Montreal, June 3, 1996 -In January, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) handed the problem of the French translation of all weather reports during the Summer Games to the Chandioux Group, Montreal. On May 13, the Group delivered and successfully tested a special version of its machine translation system, METEO ®.

English and French are the two official languages of the Games. An international team of meteorologists working for the NWS in Peachtree City, Georgia, is responsible for issuing weather forecasts, watches, warnings and advisories in both languages throughout the period of the Summer Games. The Georgia version of METEO ensures the accurate, rapid translation for all possible weather conditions - sunny days, wind, rain, even cyclones - using a lexicon of more than 3,000 weather-specific terms. While the special NWS version is new, the original system has already given ample proof of its superiority. Today, METEO translates some 27,000,000 words per year for the Canadian Government Translation Bureau, making the Chandioux Group its largest independent supplier of translation. In March 1997, the Translation Bureau will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its use of METEO for Environment Canada.

The Chandioux Group prides itself on its ability to design systems that work, as demonstrated by their success in providing made-to-measure solutions to government and major Canadian corporations. The Group's General TAO System automatically generates translated group insurance policies; LEXIUM ® is used to translate the Canadian Intellectual Property Office's Trade-Mark Journal. The Canadian Commissioner of Official Languages recognized METEO's contribution in his 1993 Merit List.

As John Chandioux, the Group's President says, "We are proud of the fact that, in the short time available to us, we were able to develop a translation product that provides 95% accuracy. It's like winning a first medal for Canada!"

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