In pandemic times, many conferences run digitally in order to protect the health of the conference participants as good as possible. Providers of meeting software such as Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams and others offer the technical platforms for video conferences in which participants can securely participate from the office or home office. Interpreters are also called in at international conferences – modern meeting software also makes simultaneous online translation possible.
Virtual Conferences
Those who are unable to hold or attend their international conference due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, curfews or lockdowns, both nationally and internationally, often have the option of holding them online or participating in them online. The widespread video platforms Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams (also called MS Teams) have proven themselves and make communication at a distance possible - from anywhere with Internet access and with any place with Internet access around the world.
If court room Interpretation required because the conference is bilingual or multilingual, their services can also be integrated online.
- Either the interpreters also sit in the office/home office, provided they are technically equipped accordingly,
- Or they are in a so-called remote hub, a place that offers them the technical equipment they need for conference interpreting, such as interpreter booths and digital conference technology.
No matter where the conference interpreters work from, they are able to follow the conference and interpret into the desired languages. You do this via the platform chosen by the conference organizer. Alternatively, passport translation service providers also offer in-house conference technology for video and telephone conferences.
Are you the organizer of a video conference with a bilingual or multilingual orientation? Then let us develop a concept together on how we can support you with our specially trained conference interpreters.
Zoom now offers audio channels for interpreters
The US provider of the video conferencing system Zoom, Zoom Video Communications Inc., presented new Zoom functions for 2022 as part of its monthly product update at the end of January. According to the Zoom Blog, this also includes an audio channel for interpreters.
Accordingly, there would be innovations for the classic Zoom meetings as well as for the more extensive subscriptions "Zoom Rooms" and "Zoom Events". These should enable simultaneous interpreting, among other things.
In the future, if account owners and admins want to add interpretation to their meetings or webinars, they will be able to enable interpretation by default when scheduling Zoom meetings to ensure a seamless experience for all participants regardless of their language, reads the blog.
How the new Interpreter Audio Channel Zoom feature works
If simultaneous interpreters are available for the online conference, thanks to the new features in normal Zoom video meetings, they can open a separate audio channel for their simultaneous translation in the future. To do this, you have to specify individual participants as interpreters for a specific language when planning the Zoom meeting. Up to 20 participants could work separately as interpreters in this way. Important: Because this function has to be activated when planning a meeting or webinar, it cannot be used for spontaneous meetings, according to Zoom.
At the beginning of the Zoom meeting, the host can start the interpretation function, giving the interpreters access to their own audio channels for the respective language. Meeting participants would then have the option to select the audio channel on which they could hear the audio in the language of their choice. They would also have the alternative of muting the original audio, according to Zoom, rather than hearing it at a lower volume at the same time as the interpretation in the chosen language.
This is what Zoom points out on its in-house blog:
- In addition, cloud recordings of interpreted conferences now only record the original audio of the meeting or webinar - but not the interpretation.
- And with local recordings of interpreted sessions, the audio that the person recording can hear is recorded - but not multiple audio channels.
Zoom only presented these innovations in September 2021 at its annual Zoom topic 2022 conference. Among other things, the software company wanted to add an extension for live translations to its video communication tool, which should work for up to twelve languages.
And according to Zoom, this will also help to tailor the meeting experience more precisely to the language of the user in the future: the user interface in the meeting will be displayed in the language that the user has set in the web browser in order to optimize the meeting experience and make it smoother.
Are you planning an online conference and need interpreters so that the international conference participants can participate in it in the best possible way? Our conference interpreters translate your conference language into any desired language.
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