Remote Simultaneous Interpretation (RSI) replaces on-site booths with cloud platforms, allowing interpreters to work from home studios or remote hubs. While it removes booth rental and travel costs, it introduces severe latency and connectivity risks that must be managed.
The economic argument for RSI
Flying a team of six interpreters to a hotel, paying their per diems, and renting three ISO-4043 mobile booths is expensive. RSI eliminates these lines from the budget. For short board meetings or webinars, RSI platforms (like Zoom or specialized hubs) make interpreting economically viable where it previously wasn't.
The operational risks
RSI shifts the burden of infrastructure from the AV provider to the open internet and the interpreter's local ISP.
- Latency: Audio must travel from the speaker, to the cloud, to the interpreter, back to the cloud, and down to the delegate. This loop introduces milliseconds of delay that compound quickly, especially if relay interpreting is used.
- Acoustic Shock: Interpreters working remotely often receive poorly leveled audio from delegates using cheap laptop microphones. The risk of acoustic shock and hearing damage is significantly higher in RSI.
- Cognitive Load: Because of the degraded audio quality and lack of physical line-of-sight to the room's body language, interpreters fatigue faster. Industry guidelines often require shorter rotation cycles for RSI than for on-site work.
The hybrid nightmare: The most failure-prone setup is a hybrid event where some speakers are in the room, some are on Zoom, and the interpreters are remote. If the venue's audio patching is not configured perfectly with mix-minus feeds, severe echo loops will destroy the interpretation.
When to insist on on-site booths
If your event is a high-stakes diplomatic summit, a shareholder general meeting, or a multi-day conference where failure is not an option, pay for the on-site booths. Hardwired AV infrastructure and physical presence guarantee a level of reliability that the open internet cannot match.
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