Here is the amazing case study about a project we worked on for Philip.
Philip had a unique request: he wanted to have German subtitles for their extensive collection of over 1300 videos stored on Vimeo.
Now, by default, Vimeo only generates English subtitles, so this was quite a challenge. But guess what? we made it happen!
Let me walk you through the process.
First, I want to mention that I had prior experience transcribing and subtitling YouTube videos using a Whisper API which is one of the OpenAI product. So, I assured Philip that we could achieve the same results for Vimeo.
Here’s how it worked for YouTube:
- I extracted the audio from the videos and used the Whisper API to transcribe it, creating a handy .srt subtitle file.
- This file could then be uploaded to YouTube or even used to generate more content using ChatGPT. We could leverage the transcript with ChatGPT to create additional materials and reach a wider audience.
Now, with Vimeo, things were a bit more complicated.
The videos were all private, meaning they weren’t accessible to the public. Unlike YouTube videos I worked on previously, there was no direct way to download private Vimeo videos.
But we found a solution!
I discovered the official Vimeo API, which allowed us to download the videos programmatically.
Exciting, right? To put it to the test, we built a custom app on Pabbly Connect and ran some trials with dummy videos.
It worked like a charm! We were able to download the videos smoothly without any issues.
Once we had the videos in our hands, the next step was to extract the audio from them. Luckily, we found some handy Python libraries that made the audio extraction process a breeze.
With the audio files ready, we could easily generate .srt subtitles using the trusty Whisper API. I assured Philip that we had the technical expertise to make it happen and provide .srt files for all the videos, seamlessly creating subtitles in German.
But here’s where things got even more exciting.
I didn’t want to stop at just manual uploads of subtitles. Uploading subtitle files for over 1300+ videos manually would have taken an incredible amount of time. We needed to automate the process and save ourselves from this daunting task.
Imagine this: if it took around 2 minutes to upload each .srt file, we would have spent over 43 hours just on uploading subtitles. That’s insane! So, what’s the point if can’t truly automate everything?
I delved into the Vimeo API to explore its features thoroughly, and guess what I discovered?
A game-changer! The vimeo API actually had a feature that allowed us to automatically add subtitles to the videos.
Not only that, but we could even add multiple languages, giving viewers the option to choose their preferred language for subtitles. Talk about a win-win!
When I shared this with Philip, he was thrilled to move forward.
On June 20th, we kicked off the project. We developed a custom solution using the Vimeo API, created special API endpoints to extract audio from the videos, and designed a system that would automatically add the subtitles.
Here’s what our amazing system accomplished:
- Fully automated the entire process, saving us loads of time.
- Saved the videos as .mp4 files, extracted the audio as .mp3 files, and generated audio transcripts in the .srt format.
- Trigger the automation system to run.
Now, you might wonder why we saved all .mp4, .mp3 & .srt files. Well, they opens up a world of possibilities for creating additional content.
We could repurpose the transcripts, videos, and audios to generate summaries for students to make it easier to access summary of each videos or even create podcasts. It’s all about maximizing the value of the content we had.
Now coming back to project, To ensure everything went smoothly, we processed an average of 500 videos per day in batches of 100. This allowed us to maintain control, check the logs, and ensure a successful outcome.
Finally, on June 24th, I sent Philip a message with the fantastic news. We had done it!
We had successfully added German subtitles to over 1300+ videos, all done automatically. The feeling of building an automation system and achieving the seemingly impossible was absolutely incredible.
Automation is truly powerful. It makes the impossible possible, saves us a significant amount of time, and even saves money.
I can’t express enough how much I love the power of automation and what it can do for businesses like Philip’s.
So, if you’re facing a seemingly impossible task, think about automation. It might just be the key to unlocking success and taking your business to new heights!