Remote interpreting: A technical perspective on recent experiments

This article reviews recent remote interpreting (RI) experiments carried out at the United Nations and European Union institutions, with emphasis on their salient technical features, which are also summarized in the Appendix. Motivations for remote interpreting with minimum technical requirements for sound and image transmission in compressed form as well as the methods used in recent experiments for image capture in the meeting room and display in the remote room are discussed. The impact of technical conditions upon interpreters’ perception of remote interpreting is also examined using questionnaire data, which seem to suggest that the interpreters’ visual perception of the meeting room, as mediated by image displays, is the determining factor for the “alienation” or absence of a feeling of presence in the meeting room universally experienced by interpreters under RI conditions. The paper also points out the advantages of a more coherent research methodology based upon the notion of presence in a virtual environment as well as possible innovative approaches to providing the interpreter with meeting room views.