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The Importance of Hiring Simultaneous Interpretation Companies for an International Conference
Mon, Oct 19th 2009, 16:36 Under Category Useful Information for the Public by sebastian

You need simultaneous interpretation (also referred as simultaneous translation) services when at least one person attending your event cannot understand what the speaker or presenter says due to the fact that they speak a different language.

If you are holding an international meeting in English, but several attendees speak a foreign language and could have difficulty understanding the presentation in English or posing questions in English to the presenters, then you will definitely need to hire simultaneous translation services and translation equipment, which include an interpreter booth, two interpreters per language, and a sound system with microphones for the interpreters, microphones for the speakers, and headsets for the audience.

Below you can find various scenarios requiring the use of simultaneous translation services:
• When you are organizing a symposium with Spanish speakers, but are expecting a number of English-speaking visitors. In that case you hire a simultaneous translation company with simultaneous interpreters and the necessary translation equipment for the sound.
• An English-speaking customer of a law firm sues one of his foreign business relations. You hire a simultaneous translation company that will provide you with one or two interpreter(s) for the interpretation of the trial proceedings.
• If you are organizing a conference with both English-speaking and non English-speaking presenters and participants, you will need to hire simultaneous translation services since there will be speeches and discussions in both languages. When you book the conference center or hall, please remember to contract the necessary simultaneous translation equipment and simultaneous interpreters.

How many interpreters do I need for Simultaneous Translation?
Simultaneous translation requires dexterity and concentration, in some of the scenarios presented above more than one interpreter needed to be hired. But now you might ask: How do I determine or how a simultaneous translation company determines whether there is a need for one or more interpreters? In order to be able to answer that question, you need to understand how a simultaneous interpreter works. It is really a very complex process, one that only very few interpreters can handle well. A speaker is speaking, and that speaker does not stop or pause. He keeps talking. Therefore, the interpreter must do the following while the speaker is talking.

How does the simultaneous translation process work?
• The presenter speaks on a microphone, which connects to the interpretation booth
• The interpreter listens to the presenter through headphones, translates the phrase in his or her mind, and then render the interpretation into a microphone, which sends a radio/infrared signal to the audience
• The audience listens to the interpreter’s voice through headphones receiving signal from booth.

This whole process requires a kind of mental miracle, and that is why it is an unusually demanding and complex activity to carry out, one that requires an unsurpassed level of concentration, which tires out the interpreter pretty soon and affects his/her concentration, which, in turn, affects his/her performance after a while.

There are some solutions for this problem: Simultaneous translation companies need to know if the event program offers possibilities for regular breaks, perhaps because of visual presentations in between the speeches that need to be set up. In that case it is not impossible that one interpreter will suffice. But if the speeches go on and on, you may expect the interpreter to get too tired after a while. In that case it is necessary to hire more than one interpreter, so that they can take turns to interpret.

Or perhaps you can get different interpreters for different parts of the day – it is suggested to leave that to your Simultaneous Translation company to be creative and help you with this portion of the planning. But whatever you do, do not underestimate the need for a solution to the interpreter's exhaustion problem, because a serious loss of concentration when he/she gets tired may result in a loss of quality in the interpretation. Of course it can be expensive to hire interpreters. But if you are going to spend money on this service anyhow, why not make sure you get a good simultaneous translation company. The quality of any simultaneous interpretation largely depends on two important factors: the interpreters and the translation equipment. An exhausted interpreter will do no one any good. Moreover - if an agency or an interpreter estimates a potential assignment to be too exhausting for one interpreter to do it well, and the client is not willing to pay for an extra interpreter, there is a good chance that the assignment will be flatly refused.

Now when it comes to the translation equipment, the interpreters booth's sound insulation, its dimensions, and air quality, as well as the sound quality of the headphones, microphones, and other equipment, are integral components of the simultaneous translation process.


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