MIAMI BEACH - First Miami-Dade Municipality to TransmitCommission Meetings in Second Language

From: Emediawire (press release) - Dec 13, 2003

Miami Beach is the first municiaplity to offer a broadcast of its city meetings to constituents who speak a second language. The EMMY Award Winning TM SYSTEMS technology makes it all happen.

Miami Beach, FL (PRWEB) December 11 2003--The City of Miami Beach holds the distinction of being one of the first independent municipalities in the country to offer a second language-subtitled transmission of its commission meetings, on a regularly scheduled basis. Introduced this past month, the City plans to replay its commission meetings, in Spanish, the first language of many of its constituents, on its government access cable channel 20. The City also offers real-time Secondary Audio Program (SAP) during the live transmission of its commission meetings.

Utilizing the services of Miami Beach's own International Primetime EMMY Award Winning, TM SYSTEMS and its revolutionary, new, efficient translation, dubbing, subtitling and closed captioning system, the City of Miami Beach has the distinction of offering a fast turnaround, in a second language, to those citizens who do not have English as a native language.

The first "tests" of the new technology took place during the October 15 and November 25, 2003 meetings, and a re-transmission of the December 10 City commission meeting is also scheduled.

"With the growth of Miami Beach's Hispanic population," Miami Beach City Manager Jorge M. Gonzalez said, "We are delighted and eager to offer our City meetings to as many of our citizens as possible. Our plan is to regularly schedule the Spanish-subtitled transmissions so that our local cable television audiences can tune in with regularity, offering the ability to hear the meeting in English and read an accurate translation in Spanish."

The importance of subtitled transmissions, in a second language, brings audiences the ability to truly understand the variety of topics that can be discussed at any time. This is different than "real time" captioning, where there is no time for research, qualifying or defining complex terms or statements, etc. Additionally, with as many as 12 people talking at one time, as is the case with most City meetings, experienced translators will now be able to offer translations for each participant, even if they are all speaking simultaneously, and even if the subject matter is complex in content.

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For more information please contact: Nannette Rodriguez at the City of Miami Beach at (305) 673-7575 or Deeny Kaplan, Exec. VP, TM SYSTEMS at (305) 535-6373. The TM SYSTEMS website is: www.tm-systems.com.

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