Imagine that next week you want to attend an online course, class or lecture on a subject that interests you. There is just one small catch … the class will be taught in German, a language that you have not mastered nor intend to master within a week’s time. What is the solution?
From the organizer’s point of view, the solution – which is very efficient, by the way – is to hire remote simultaneous interpreters, who work from their own home studios with redundancy and total security in the desired language pair, in this case, German and Portuguese.
The interface between speakers, interpreters and participants is provided by modern online communication platforms that offer a variety of features, including online collaboration, shared calendars, meetings and closed captioning.
Although cloud platforms abound on the market today, those that offer a native feature that enables simultaneous translation can be counted on one hand. One of these is Zoom with the Webinar or Meeting add-on.
How does remote simultaneous translation on Zoom work?
An organization with a Zoom Webinar/Meeting license, such as FULL TRANSLATION, schedules and sets up the event according to the client’s specifications and assists the client in customizing the experience, for example, by including the company logo, personalized invitations, etc.
It is recommended to schedule a test prior to the day of the event so that speakers and interpreters can coordinate, in addition to a 20-minute practice run before the webinar starts, in order to ensure that everything goes as planned. This is a time to test the simultaneous interpretation channels with the interpreters and the basic resources, such as share screen, with panelists.
During the Zoom webinar, participants can interact via chat or send questions through the Q&A feature that can be moderated by the host or co-host. If a Zoom meeting is chosen rather than the webinar format, then all of the participants can turn on their cameras and microphones and interact with one another.
The results are excellent and provides a pleasant experience for everyone who participates, including us interpreters behind the scenes. Remote simultaneous translation considerably extends the reach of any online event, as it seamlessly and efficiently brings down the language and the geographic barrier.
