Fameplay is an Emmy Award-winning production studio based in Prague that specialises in film, television, animation, and audiovisual storytelling. Since 2018, the company has produced everything from live-action shows and animated series to digital entertainment platforms and branded content. In 2023, the company saw a major shift coming.
“When ChatGPT came along, we started exploring audiovisual tools and how generative AI could support the audiovisual industry,” said Lukáš Záhoř, Chief Producer and Co-Founder at Fameplay.
For a production company based in the Czech Republic, expanding globally had always been difficult. Czech is spoken by only about 10 million people, which limits the reach of locally produced content. “You always end up as a local producer here,” Lukáš explained.
That changed when Fameplay discovered HeyGen. By combining AI avatars with video translation and dubbing workflows, Fameplay evolved from a local production studio into a producer of multilingual content for global audiences.
“For me, it was a gateway to becoming a producer of global content,” Lukáš said.
Going beyond the limits of traditional production and localisation
Before adopting HeyGen, Fameplay’s clients depended entirely on traditional production workflows.
“The only way they could get a video made was by taking time out to go to the studio, get ready for the shoot, film it, then wait for the edit and review the edit,” Lukáš said.
The process was expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to scale. Producing multilingual content was even more complicated. Translation agencies could provide subtitles or captions, but full international video localisation was largely inaccessible for many clients due to cost and production complexity.
“We did not produce international content until we connected all these steps for localisation,” Lukáš explained.
Some projects faced an even greater challenge: the presenters themselves did not exist. One of Fameplay’s major ongoing projects involves creating synthetic sports news anchors for Flashscore, the global sports results platform used by millions of fans across the world.
“They wanted a face for every country where they have a presence,” Lukáš said.
Instead of hiring presenters in every market, Fameplay synthesised AI avatars to deliver localised content globally.
“This allowed them to create content for international audiences,” he said.
Choosing HeyGen for avatar quality and localisation
As Fameplay assessed the increasing number of AI video tools entering the market, the team carried out a side-by-side comparison of multiple avatar and dubbing platforms, such as Synthesia.
“We tested different tools every day and every night,” Lukáš said.
In the end, the company chose HeyGen because of its realism.
“We realised that the quality of the lip sync, even with the first versions, was simply superior,” Lukáš explained.
That quality was crucial because Fameplay was not experimenting casually with AI. The company was delivering professional production work for paying clients and needed consistent, believable results.
“We don’t treat it like a toy. It’s a professional tool,” Lukáš said.
Fameplay became one of HeyGen’s early agency partners, purchasing around 50 avatar studio slots and building a production workflow around the platform. The company also worked closely with the HeyGen team, providing feedback that helped shape agency-focused features such as subspaces.
Today, Fameplay not only creates avatar content for clients but also trains internal client teams to create videos themselves within HeyGen.
Building scalable multilingual AI productions
With HeyGen integrated into its production pipeline, Fameplay developed a workflow optimised for scalable AI-driven content creation.
Every project begins with scripting and voice generation. The team combines HeyGen avatars with professional voice-cloning workflows to create realistic, multilingual performances.
“We always start with a script. We never improvise,” Lukáš said.
The result is a system capable of producing multilingual content at scale, while maintaining character consistency and visual realism.
One of the company’s standout projects is International Volleyball Academy, a YouTube series that has been running for three years in English, Spanish, and German. The show uses an AI avatar of a real volleyball coach who wanted to preserve and share his training expertise with learners across the world.
“He always wanted his skills and knowledge to be preserved,” Lukáš said.
Because the coach still actively travels and trains athletes across the world, traditional production would have been difficult to maintain. Instead, Fameplay created an ongoing AI-powered educational series using HeyGen avatars alongside real footage.
Another major success came through multilingual localisation. One Fameplay-produced show expanded from Czech into seven additional languages.
“That’s incredible, a real step forward in reaching a new audience,” Lukáš said.
Becoming a producer of global content
For Fameplay, HeyGen stands for much more than just production efficiency. It has fundamentally transformed the company’s business model and creative reach.
“What is remarkable is seeing that a company like ours here in Central Europe, focusing on AI audiovisual production, and HeyGen, a startup in LA and San Francisco, went through the same stages of finding the right business model,” Lukáš said.
Today, Fameplay functions both as a production studio and as an AI enablement partner for brands, creators, and media companies. Clients can opt for fully managed projects through Fameplay’s production services or use subspaces to create content independently, with support from their agency.
At the centre of that workflow is HeyGen.
“For me, HeyGen is the anchor for maintaining character consistency and accurate lip sync,” Lukáš said.
By combining AI avatars, multilingual video translation, and scalable production workflows, Fameplay evolved from a local Czech production company into a creator of truly global content.
