How to make sure that nothing gets lost in interpretation?

Organizing an event with remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) is not easy. Take a fully remote or hybrid environment, online participation, more than one language, add simultaneous interpretation, and you have so many things to take care of. Like any meeting, remote and hybrid events are as unpredictable as you let them be.

Even though there are multiple features and safety mechanisms in place for your event to be reliable, how do you make sure that it is not only multilingual but also accurate? What can you do to ensure that nothing is lost in interpretation, no matter the circumstance? 

Let's look at what event organizers should consider to make sure that nothing gets lost in interpretation.

Before the event

Preparation for the event is as important, if not more important, as the performance of interpreters during the event itself. That's where you make crucial decisions about your audience and simultaneous interpretation that can either go a long way or hinder the multilingual experience of your event.

Choose software for your needs and setup

One of the most common mistakes in remote or hybrid event preparation is not choosing a suitable meeting platform. We will go into more details about why it matters for interpreters during the event in the next section, but for now, let's look at the basics. Ask yourself these questions:

• Does your audience know how to interact with the platform?
• Are your interpreters trained for the tool you are using?
• Does the platform suit your event format and setup?

After the start of the pandemic and even now, as the world slowly returns to the "new normal," event organizers, attendees, and even interpreters have tried countless video-conferencing platforms and meeting solutions.

If your audience is not confident enough with using the meeting platform, their experience with your event can change abruptly. For example, participants won't even know how to join the meeting or switch to the target language, getting stuck on one language they don't understand.

And however highly trained your simultaneous interpreter team is, each RSI or video-conferencing platform is different. Some are more intuitive and easy to use, and some need more intensive training.

Therefore, look for RSI solutions that fit your needs and are suitable for your stakeholders. Test the platform beforehand, provide user guides, and ask for training.

Provide event materials to interpreters

Providing event preparation materials to interpreters in advance is always a good practice if you want your message to sound fluent and precisely how the original speaker intended.

A professional interpreter spends days preparing before a conference, compiling possible terminology. Imagine how much easier it would be if you told your interpreter team what to prepare for.

You don't invite a medical professional to the panel and ask them to speak on a highly specific topic minutes before their speech. Why? Because even the most advanced pros need preparation to deliver stellar results, and simultaneous interpreters are no exception.

Simultaneous interpreting is not the same as consecutive interpretation, whispered interpretation, or other types of interpretation. Specific terminology might be foreign even for the native speakers of the language. For example, even if your event needs medical interpretation and you hire professional medical interpreters, you still need to provide event preparation materials in advance. 

Here are some of the materials you can send your interpreters in advance:

• Event agenda and description
• Speech topics, titles, and transcripts
• Speakers' names and bios
• Videos, presentations, and other audiovisual material that you will use during the conference

One small step can go a long way: it takes you a few minutes to send this information, but it will guide your interpreter and save them hours of preparation.

During the event

Now, let's get into the details of the interpreter experience during an RSI event. What can go wrong, and what are some ways you can make it better? After all, no one wants their message to be lost along the way.

Issues with joining

First things first, your interpreters need to join the meeting platform and set up their workstations. Seems easy enough? Not really. Your team might know how to use a specific joining method that does not work for your chosen platform.

One way you can avoid this mistake is to make sure that your RSI solution has alternative joining methods, with no need to rejoin for a role change. From the start, it needs to be as easy as possible to tune in as an interpreter, even if they haven't used the platform before.

Difficulty in using the platform

After logging in, preparing and using a remote interpreter workstation is critical. The interpreter might not be familiar or comfortable with the interface compared to the hardware they are used to working with. Keyboard shortcuts and setting up useful language feeds vary from platform to platform, which might create confusion.

How do RSI solutions with advanced interpreter consoles overcome these issues? Interpreter console by Interactio, for example, is made with traditional and universal hardware practices in mind but adds the customized experience to the mix. 

Interpreters can choose and adjust language feeds and their volume levels, use the booth chat function for clear communication with their partners, and conduct easy microphone handovers.

Monitoring interpretation

In real-life situations, one of the key points for conference interpreters is to listen to two feeds simultaneously and continue translation even if the speaker changes languages. This core mechanic might be hard for language professionals to adopt with RSI functionality.

Some remote simultaneous interpreting platforms like Interactio offer the ability to access multiple languages feeds easily. This functionality makes it easy to oversee all audio and video channels and monitor interpretation, the same way it's done in on-site settings.

Changing interpreters

We want interpretation during the event to be as smooth as possible. Abrupt change of interpreters might not only be an issue for participants receiving the message but also tricky for the interpreters themselves. In remote or hybrid environments, handover from the interpreter to the interpreter can be abrupt if there is no workflow for the process.

Dedicated functions and additional safety tools on RSI platforms make handover easy and smooth so that your attendees don't notice a change when listening to interpretation.

Troubles with resolving issues

In events with more than one language and live interpretation, clear communication and solving problems quickly are critical. Technical issues can arise at any time, so having a function to reach a dedicated support team is a must. 

With a console overloaded with other functions, interpreters might not have an easy way to access the tech chat and ask for technical help.

Knowing how the human factor is always at play in live events, RSI providers design easily accessible tools for contacting support instantly. Language professionals can receive help with a dedicated tech chat whenever they need it.

Wrapping up

To make sure that nothing gets lost in translation during an event with simultaneous interpreting, it's essential to look into your interpreters' experience before and after the event. 

No one can predict what happens during a conference, but there are ways to choose a platform that is prepared for the unexpected. Take a look at how Interactio makes sure your events have nothing to lose.