Overview
Elevation Church publishes a new message every week. The Sunday sermon runs about 50 minutes, and small-group studies run 15 to 20. Portuguese and Spanish audiences want the same content, in the same voice, in the same week. For years that meant paying a studio, or doing it by hand.
The Challenge
A 50-minute message, every week, in two languages.
The studio was too expensive
A Sao Paulo company produced very good Portuguese dubbing at $1,000 an hour. At that price the church could localize only a few messages.
Doing it by hand took two days
Translating the text and recording the voice for one 50-minute sermon took 15 to 16 hours.
Another tool was slower
One alternative dubbing tool needed 12 hours for the same sermon, and the result was poor.
The content never stops
A new message arrives every week, plus a study video every two weeks and short announcements in between.
The Solution
One person localizes a full sermon
Laura uploads the message, reviews the translation line by line and exports it. A 50-minute sermon now takes about four hours.
The pastor keeps his own voice
Voice cloning carries Pastor Steven's voice into Portuguese, so the message sounds like him and not like a narrator.
Line-by-line editing
She corrects the wording and moves the timing of each line until the speech fits the picture, then runs the dubbing again.
Two voices for one speaker
She sets a second cloned voice for the louder passages, so the delivery changes with the preaching.
A plan that follows the season
The team raises the plan in the months they produce and lowers it when the season ends.
The Impact
Dubbing moved in house
Work that cost $1,000 an hour at a studio now runs on a subscription the church controls.
Sixteen hours became four
One 50-minute sermon took 15 to 16 hours by hand. It now takes about four, including review.
Portuguese and Spanish at scale
More than 3,900 localization projects, with 2,300 in Brazilian Portuguese and 1,150 in Spanish.
A peak of 1,141 projects in one month
In August 2025 the team ran more than a thousand localization projects in a single month.