It was a very long two weeks earlier this month for Sound/Video Impressions. The Des Plaines sound studio recorded 200 hours of Spanish language instruction, edited and mixed it down to six finished hours to meet “an impossible two-week deadline,” said SVI’s Bill Holtane.
SVI was recommended to client Wright Group/ McGraw-Hill “as the only company that could handle such a mass of material in such a compressed period of time,” said Holtane. “We had several engineers tag- teamed on the job, led by Kathy Dunaj. We were working around the clock and we made it.”
The audio program “Viva El Espa?ol” teaches Spanish to second and third graders in a simple style. In order to be considered for curricula for the following school year, the program had to be in schools for testing in some states by April 15 — “the week after we delivered the masters to the client,” said Holtane.
Holtane gives credit for acing the massive job to Myrna Salazar and Trina Navas, of the Hispanic talent agency bearing their names. Acting as consultants to SVI, they provided the English-to-Spanish translated script and the talent to read it. “We couldn’t have done this without their great help,” he said.
The project will return to SVI after the program testing to be ready for schools in the fall.
Sound Video Impressions is located at 110 S. River Road, Des Plaines; phone, 847/297-4360.
