Have you ever wondered how they do interpretations for international conferences or just for important meetings where people who speak different languages are in attendance? Everyone needs to know what is being said at the same time so they can keep up with the flow of communications and what an important speaker is saying. It is a good thing that simultaneous interpretation equipment can be used. Simultaneous interpretation equipment allows the interpreter to make sure that what the floor speaker is saying is interpreted into many other languages as quickly as possible.
Simultaneous interpretation equipment is typically used by an interpreter who is in a soundproof interpretation booth who uses the equipment to get the interpretation to the intended person as fast as possible. This is why you see attendees wearing devices that let them hear the interpretations of what is being said. Today’s technology using radio frequency is most commonly used with simultaneous interpretation equipment. Another technology that can be used with simultaneous interpretation equipment is IR or infrared technology.
When high level meetings are done secure communications are provided using LOS requirements. These are the high quality line of sight interpretation equipment that is used for an event where you don’t want to run the risk of the communication being intercepted by outside sources. The infrared simultaneous interpretation equipment offers superior audio quality and can transmit interpretation up to 32 people at the same time. However, this simultaneous interpretation equipment may not be able to transmit between solid objects and is difficult to set up. Also, it takes a trained technician to set up IR simultaneous interpretation equipment. Another drawback to IR simultaneous interpretation equipment is that it can only be used indoors and it is not portable.
On the other hand, the radio frequency (RF)simultaneous interpretation equipment is easy to set up and can transmit through solid objects. You can also use radio frequency simultaneous interpretation equipment outdoors. For this reason, this kind of interpretation equipment is used at a lot of public venues as it is portable. For instance, you will find radio frequency simultaneous interpretation equipment in use at tradeshows, museums and international business meetings, etc. The drawback to using this kind of interpretation equipment is the fact that you can only transmit up to 6 languages at the same time and there is a limited range. It is also not applicable where secure communications are important.