any institution, organization, entity, or individual trying to hold on to their audience and keep up with competition, going global is the key to success. In the modern digital world, there is almost no hurdle to going global with content. The only problem is language. This has been intensified by the rise in popularity of live webinars that aim at gathering and connecting a global audience as they happen in real time. However, it can be quite difficult for different individuals to engage with a live webinar held in a language they do not understand. Despite the growth of globalization, there are still linguistic and cultural borders that cannot be crossed. This section presents a discussion of the services that localize live webinars to get rid of the language barrier and the issues that arise in the process on all fronts.

The Role of Translation in Live Webinars

Translation plays a specific role in the context of live webinars that cannot be ignored. Although identifying translation can be a challenge, word-for-word translation is often perceived as the most “transparent” mode of translation, which refrains from taking liberties with the original context that remains the same in the translation (SANTINI, 2015). Thus, an automatic word-for-word translation may be considered translation in a wider sense, despite being often felt as a “poor” translation. Translation can also concern other linguistic micro-units, such as formulas and document genres. Accurate, clear and successful websites would be ones that follow norms of both the cultural tradition of the prospective users and the translation tradition of the TL country. Language has often been used as one but not the only system of representation as it cannot deliver meaning on its own. Representation by the simultaneous and multiperspective organization of sound, written and visual elements can create a link between ‘particular’ narratives and the ‘universal’ experience of audience members who find it “natural” (Kumar Adhikary et al., 2023).

Bi- and multilingualism is becoming increasingly vital not only in societies but also on official and day-to-day organizational and institutional levels. However, being multilingual cannot be taken for granted linguistically, socially, culturally, politically and pedagogically. Cultural practices, beliefs, images, stereotypes and assumptions are all related to language use and learning thus making any challenge of the monolingual statuses within the societies “delicate, complex and potentially political issues”. Having multilingual national languages on the one hand shows the multicultural disposition of the state itself, on the other hand, creates tensions between the different ethnic communities within societal groups. Due to historical, social and political circumstances, some of the languages and their speakers experience dominance whereas others live in a peripheral or a minority status and suffer oppression, exclusion and deprivation. However, language choices can also be taken as a form of power and domination (discourse strategies) regarding the bilingualism/trilingualism/imultilingualism of the citizens.

Benefits of Translation Services

In-person and hybrid events have become a new norm post-pandemic. Speakers at these events share their opinions, overcome challenges, and share cutting-edge technologies, reaching out to a global audience. However, the recent past has witnessed geopolitical tensions leading to mistrust in cross-border communication. This has hindered non-native speakers of a language from sharing their opinions across borders. Any opinion can turn into a debated question. These kinds of situations called for the need for bilingual webinars involving two languages that can foster communication and debate, be it technical or trivial. Yet bridging the gap in belief systems involves more than just translation but also the need for cultural equivalence (Kumar Adhikary et al., 2023).

Translation is the process of converting a content piece from a source language to an equivalent piece in a target language, offering an opportunity to reach out to a wider audience. A rich and informative text in one language becomes barren and less informative if translated word for word in another language. Translation services as a content piece localization process help conquer these barriers by fostering inclusive communication across borders and augmenting the audience reach of the content piece or event. Events with translation services enlisted are engaging as speakers can communicate with the target audience in their language of comfort and ease (SANTINI, 2015). Participants attending the events can gain much through translation as their queries, doubts, agreements, and disagreements can be entertained in their language of comfort. As for webinars or video conferencing events, it enriches understanding as the participants are engaged in both speaking and listening in their language.

Challenges and Solutions

In addition to the benefits that translation services can offer for webinars, there are some challenges that could be encountered. Some of these challenges can only be mitigated. Others can be avoided by following certain best practices. In any case, having knowledge about them is helpful for anyone interested in pursuing this live event translation avenue. Such a view will accompany the previous discussion on the benefits of translation services.

The first set of challenges deals with localization aspects. Translating on the fly is a challenge by itself, regardless of what language pairs are being dealt with. On the technical side, the instant retrieval of matching translation segments is limited or impossible, and the speakers have to talk slower to leave time for the interpreters to catch up. One potential solution here is to go for an automated solution – a kind of machine interpreting that is being experimented by large stakeholders in this field (World English Journal and Y. Alwazna, 2022). Unfortunately, such systems are at an experimental stage now, and they are usually not a viable solution.

When it comes to established best practices that could smooth the realistic translation process, several points should be made. First and foremost, it is important to properly prepare the speakers for the event. Translating live on the fly is possible when having organized such translation services both for the organizing and the presenting side. It is a good idea to have a dedicated (at least) a person for communicating with the interpreters, clients, and presenters. Dubbing and other translation-related departments should have direct communication as the text produced for subtitles should work for the presenters. It is always advisable to have time-coded transcriptions of the recorded video beforehand (there are tools to assist this), and providing them together with the slides and other relevant materials significantly increases the quality of interpreting.

Dubbing: Enhancing the Global Reach of Webinars

Translation as an option is very good for people who are looking for a more affordable live webinar localization solution, but it doesn’t really allow the webinar to truly reach a global audience. Dubbing is the next, and more advanced, option on the webinar localization service list. A common misconception about dubbing is that it is just a higher-end translation service, when in fact dubbing has the largest impact on how a webinar can reach a much bigger audience. Dubbing services in general can help a business expand their reach exponentially with a much higher audience engagement level. For example, there is a massive amount of potential business for Spanish dubbing for English webinars in the US alone. A huge market of purely Spanish speaking viewers in the USA is entirely inaccessible for English only webinars (Feuz and Barekatain, 2018).

In general, it is much easier to attend and engage with a live webinar in someone’s native language. Attending a live webinar in a non-native language is still possible, but there are many downsides. For example, it requires constant focus which can be tiring and lead to missed content or misunderstandings, even for bilingual people fluent in that language. Not to mention how difficult it is for people who speak languages like Mandarin or Arabic, who would need to find highly bilingual people in very niche work industries, read from an extremely strict interpretation script, and risk the chance of misunderstood words (Saunders and Namboodiri, 2024). Attending a webinar in someone’s native language is a more enjoyable experience, allowing the audience to listen, engage, and exchange thoughts more naturally, just like in everyday conversation.

Voice Cloning: Personalizing Webinar Presentations

Voice cloning is a pioneering service that actively tailors webinar content to suit every cultural and linguistic criterion, making it personal. By following the presenter’s pitch, intonation, and the stamp of their voice, the speech style is faithfully recreated with an artificial voice, resulting in a hosted and relatable appearance by an AI clone of the presenter (Xing and Ma, 2022). With 10 minutes of the speaker’s voice audio, this technology creates a model that never needs the speaker to be present again. Now, the presentation can be broadcasted in a different language! This means the connection to potential customers or interested parties will be much stronger.

Following the same pitch and intonation, the AI voice will lift eyebrows when the clone smiles or furrow them with a frown. The audience will feel the same empathy and motives as the original speaker, enhancing their attention and engagement. The completion of this project will undoubtedly change the future of webinars (Lux et al., 2022).

Lip Sync Technology: Improving Audio-Visual Synchronization

The advent of lip sync technology, a unique blend of audio and video processing, has made a significant mark in improving audio-visual synchronization. Its use was limited to dubbing animated series and commercials but has recently gained popularity in the corporate world and presentations. This technology significantly enhances webinar experience, improving viewer engagement and retention.

When a speaker’s lip movement precisely aligns with the audio, it creates a seamless viewership experience. However, slight mismatches between the audio and visual elements can divert viewers’ attention and disrupt the webinar’s overall communications. Lip sync technology’s primary function is to align the audio and visual elements of a webinar, resulting in improved viewer experience and heightened engagement. The mounting viewer count for webinars, especially post-pandemic, makes it a lucrative choice for lead generation by organizations. Therefore, it is imperative to invest in quality-audio visual presentation for effective outreach (Kumar Adhikary et al., 2023).

Harnessing lip sync technology during webinars demonstrates an organizations’ ingenuity and edge over competitors. It depicts respect towards viewers’ lingual preferences. Furthermore, several qualifications can be rendered by ensuring precise audio-visual coherence: dubbing done in a notable recording studio, high-quality equipment employed during recording, and expert localization services availed (Wang, 2022).