How to enable language interpretation on Zoom?
Activate “Language interpretation” on your Zoom settings (see first image below) and enable “interpretation” when scheduling a Zoom meeting/webinar (see second image below). That is how you allow simultaneous interpreters to join your online event and help you communicate in other languages. (Click here to check out our how-to videos on YouTube)
On Zoom settings page do this:
When scheduling a meeting do this:
Important tips
Make sure to download Zoom app on your computer and always update your Zoom app to the latest version. This will help you minimize error and bugs.
Train your internal team, panelists and keynote speakers on how to use key features of Zoom, i.e. video settings, microphone settings, virtual backgrounds, recording, stream, and so on.
Schedule at least one rehearsal and test everything works just fine.
If you are going to use captions, check their visibility on Zoom screen.
If you are hiring sign language interpreters, make sure their video is clear and background is solid.
Sound quality is the greatest enabler and also challenge for interpreting
Sound quality of the speakers is crucial to assure high quality simultaneous interpreting. Encourage if not require all panelists to use external microphones built for audio conferencing.
Organizing a great event and hosting it smoothly takes much more than just a few clicks. You need reliable partners who know their job.
How can Dragoman help you with language interpretation?
Dragoman is a leading interpreting agency for Zoom meetings and webinars of any size and for any language combination. Our team has joined over 3000 Zoom meetings after the pandemic and that is no coincidence. Over 500 global brands trust us.
Our office can provide you with some of the very best conference interpreters from dozens of countries and in over 100 languages. We constantly test and vet our resources not only for their experience and interpreting skills, but also for their online-readiness. It is critical that interpreters work on decent computers, use broadband internet and high-quality headsets.
Zoom has become an essential part of our lives during the global lockdown. Families, friends, teachers, schools, government agencies and private corporations are using Zoom on a daily basis.
Which Zoom subscriptions support simultaneous interpreting?
If you have a paid Zoom account (minimum Pro account plus a webinar package), you can add simultaneous interpreting to your meetings in as many languages as you want. Zoom has 9 built-in languages. You need to add ‘custom’ languages to your instance on your admin panel.
Make sure to download / update to the latest version of Zoom for full functionality.
Advanced settings of Zoom can be tricky and if you are not feeling comfortable, just drop Dragoman interpreting team a line to request professional assistance.
Benefits of online events with simultaneous interpretation are obvious:
- Quick setup, user friendly interface
- Everybody uses Zoom
- Interpreters can learn it easily
- Your meetings become more inclusive
- Live on-screen captioning (automated or manual)
- Possibility to add a sign language interpreter
- Available on both desktop and mobile
- Advanced security settings
- Interactivity
- Record your conferences in multiple languages
- Add captions
- Live stream to YouTube and Facebook
- Polls and detailed statistics
- Stable audio and video quality
- Available at the comfort of your home or office
- Can be organized as a hybrid event where some participants gather in a venue while other join Zoom online
Key requirements:
- Broadband internet – minimum 5 megabits per second
- Very good computer – a PC with i7 or Macbook Pro
- High quality, conference grade, noise-cancelling headset microphone
- Back-up plan (a second computer, a second internet connection and a second headset)
Limitations of Zoom:
- Interpreters cannot hear their colleagues and therefore need a second device (for relay and monitoring each other)
- Interpreting remotely, alone in a home-office requires more mental effort than joining a session physically.
Thanks to new technologies, scientific conferences can now be organized in multiple languages at a fraction of a regular on-site convention. Since interpreters do not need to travel, hiring better interpreters in so many languages is much easier. Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Serbian, Japanese, Hindi or Vietnamese at ease.
Zoom is currently the most popular app that enables simultaneous interpreting. Webex also offers simultaneous interpreting. We love both. Check our articles and videos on how to add simultaneous interpretation to Webex.
Dragoman team is trained and qualified to interpret using these apps. Our conference interpreter colleagues regularly updates themselves on novel technologies.
Remote simultaneous interpreting is not a replacement of on-site interpreting as much as video conferencing is not a true alternative of a professional event organized in hotels or conference venues. However, many organizations have adapted to the new-normal and now it feels much easier to organize an international webinar in only a matter of days, if not hours.
Kindly find our YouTube Play list on enabling language interpretation adding simultaneous interpreters to Zoom, recording in multiple languages and more:
