Live Zoom Interpretation : 5 mistakes to avoid when setting up your multilingual online event

As a simultaneous french interpreter, I've been providing live interpretation on Zoom (RSI) for over 5 years and there is a number of frequent logistical errors that keep coming back. In particular, it is common for organisers/technical leads of online events to make these 5 mistakes when organising the simulteanous interpretation, which have big consequences for the audience.

Allow participants to listen to the floor rather than to their channel

In theory, people listening to a online webinar or meeting should only need to access the interpretation if they can't understand the language being spoken in the main audio, right?

Wrong. What if the speaker were to handover to someone else? What if someone in the audience were to ask a question in their own language? Both scenario are perfectly likely and acceptable, and interpreters can switch channel at any point to start interpreting the other way. At that point, anyone that hasn't chosen a language will start looking confused, blame technical glitches, repeatedly tell the interpreter that they can't hear them... All they needed to do, really, was click on the language of their choice from the beginning, even if that is indeed english and therefore the same language as the first speaker.

By the way, this also applies to the speaker, in case they need to hear a question from the audience.

→ Instead, remind your audience to chose a language channel regardless of whether they understand the original audio or not. You can even create a multilingual welcome slide such as this one to point them in the right direction whilst people are logging on.

Not translate the slides

Imagine attending an online conference where the speaker launches into a detailed presentation relating to a slide they're sharing, but all the text on that slide is in, say, chinese. At best, you'll dutifully try and keep up and feel like you're missing out on key information, and you might even feel let down by the organisers or that you're only being valued for the money you spent on attending. None of the above is likely to lead to repeat business and good reviews...

→ Instead, ask your interpreters to quote for translating the slides. This will ensure the terminology remains consistent and help the linguists prepare. Be sure to give them enough time to do the translation ahead of the event : you will need to communicate this to your speakers so they know to hand in their slides with plenty of time to spare.

Ask the speakers to hurry up

It is often tempting... The clock is ticking, you started a bit late and your speaker is insisting on reading every detail on their slides. In the meantime, your boss keeps remind you that you have another event straight after this one, or that Unfortunately, more often than not, asking your speaker to hurry up won't encourage them to summarise the content but rather to speak faster. This become unconfortable for their own audience but is also unmanageable for the best of interpreters.

→ Instead, if your event is running late, go through the slides yourself and make a few back-stage suggestions to the next speaker to reduce the length of the next presentation. You can of course talk to your current speaker, but instead of asking him to "hurry up because you're running behind", try something like: "This is very detailed and fascinating information. Unfortunately, we are only running a short event today. Would you be able to give us a short summary today, and we can share the rest of the slides with the audience via email/run a separate event to get into more detail."

Click on "Mute all"

More often than not, this includes the interpreters. It's ok to do it at the beginning of a session, having warned your linguists that they'll need to un-mute before they start talking, but be mindful of doing this mid-session as this will meet the interpreters mid-flow and it may be a few minutes before they notice.

→ Instead, if you have noticed that a participants is letting in unwelcome noise, you can identify them and mute them individually. Failing that, please do warn your interpreters before muting all - the passive interpreters in each language pair should be able to make sure their colleague can still be heard.

Jumping straight in, without testing the Zoom Live Interpretation

Believe it or not, I've been known to log on 15/20 minutes ahead of an online webinar and find that the hosting team has not logged in yet. If they have assigned me as an interpreter when creating the webinar, my invitation will log me straigh into the French cabin, so I won't even get a hello. Common courtesy aside, this can only work if absolutely everything has been set up 100% correctly and let's face it, what are the chances? Failing that, your interpreters may be left waving frantically to get your attention and report a problem whilst your audience is watching...

→ Instead, log in at least 15 minutes early for a sound check and make sure your interpreting team has other means of talking to you. It is usual to create a WhatsApp group involving all interpreters and tech team members so anyone can quickly report any problem away from the main interface.

Hopefully this will help you set up successful RSI conferences and webinars. The next step is to get your speakers prepared by sharing the guide for a successful interpreting experience.

Do you need a FR-EN interpreter for your next meeting or event? Get in touch.