Every project at Gotham Lab is handled exclusively by our New York City team. No outsourcing. No offshore vendors. No subcontractors. Every translation, every subtitle file, every voice-over recording, every caption track, and every audio description is produced, reviewed, and delivered by the same team you speak to when you contact us. That has been our founding principle since day one — and it remains the standard we hold ourselves to on every project we take on.
Our Story
Gotham Lab was founded in 2007 by Philip Kotur — a New York City recording engineer and audio production specialist whose career path through some of the city’s most respected institutions gave him a unique perspective on what language services could and should be.
Philip began his career at Systems Two Recording Studio in Brooklyn — one of New York City’s premier professional recording facilities — where he worked as a recording engineer on a diverse range of music productions with a particular focus on Jazz and Latin Jazz. The technical precision, the sensitivity to performance nuance, and the commitment to broadcast-quality audio that define Gotham Lab’s production work today are rooted in that early studio experience.
Philip Kotur — Founder & CEO
Philip leads every significant client relationship at Gotham Lab personally. He is the primary point of contact for new client engagements, project consultations, and any situation that requires direct senior oversight. This level of personal involvement from the founder is unusual in the language services industry — and it is precisely what clients in demanding production environments, legal settings, and high-profile cultural institutions have come to rely on.
Under Philip’s leadership Gotham Lab has grown from a focused New York City language services operation into a globally recognized provider of translation, subtitling, voice-over, closed captioning, audio description, and CCSL services — with work that can be heard and seen at some of the world’s most visited cultural institutions, on major streaming platforms, and in broadcast television productions across multiple continents.
Our Work —
Nearly Two Decades of Production
Since 2007 Gotham Lab has been producing translation, subtitling, voice-over, audio guides, closed captions, and localization content for clients across every industry — from independent filmmakers preparing festival submissions to Fortune 500 corporations localizing global eLearning platforms, from broadcast television networks requiring FCC-compliant closed captions to some of the world’s most visited cultural institutions producing multilingual audio guide experiences for millions of international visitors.
Museum Audio Guide Production
One of Gotham Lab’s defining areas of expertise is multilingual audio guide production for museums, galleries, historic sites, and cultural institutions. The relationship began with a landmark commission — audio guide production for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, one of the world’s largest and most visited art museums. That project established Gotham Lab’s reputation for the precise combination of linguistic accuracy, vocal quality, and production expertise that world-class institutions require.
If you have visited a museum, landmark, or cultural attraction anywhere in the world, there is a reasonable chance you have heard a Gotham Lab production. Our audio guide work spans dozens of languages, hundreds of hours of recorded content, and institutions on five continents — all produced in-house from our New York City studio.
Film, Television & Streaming
Gotham Lab has provided subtitling, closed captioning, voice-over, dubbing, and movie localization services for film and television productions distributed across broadcast networks, streaming platforms, and theatrical release worldwide. Our work includes multilingual captioning and translation for Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations — Seasons 8 and 9 — one of the most internationally recognized food and travel documentary series in television history.
We provide complete localization packages for independent films, documentary productions, and commercial content destined for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, Hulu, and all major streaming platform delivery — meeting each platform’s specific technical specifications for subtitles, closed captions, audio description tracks, and CCSL documentation.
Translation & Language Services
Gotham Lab’s translation services span business, legal, technical, document, certified, and multimedia translation in more than 50 languages. Our clients include law firms requiring certified legal translations, global corporations localizing marketing and communications content, educational institutions translating academic materials, and government agencies requiring linguistically precise official document translation.
All translation work is performed by native-speaking specialists with subject-matter expertise in your specific industry — not generalist translators working across all fields. Legal translation is handled by translators with legal backgrounds. Medical translation by translators with clinical or pharmaceutical expertise. Technical translation by translators with engineering and technical production credentials.
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gotham Lab’s audio guide work expanded to some of the most recognized and visited cultural institutions and landmarks in the world. Our audio guide productions can be heard at:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — New York City
- Windsor Castle — Windsor, United Kingdom
- Buckingham Palace — London, United Kingdom
- The Royal Archives — Windsor, United Kingdom
- The Empire State Building — New York City
- The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Sagrada Família — Barcelona, Spain
- The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Universal Studios
Free quote — same day response
Contact us for a precise project quote. We respond to all inquiries within one business day. Rush turnaround available for time-sensitive deadlines. Ready to start? Contact Gotham Lab for a free consultation!
Our New York City Studio
Gotham Lab operates from an in-house recording studio in Midtown Manhattan — equipped with industry-standard professional audio production tools including Pro Tools, Logic Pro, and Vegas Pro, alongside professional-grade microphones, preamps, acoustic treatment, and monitoring systems that deliver the pristine broadcast-quality audio our clients require for film, television, streaming, and international distribution.
Every voice-over recording, dubbing session, audio description narration, and museum audio guide production at Gotham Lab is recorded, engineered, and delivered from this in-house facility. Our experienced audio engineers and voice directors bring decades of production expertise to every session. Virtual client monitoring via video conference is available for all recording sessions at no additional charge — giving clients anywhere in the world real-time creative input without traveling to New York.
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- Three Time Academy Award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis recording at Gotham Lab’s New York City studio.
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- Academy Award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis recording at Gotham Lab’s New York City studio.
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- Academy Award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis recording at Gotham Lab’s New York City studio.
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- Studio A
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- Studio B
Our Approach —
In-House, No Outsourcing
The language services industry has a well-established model — receive the project, pass it to a network of freelancers, subcontractors, or offshore teams, aggregate the output, and deliver. It is a model built for volume and margin, not for quality and accountability.
Gotham Lab was founded on a different premise. Every project is handled in-house by our New York City team — the same people you speak to when you contact us. The translator working on your legal document is on our team. The engineer recording your voice-over session is in our studio. The specialist timing your audio description track is at their workstation in Midtown Manhattan. There is no handoff to an anonymous third party at any stage of any project.
This in-house model has three concrete consequences for every client:
Quality — when the same team handles a project from intake through delivery, quality standards are consistent and accountable. There is no quality degradation at the handoff points that plague outsourced production pipelines
Confidentiality — every project at Gotham Lab is handled under strict confidentiality protocols. NDAs are standard practice. Your content never passes through third-party systems, offshore servers, or external freelancer platforms
Cost — the in-house model eliminates the agency markup that accumulates when projects pass through multiple vendors. Gotham Lab’s rates are 20–30% below the national average for comparable services — not because quality is compromised, but because margin is not extracted at every handoff point
Credentials & Industry Memberships
Gotham Lab holds professional memberships in the American Translators Association (ATA), the Audio Engineering Society (AES), and is an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau. Our 5-star Google rating — independently verified by Trustindex — reflects nearly two decades of client relationships built on quality, reliability, and direct accountability. Every project at Gotham Lab is handled under strict NDA and confidentiality protocols as standard practice.
Industry memberships & accreditations:
Google reviews — ✰✰✰✰✰
Gotham Lab maintains a 5-star rating across 19+ verified Google reviews from production companies, cultural institutions, corporate clients, and individual project managers. The Trustindex verified rating badge on our homepage reflects this independently verified rating.
In-house. New York City. Since 2007
Every project handled by our NYC team — no outsourcing, no middlemen, no subcontractors. Translation, localization, subtitling, voice-over, and CCSL in 50+ languages at rates 20–30% below the national average. Get started with a free consultation today.
Why Choose Gotham Lab?
Five reasons production companies, cultural institutions, streaming platforms, and global brands choose Gotham Lab — and come back for every project.
| Why Gotham Lab | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Family-owned — personal accountability on every project | Gotham Lab was founded by Philip Kotur in New York City in 2007 and remains family-owned and operated today. Philip leads every significant client relationship personally — you will always have direct access to senior leadership, not an account manager or a support queue. The same standard of care and accountability that built our reputation over nearly two decades applies to every project we take on, regardless of size or budget. Contact Philip's team directly. |
| In-house NYC studio — no outsourcing, ever | Every translation, subtitle file, voice-over recording, caption track, and audio description produced at Gotham Lab is handled exclusively by our New York City team at 340 W 42nd St #2424, Midtown Manhattan. No third-party vendors, no offshore teams, no anonymous subcontractors. Complete quality control, complete confidentiality, and complete accountability — from first inquiry through final delivery. |
| World-class institutional credentials | Gotham Lab's audio guide productions can be heard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, the Royal Archives, the Empire State Building, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Sagrada Família, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — among dozens of other cultural institutions and landmarks worldwide. The same production standards we bring to the world's most visited institutions apply to every project we produce. Learn more about our audio guide work. |
| Full-service language partner — everything under one roof | Gotham Lab is New York City's only full-service language company combining in-house translation, subtitling, voice-over production, closed captioning, movie localization, audio description, and CCSL creation under one roof. One project manager. One quality standard. One delivery package — for every language service your content requires. |
| Nearly two decades of verified client trust | Since 2007 Gotham Lab has maintained a 5-star Google rating — independently verified by Trustindex — across clients spanning production companies, streaming platforms, law firms, global brands, museums, universities, and cultural institutions on five continents. ATA member. BBB accredited. Our reputation is built on nearly twenty years of projects delivered on time, on budget, and to the quality standard our clients depend on. Start your project today. |
Ready to work with our New York City team? Contact us for a free consultation — we respond within one business day.
Contact Gotham Lab: info@gothamlab.com | +1 347-587-8110 | 340 W 42nd St #2424, New York, NY 10108
Gotham Lab – NYC
Address: 340 W 42nd St #2424, New York, NY 10108
Phone: +1 347-587-8110
Email: info@gothamlab.com
Hours: Mon–Fri: 8:00am–7:00pm | Sat: 9:00am–5:00pm