Comms was approached by a Dublin company called Dualway Coaches, who wanted to produce recordings in other languages for their bus tours of the city. This was a very exciting project, as it would be the first time that foreign language tours were to be offered in Dublin.
Dualway had produced a script of the tour that they wanted to have translated into six languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Japanese. We opted to use linguists who either lived in the city, or knew it very well, as we thought that they would produce the best translations. We also picked people who were experienced voiceover artistes, living in Ireland, as we knew that their knowledge of Dublin would be an enormous asset when it came to pronouncing Irish names.
After all of the translations were completed, we sent one of our audio technicians over to Dublin to do the recordings. Having a portable recording studio is a huge asset, as it allows us to use people who are based anywhere. It can also be a very cost effective approach, as renting time in studios can be more expensive than is necessary.
The multilingual bus tour began service on Sunday 25th July 2004, and Dawn Nolan of Dualway said "I am a French speaker myself, and I must say I was very impressed with the French section of the tour, and I'm delighted to say the sound through the headphones is fantastic". The public feedback from this project has also been amazing. Very positive and complimentary.
Interestingly enough, Comms has recently been over in Dublin again re-recording some alterations to the script because Dublin City Council decided to change the one way system in the city, which meant that some of the tracks and a lot of the track timings changed, as well as the route of the tour.
The same sound technician begged to be sent back! Probably something to do with the Guinness.
If you would like a quotation, please let us have the following information:
Which languages do you need for the voiceovers?
Will you be providing a finished script, or do you need us to adapt into a script a document that has already been written?
Are the timings within the recording critical? Please bear in mind that, in comparison to English, the equivalent sentence in another language may be longer (most likely), or shorter.
In which format would you like the files to be returned to you?
Please provide us with the original English files.
Please contact us for a discussion about your particular requirements.
