A day in the life of a multimedia services manager

“Dia dhuit,” or hello in Irish Gaelic! 

As Multimedia Services Manager here at Acclaro, I manage production and resources for projects involving video, eLearning and audio elements. My background is somewhat diverse and includes software and sound engineering, video editing and production management. This broad experience is perfectly suited to my day-to-day role, where I spend time resourcing voiceover talent, recording voiceovers, overseeing animations and soundtracks and creating and localizing subtitles. I also support our brilliant teams of project managers and production experts by evaluating client materials, preparing quotes, writing production processes and updating tools and templates.

Working from home for the last 10 years has made the effect of lockdowns more manageable for me and my family than it has for many. My kids are all grown up now and fending for themselves, but my heart goes out to those who manage young families and somehow work through it all from home.

7:00 a.m.

I’m based in Ireland in the beautiful garden county of Wicklow. My day starts around 7 a.m. with feeding my little troop of pets – two cats and two dogs – and putting the tea on.

7:30 a.m.

It’s generally nice and quiet here until lunchtime, when the East Coast wakes up. The morning is a great time to meet on Zoom with our Thailand team to discuss eLearning projects and scheduling to make sure we have enough bandwidth to complete everything. Today, we decided who would take on a very large eLearning project starting soon, translating it into Greek and Hungarian, so it was a good start to the day.

Next, one of our European-based senior project managers needs a video localized into German with voiceover in a Swiss German accent. I gather female and male voice samples so we can review the sound and linguistic quality before adding them to our voice database. I download the video, create a quote and deliver it in Plunet, a translation project management system.

After that, a colleague on the East Coast needs two video subtitling projects quoted and sent to transcription as soon as possible. This is an urgent request, so I get it to our transcribers, let the subtitlers know it’s coming and send the quote. 

Finally, I check in on a project for transcription and voiceover of a 64-minute German video into English. I already sent the quote to the project manager and await approval to start. We will need one female and one male speaking U.S. English for this job. Once we get going, we will send a sample of our preferred talents to the client for approval. 

11:00 a.m.

Time for piano practice. Spending an hour bashing out a few tunes and trying to learn something new really helps to balance the day and recharge the battery. I find playing music completely removes you from the present and allows the brain to go for a jog without any baggage.

12:00 p.m.

Coffee is now percolating, and lunch is on. There is a company meeting coming up on Wednesday. I put together some thoughts and headline notes over lunch for the presentation, so we can get everything ready well in advance.

12:45 p.m.

A regular client wants to use Adobe After Effects for subtitling as they produce their videos in that software. I research and test methods of doing this and set up a nice font template for the subtitles. All works well, the font template looks great with drop shadow and fade-in/fade-out effects. I let the client know it’s no problem, and we will present it to them when they are ready to meet up.

2:30 p.m.

An analyst needs two ballpark quotes for transcription and subtitling into two languages. The client would like various options, including on-screen animations, voiceover and various scenarios for differing quantities of videos and runtime. I have a few questions, so we meet on Zoom to talk over the details.

3:30 p.m.

Time to head off to the forest with the dogs for an hour (or so). It’s a great way to clear the mind of stress and get a bit of exercise. My day is not complete without it!

4:45 p.m.

I respond to the last few emails of the day and join the California site meeting. I enjoy attending the various company and site meetings as working remotely can be a little … well … remote, and it is good to connect with everyone. 

6:00 p.m.

A West Coast analyst completed a complicated quote estimate for voice recording for nationwide TV and radio adverts. I look it over, and all is well. It’s ready to roll out to the team for final scrutiny before submitting it to the client.

6:30 p.m.

I do a quick review of a new request for video transcription and send it along before signing off for the evening. I will put the quote together in the morning but best to give production a head start.

Time for dinner and …

“Slán,” or goodbye!