Video-calling applications and programs have quickly become an essential part of our everyday lives. Among them, Zoom has gained great popularity in recent months, a consequence of the exponential increase in downloads it saw during the COVID-19 crisis period.
One of the features that it offers is the simultaneous interpretation of video conferences. With a few simple steps, you can easily assign the interpreters needed for a multilingual conference. In this way, work meetings, conferences or seminars are able to occur no matter where the participants are or which language they speak.
As with any new technology, we have to analyse both the benefits and the disadvantages and be aware of its constant development. Among the advantages over other platforms, we can point out the following:
- Currently, among the leaders in the field Zoom is the only videoconferencing application that permits simultaneous interpretation of video conferences. Other platforms, such as Webex, Teams or Meet, are, so it seems, on the way to incorporating this feature, but as of yet have not done so.
- Great ease of use and speed of installation. The simultaneous interpretation of video conferences on Zoom is so easy to use that event organisers, interpreters and participants can quickly learn how to navigate the platform.
- The video and sound transmission quality is good, arguably sufficient for the interpreter to perform without any additional difficulties beyond those common to Remote Simultaneous Interpretation (RIS). Furthermore, Zoom has recently added a high-fidelity sound feature that, according to an AIIC report, would meet three of the five requirements set by the ISO/PAS 24019:2020 standard
- It is very versatile. It serves both self-employed professionals in need of a trustworthy communication tool and large businesses or event organising agencies with complex needs and a large number of users.
- Meetings or events with large numbers of participants (over 1000) can be organised in up to ten different pre-configured languages, with the possibility of customising the language required for the meeting.
- It is a very interactive platform that offers all the features that an events organiser needs (surveys, chats, versatility in visualisation, participation features for attendees, statistics, etc.).
- It allows the recording of meetings and, with the written consent of the interpreters, the different language channels.
- There is the possibility of streaming the meeting on Facebook, Youtube or other platforms in a very convenient way, directly from its interface. Simply choose the option in your tools panel. The interpreters’ permission is also required to rebroadcast their interpretation channel.
- Security has been greatly enhanced with GCM encryption, which until recently was one of the application’s weakest points.
- It has several accessibility features such as screen reader, video reordering, automatic transcription and manual or third party subtitling, with the possibility of including subtitles with simultaneous interpretation.
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