Laurianne Lecavalier is the co-manager of Voxa Direct, the company responsible for subtitling Emmanuel Macron's speeches live, like that of Tuesday evening at 8 p.m.

Tuesday on Europe 1, she tells how, thanks in particular to an adapted keyboard, she manages to succeed in this tour de force even as she discovers the text at the last moment.

INTERVIEW

The velotypie, few French people know, even though they have already had, for the most part, in front of them.

It was enough for them to watch one of Emmanuel Macron's speeches since the start of the health crisis linked to the coronavirus.

It is thanks to this discipline that Emmanuel Macron's speech can be subtitled live.

This will still be the case on Tuesday at 8 pm, and it will once again be Voxa Direct which will be responsible for this highly technical exercise.

Its co-manager Laurianne Lecavalier came to explain the operation of this live subtitling, Tuesday on Europe 1.

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A keyboard to make "a letter chord"

The tour de force is all the more remarkable as Emmanuel Macron's speech is not transmitted in advance.

"At best, you can really visualize a minute before the teleprompter is scrolling at full speed when they are setting it up", smiles Laurianne Lecavalier.

"But no, we never have the text before. Already to avoid any possible leak. And then beyond that, it can also be modified up to three minutes before the live."

But Laurianne Lecavalier and her team can count on a formidable weapon: a very special keyboard, far from those used daily by the French.

First, the order of the keys has nothing to do with it.

Then there is no letter written on the keys.

"This allows us to write at the speed of speech", explains the young woman.

"We cut up the words in the form of syllables. We make letter chords like a pianist does note chords. We press several keys at the same time. Suddenly, it allows you to go much faster, compared to a AZERTY keyboard."

"You have to activate two keys to get a D"

The handling of the tool requires a certain know-how.

"Each key corresponds to a letter, but some letters are made by combination of keys. For example, there are no D keys. You have to activate two keys to obtain a D", explains Laurianne Lecavalier.

"You have to know everything by heart, it's a job," she laughs.

Laurianne Lecavalier, or one of her colleagues, will therefore be in the France Televisions OB van on Tuesday evening to caption the presidential address.

With a certain pressure.

The last intervention of the President of the Republic had indeed been followed by 32 million people.