Latest / Found in Interpretation Podcast / Ep. 52 - The Magic Behind the Booth: Tech, Tones, and Interpretation Rockstars 🎙️✨

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Ep. 52 - The Magic Behind the Booth: Tech, Tones, and Interpretation Rockstars 🎙️✨ · Found in Interpretation Podcast

0:00
Hello, hello and welcome to another episode of found in
0:04
Interpretation podcast. Once again, I'm one of your Co
0:07
hosts neighborhood and I'm here at Brian.
0:08
Brian, how you doing? I'm doing great, thanks.
0:11
And we're here also with Chris Rosen.
0:13
How you doing Chris? I'm doing well, gentlemen.
0:15
How you guys doing today? Awesome, beautiful day.
0:20
All right, let's kick it. Welcome, Chris.
0:36
Actually, Chris is the owner of an Amy company called Global
0:43
Interpretation. Chris travels all over the
0:46
United States and perhaps even around the world to make sure
0:51
that we have the best setup. I had the opportunity of meeting
0:54
Chris last February in Las Vegas.
0:59
It was a huge event and Chris was super professional, super
1:04
cool. His guys are amazing and we
1:07
thought that he would be an amazing guest on our website.
1:12
Chris, anything you want to add up about that?
1:17
Appreciate the love. Thank you for having me on the
1:19
show today. It's been a great experience
1:22
getting to know you, getting to know Brian as well and being a
1:25
part of this. Once I heard you guys had a
1:27
podcast, I thought it'd be a great idea to come in and see if
1:30
I can help share a little bit of knowledge on the tech side of
1:33
things. I know you 2 have all the
1:35
knowledge it takes for the interpreter side of things, but
1:38
I feel like a lot of people don't get to hear the
1:40
opportunity for somebody who spends more of their time around
1:43
the equipment. So that's to be a great
1:45
opportunity to come help. Yeah, I think it's awesome
1:47
because like, I think that a lot of times, like interpreters,
1:50
they come into the booth and basically all they do is press a
1:53
button, but they don't know what's the magic that goes on
1:56
behind that. So you're like the the guy who's
1:59
teaching the Carpenter how to use a saw.
2:01
Like this is my analogy. And yeah, so I'm really looking
2:05
forward to listening to this because there's like so much
2:07
different, the different things going on in the background that
2:10
interpreters don't know about. Maybe we should start with like
2:14
the traditional like the the the soundproof booth with the
2:17
interpreter console and the two transmitters like what does that
2:21
set up look like and what does it entail?
2:24
So it comes down to a few different ways depending on
2:27
what's going to fit the room itself and the the guests needs.
2:32
For the most part. The two main isolation booths
2:35
that that most interpretation companies are going to work with
2:39
are the tabletop booth, which is there a half a half shield size
2:44
shield. I'll explain more of that and
2:46
your full size table, your full size isolation booth.
2:49
Starting off with the tabletop, it was essentially take a six
2:52
foot table and you have 1/2 of it or a moon, 1/2 of a moon
2:58
shape, which is basically a sound shield that goes through
3:02
the front of the table just for the interpreters can still see
3:06
through and you're slightly isolating the audio to where
3:08
you're not projecting your voice in front of you.
3:11
This will just minimize the audios just ever so slightly to
3:15
where it basically the the noise is staying within the booth and
3:19
then you have the full isolation with which is what most
3:22
interpreters know in the convention world, which is a
3:25
full yes, exactly. It's just the fact that there is
3:30
no audio escaping, no audio coming in.
3:33
You basically have your own bedroom for the afternoon while
3:36
you work in in your studio. So with that, we prefer to use
3:42
the full isolation booth just because it basically puts you in
3:48
your own little cubby space and you get to hide, you get to be
3:50
you. You get to bring all the energy
3:52
to the event that all the interpreters want.
3:54
Because that's really what most interpreters care about, is
3:58
projecting that personality into the event when they're
4:01
displaying their voice. So I have really technical terms
4:06
for these. For the tabletop booth, I call
4:07
it the aquarium because it looks like an aquarium and we're just
4:10
sitting there floating. And then for the full booth, I
4:13
called the bus stop because it's like a bus shelter, like waiting
4:16
for you to wait for the bus to come.
4:19
But I see that better. Yeah, No, I like, yeah, like
4:24
Alan said, we all love the booth, the full size booth.
4:27
And. But does that entail like a
4:30
different voice projection from the interpreters in terms of
4:33
like if you're in 1/2 shell, like people would still be able
4:36
to hear you on the other like like if you speak too loudly I
4:41
guess? The equipment itself, when
4:44
you're using the tabletop booth compared to the full size booth,
4:47
you're still able to with the other equipment that's being
4:51
utilized in both booths. You're still able to provide a
4:55
quality audio. But when you have to reduce the
5:01
volume, volume of your voice, a lot of times the most humans
5:05
will also reduce personality when they have to bring their
5:08
tone down. So being in the full size booth,
5:11
it allows you to bring the energy, especially for a lot of
5:15
these multi level marketing companies where there's a lot of
5:18
motivation, motivational speaking, you need that energy
5:23
to project so you can see you can be matching the energy that
5:28
they're providing. So that's the pleasure of the
5:30
full size. Booth Well, actually I've
5:32
noticed something when I was in Vegas that I don't really see
5:35
here in Quebec City. And perhaps if people are, if
5:39
technical people are in Quebec City, they should do that
5:42
because what you did on top of the booth, you put it, you put
5:48
us on a how? How high was I a platform like
5:52
A? 3 foot riser.
5:54
Yeah, and we were much higher on top of being in the booth and I
5:59
felt and then I could basically see the see the people sitting.
6:04
I was pretty high and you can see the stage where a bit
6:07
higher. So I think that even being
6:10
higher like this gives you an extra presence.
6:15
I agree 100% and it's something I wish we were able to do for
6:18
more events, but unfortunately you have to have the right size
6:22
room to be able to use those 3 foot risers because it is a
6:26
safety hazard. Luckily that was a massive event
6:30
and with that many people, it was something that I had
6:34
communication with the hotel about, Hey, if you're going to
6:37
put us side stage rather than the back of the room, give us
6:41
the opportunity for the interpreters to be able to see
6:45
everything that's going on. So it was definitely something
6:48
that I had added. Luckily I was, I'm very well in
6:52
tied with that particular casino for that event.
6:56
So it really did help. But it's it's the small things
7:00
that a lot of people aren't paying attention to that I see
7:03
as a third party because I'm not, I look at interpreters as
7:07
the rock stars. I am just the technician setting
7:11
you up for success. So if what I'm not in the booth
7:15
while you're doing your part, I'm catching these little things
7:17
that I would never have seen if I was the interpreter myself.
7:21
But without you, we could not be the rock stars.
7:23
So like, it's thanks to you that we, it's able to do what we do.
7:28
Yeah. And yeah.
7:30
But there's, there's a lot of interpreters out there who don't
7:33
feel the same way as we do. We're like that.
7:35
We're all part of a team. Like there's, I've noticed a lot
7:39
of conferences where like the interpreters are kind of like in
7:43
the, they don't really interact that much with the technicians
7:45
per se. So I like the, I like this.
7:49
This what you bring to the table is that we work as a team
7:53
basically. There's a lot of synergy.
7:56
Yeah, yeah. And I appreciate, yeah, having
7:58
the risers like in such a big room and people going back and
8:02
forth and blocking your view like it's, it's such a awesome
8:05
point. So like if we were going to say,
8:09
sell this to a client, you'd say like the ideal situation for an
8:12
interpreter would be to be on that riser soundproof booth.
8:16
Now in terms of the equipment inside the booth, that's the
8:19
same for the tabletop and for the full size.
8:23
Yes, it is. So we use we use the same
8:25
equipment for both tabletop and full size booth because we want
8:29
to be able to give the interpreter the best audio
8:31
quality as possible and give that guest the best experience
8:34
when it comes to hearing your voice.
8:37
And is it like digital analog like how does that?
8:42
So to paint a small picture of exactly what is going on inside
8:46
the booth, whether it be a tabletop or ice full isolation
8:50
booth. So in as in an as you being an
8:53
interpreter sitting inside that booth you would be using.
8:58
I use medium to full size isolation headphones.
9:01
For you all to be sitting in the booth, the audio would be being
9:06
sent out from the traditional audio video team to our booth.
9:11
I use a William Sound ICQ, which is miss stands for In an
9:15
Interpreter console #2 we're receiving that XLR audio feed
9:20
into our console. Headphones are attached both
9:25
from both sides, so you can have two interpreters inside the
9:28
booth with headsets on. You're listening to your English
9:31
on that console. There's an opportunity to switch
9:34
between interpreter back and forth to project your voice out.
9:39
So as you're listening to that English or projecting out and
9:42
then with these interpreter consoles, we do have lots of
9:46
power for the interpreters, whether it be here adjusting
9:49
your personal audio, changing the base, changing the treble
9:53
and small adjustments for technicians like myself to come
9:56
in and make sure the guest is hearing perfect audio.
9:59
Once you receive your English and you're saying you're the the
10:05
interpreter who's speaking for the moment, we are then send
10:08
projecting that audio from that console out to a William sound
10:14
transmitter as bushes be it's pumping out that audio through
10:17
FM radio out to the guest. From there, each of the guests
10:22
are using a handheld device that can log into or see me TuneIn to
10:27
one of the 14 available channels to make sure we hear everything
10:31
that's been going on, whether it be one language or all 14
10:34
languages. So you need like 1 transmitter
10:37
per language I guess like so. That's essentially.
10:39
Yes. And it's is it am I wrong or is
10:43
it 72.1 to like 75.6 is the range for the FM?
10:47
Print exactly, exactly. Perfect, lost me there.
10:49
What are you talking about? Ah, here we go.
10:52
And now we can also talk about the difference between FM and
10:55
infrared. And I thought it was all
10:57
digital. So guys, tell me about the
10:59
Hertz, tell me about the AMFM. I thought it was digital.
11:04
I'm a newbie. Here, so it is a little
11:06
different in Canada, I'm not exactly sure if it falls, but
11:09
here in the I do know here in America that for transformer
11:13
traditional interpretation equipment being one of the three
11:17
major companies being William Sound listen tech and I always
11:21
forget the third company just because they're not as
11:23
irrelevant. But with William Sound is what
11:26
we use, which is some of that is literally the highest quality
11:29
interpretation equipment you can get your hands on.
11:33
The American Disability Association owns the frequencies
11:37
from 72.1 to 75.6. That means that no.
11:43
Disability association here. I mean, sorry.
11:45
So that's the that's the association that fall that
11:49
protects all disability rights for here in America.
11:53
So say them, you are going to open up a business and you need
11:59
to make sure it's handicap assessible.
12:01
The rules that are placed in that are put in place are it's a
12:06
union that makes falls the same rights.
12:08
We as in we in the interpretation world follow a
12:11
lot of these rights because we work with a lot of hard of
12:15
hearing or deaf or a deaf person.
12:19
So we work with a lot of sign language.
12:20
So we follow a lot of these union standards as well and and
12:25
make sure that everyone's getting the best assistance.
12:28
So everyone's safe. It's FM, like FM frequencies,
12:33
it's 72.1 to 75.6. And out of that you can
12:37
basically truncate it into several different channels
12:41
within there. So like the person, the
12:43
participant doesn't have to go, oh, you're on 72.5.
12:46
It's like you guys converted into actual channel numbers.
12:49
So like Channel 1 is English, Channel 2 is French, 3 Spanish,
12:52
etcetera. Would and when you get a sorry,
12:55
sorry, go ahead. No.
12:58
OK. I thought it was a question,
12:59
sorry. No, it's a statement.
13:01
Ohk. OK, so you're not by the
13:04
technical stuff, Brian. I didn't know.
13:05
You didn't know it. Yeah, I can see that I'm
13:08
discovering something here. But actually, so I thought it
13:11
was all digital. Would it be a better sound
13:15
quality if it was digital, or doesn't exist or doesn't matter?
13:19
I guess the question I have for you before I answer that is what
13:22
do you consider digital? Like if I if I didn't understand
13:25
what digital was, what would be your explanation?
13:28
OK, I let's say I am in my car and I turn on the radio and it's
13:35
FM. Then OK, AM sounds really far
13:38
away, FM sounds better. And then if I, if I put
13:42
SiriusXM, suddenly it sounds really good.
13:46
That's digital. Technically it's OK, I see
13:48
you're saying, but technically in the actual grand scheme of
13:51
things, they're almost all identical.
13:54
Each of them are, yes. There is no Bluetooth is
13:59
literally the only what we could consider a digital audio.
14:06
Just because it's not using the same, it's not using the same
14:10
frequency situation that a rate that FM or AM radio or even
14:17
satellites, satellites doing the same thing.
14:20
It's all using wavelengths to send the transmission to us
14:26
where Bluetooth is using something different.
14:28
I don't have all the knowledge of Bluetooth, but it is a more
14:31
digital experience. So with FM we're used since
14:34
we're using 72.1 megahertz to 9 to 75.6, it is very, very low,
14:41
which means it is a very long and slow wavelength.
14:46
The great thing about this experience is that means we can
14:49
get further distances. If your Bluetooth only goes 30
14:55
to 50 feet, one of my transmitters can go 1500 feet.
15:00
So we're able to get a lot of much larger experience.
15:03
The same way when we did the event with the the steel
15:08
workers, that event was huge and we didn't have to add anything
15:12
to make sure they are extending the signal.
15:16
Yeah, because I've noticed also like with the radio frequencies,
15:20
that if it's like say you get 1500 foot range, you can
15:25
actually leave the room and still listen to the
15:27
interpretation in your heads. Yeah, I saw that.
15:29
But people going to the men's room and there was still
15:32
listening to the interpretation also.
15:33
I swear I saw it. They're watching, they're
15:35
listening to the game. What are you talking about?
15:40
And that just happens to happen because we're using such low
15:44
frequencies. So low goes further.
15:47
High frequencies are very are faster, but they're shorter
15:51
distances. We also use these even though
15:56
we're talking about this 72 megahertz system.
15:59
This is only one system. There are others.
16:02
When I travel, I'm leaving next. I'm leaving here in two weeks
16:06
for Ecuador for an event. I will use the same exact
16:10
equipment that I'm going to talk about when I was in Bali and in
16:13
Sri Lanka and and Tokyo. We use these other systems
16:18
because the issue is once you go to a start going international,
16:23
those frequencies are only protected in America.
16:26
So when you start going to European countries and other
16:29
places, we're no longer protected.
16:30
So we could get stepped on by the common radio station, so
16:36
they make other. Systems like they they they
16:40
could distort the sound and they could be actually listening to a
16:42
radio station instead of the interpretation.
16:46
Exactly. And there's different systems,
16:48
there's different interpretation systems and there's protected
16:50
ones in Europe. Europe has a 400 megahertz
16:54
system that I'm we just recently learned about this past couple
16:58
of months. Oh wow, so there's different.
17:01
Oh my God, this is like it gets so complicated when you're going
17:04
international. Hmm.
17:06
So we use when we're doing international, we do what's
17:09
called a 2.4 gigahertz system. Essentially it's on the same
17:13
same network as your Internet. I was going to say that's like
17:16
Wi-Fi. Yes.
17:18
So that's why it's when it's 5 gigahertz.
17:21
So I can't be too far from the source.
17:25
Exactly the fire, the number, the closer you have to be.
17:28
OK, OK. But I have a question.
17:32
You're going to Ecuador. I think last time we met you
17:35
told me that you guys had been to Bali, if I if I remember,
17:39
yes. And you know, you're dealing
17:42
with Europe and all of that. I know you're called global
17:45
interpretation, but don't these guys over there have already
17:48
some equipment that you can use or do you have to bring all of
17:50
your things? You'd be surprised how weak the
17:56
services that are being provided in some different parts of the
17:59
country. Here's a perfect example.
18:02
I am traveling from Las Vegas to Bali and Sri Lanka with a
18:08
suitcase or a Pelican full of gear or shipping gear from
18:13
nearby countries if they're larger events, and then
18:17
providing my own interpreters from the States.
18:20
That's how bad. I won't say bad, that's the
18:23
wrong word. I'll say how limited the
18:25
services are. In some, it's different
18:28
countries. It's the fact that you would
18:31
think if an event is in Bali, we could grab Indonesian
18:33
interpreters from Indonesia, but these interpreters or the
18:39
equipment itself, but it is not. And the fact is, I've been to
18:43
China for events where I'm buying my equipment from and
18:47
it's not available. Wow.
18:50
They make the equipment and they don't use it there.
18:53
But don't they? Don't they have events?
18:56
They have events. They have huge events, or it's
18:59
for the interpretation specifically that they're not
19:01
used to it. It's I don't think the service
19:05
is being provided the way that we are using it in some and out
19:09
here like I see a lot more whisper systems and I would love
19:13
to explain what that is so you understand and make sure the
19:17
guests understand. So a whisper system is the bane
19:20
of every interpreter's existence.
19:23
Let's get that straight. So it is essentially.
19:28
So essentially all day it is it's it's it's tough.
19:33
It is essentially a portable transmitter that goes about 70,
19:37
about 50 to 100 feet on a good day.
19:41
And it is a little headset microphone that you're simply
19:45
sitting in the back of the room. You're lucky if you get some in
19:49
ear monitors to be able to hear the English you're working with
19:52
and you're whispering into a very sensitive microphone so the
19:55
guests can at least get some audio.
19:59
It drives me nuts when I have to see this.
20:01
So I've at least come up with some creative ways to help
20:05
interpreters and I hope all you interpreters out there hear
20:08
this. Are some of us paying attention
20:09
to this? I actually purchased about a
20:12
dozen. COVID sneeze Shields that we
20:15
used to use when we we were during COVID times and.
20:19
The glasses you mean? Yes, yes.
20:22
So if you're forced to use one due to budget restraints or just
20:26
the only way it works, at least we're giving you some kind of
20:29
comfort to kind of hide behind your shield.
20:33
Yeah, yeah. Like small meetings, like maybe
20:35
10-15 people or so, you can get away with a portable system.
20:39
It's not ideal, but it's. So it's like, it's like the the
20:43
arc that you were explaining earlier, it's different.
20:47
No, same thing Triport. No.
20:48
So the arches are fully isolated.
20:50
Is is a isolated shield that is meant to block audio.
20:54
This is now I'm talking about simply just a piece of
20:57
plexiglass and a trifold. I've never seen that before.
21:02
That's that sounds really cool. Just little things to to help
21:05
you as much as possible because the interpreters need to feel
21:08
comfortable in their space. Yeah.
21:10
And this comes down to, I mean, we, we interviewed another
21:14
interpreter and they were talking about voice projection.
21:16
And this kind of feels like the opposite of voice projection.
21:19
You're trying to control your voice so that you're not
21:22
speaking too loudly, so that people in the room don't hear
21:24
you. Do you remember when we had to
21:27
do interpretation with? Masks.
21:29
Yes. Oh my.
21:30
Goodness, talk about voice projection.
21:31
Work. Yeah.
21:34
Word just sounds like you. You just sound muddled the whole
21:36
time. You think we don't have to do
21:38
this on the podcast? Nobody would listen to us.
21:42
Yeah. But to come back to the, the
21:47
actual technology, we're talking about radio frequency and then
21:50
there's also I infrared or what people call IR I guess in the
21:54
tech industry. Can you explain what IR is?
21:57
Yes, IR is going to be the best system for providing audio.
22:03
The easiest way to explain IR is think about your TV remotes.
22:07
Your the TV remote that you use, excluding Apple TV products, but
22:13
it's just traditional TV remote uses infrared essentially.
22:17
It is a little, there's a tiny little eye sitting on your
22:23
remote control with a on your TV.
22:27
There's a little, usually a little red dot or some kind of
22:29
dot that's on your TV projecting a red light in out around your
22:35
living room, giving the opportunity for that eye on your
22:38
remote to be in line of sight and communicate with the TV.
22:42
So in theory, we're doing the same exact thing and we do
22:45
infrared. We are putting these large
22:48
panels, look, they're big squares and they're about, about
22:53
a foot all the way a foot by a foot and they project a red
22:58
light across the floor. We hang that, we rigged them
23:00
from the ceiling and they're shining the light down to the
23:03
guests. Then each of the guests, instead
23:06
of using a radio device handheld receiver, they're using a
23:11
handheld receiver which has a nice shiny red eye on top of it.
23:15
And that light is beaming down onto it.
23:18
So the, so the IT can communicate, it gives the best
23:20
clear audio. We use this a lot for Congress,
23:24
United Nations or very high security events where as soon as
23:30
you leave the room or turn your back to the room, you can't hear
23:34
audio. You have to be in line of sight.
23:36
So it makes it to where it's not hackable.
23:39
You can't tune into it with with any random equipment.
23:42
So we see a lot of high reality style.
23:48
Yeah. Where you just TuneIn anything I
23:51
could just go by. I do it all the time.
23:53
We, we, I you can buy just random radios that may if it
23:58
goes that low, you tune in anywhere you want as long as
24:00
within distance. With infrared, you have to be in
24:03
the room and the eye of your remote has to be seeing the
24:06
light. I wanna know, I wanna pick your
24:09
brain on what you've heard about these radio channels.
24:15
Let's just say I'm saying funny, I've I've had the same plenty of
24:17
wavers. OK, let's just paint it will
24:19
make it nice and easy. Sounds good.
24:22
So like, yeah. So the gold standard would be IR
24:25
if you want to have like a highly confidential meeting
24:27
where no one else is able to listen.
24:29
That's the IR system that you would use now.
24:32
Like it sounds complicated, but also it sounds expensive to do
24:36
the IR. Is that the most expensive
24:38
product that you would be able to rent out or?
24:41
Yes, it is. It's because there's more pieces
24:43
that are required and it's most labour intensive.
24:46
I have to because if we take a room of like 500 people in a, in
24:51
an event, we have to hang ten of those infrared lights and the
24:57
labour alone just hanging ten of those lights and each of those
25:00
lights are 12 are $2000 lights. So it just it gets very, very
25:05
expensive and for the guests, I mean for the.
25:08
Flying lights. $2000 lights and they really.
25:12
Don't cover 1500 Canadian. Yeah, today.
25:17
Yeah, tomorrow it'll be like 5. Yeah, yeah, it's very expensive,
25:23
but it provides amazing. Product.
25:25
Yeah. Has anyone accidentally dropped
25:27
one from the ceiling? Thank you.
25:29
God no. Oh yeah, it was like.
25:33
When you think about all of these expensive equipments that
25:37
you have to bring all over the world, there are some issues by
25:40
carrying them. They might be late.
25:43
Customs. Customs.
25:45
And if you forget this wire or this piece of equipment, you got
25:49
to make sure that there's a thorough list.
25:51
It must be so stressful sometimes.
25:55
Is it? It is very stressful.
25:58
The biggest fear that any person in my position has is locking
26:03
the case before it goes because when you packing, you're
26:08
literally packing for every possible fail safe that could
26:11
happen. So unfortunately, as in Inter,
26:16
as the technician and the interpreter, the organizing side
26:20
of things, I have to essentially lose money, a small amount of
26:25
money every event it's comes to about 3 1/2 percent is what we
26:29
lose every event on. Why just protecting ourselves?
26:36
Like insurance for the equipment and.
26:38
Not insurance, I mean 3 and I lose.
26:41
So whatever the amount of money that we're going to make on that
26:45
event, 3 1/2 percent of that is gonna be lost in extra amount of
26:49
gear to fill up cases and shipping that that extra stuff
26:55
that didn't need to be at the event because we have to make
26:59
sure it's there to protect the client and protect our business.
27:03
That's like, that's like me bringing a three extra shirts to
27:05
an event and one extra pair of pants and I, I come back with my
27:09
suitcase and I, I didn't use all these clothes.
27:11
Why did I bring them? Then he already changes like
27:14
after every break, so like. It also helps to have a lot of
27:20
friends in around in different places so if we really have to,
27:24
you can make moves within 24 hours.
27:27
OK, so yeah, but that must be Yeah, you got to have a plan ABC
27:32
D like Oh my God. And well, how do you deal with
27:37
the the the voltage like the conversions right from one Yeah,
27:42
you have to bring your own converters or.
27:44
No, those usually there, once I get away from the interpretation
27:50
equipment, then I can lean on local resources, power, audio,
27:57
video and the traditional side of things.
27:59
I can lean on the House, the casino, the cruise ship we're
28:05
working with. They usually have that kind of
28:08
stuff to help us for, and I have.
28:10
The great thing about our world is if you're going to ask our
28:15
company to travel 6000 miles across the world, we're not
28:20
doing this overnight. So I'm going to have six months
28:23
to prepare and make sure the hotel had the right connections
28:27
or the right power or what systems would be best to bring
28:31
with us. So the bigger the event, the
28:33
more time I have to prepare for it.
28:35
So there is a give and a take to this world.
28:38
Now, do you use whenever there's a language barrier in the
28:41
country you're going to? Do you use interpreters?
28:43
To I do OK, I do. How dare I be an interpreter
28:49
being interpretation world and not use?
28:51
Interpreters. I know a duo of great French and
28:53
English interpreters that. I will definitely keep that in
28:58
mind. Now, sorry, so like, I guess
29:03
like in terms of coming back to the cost of the most expensive
29:06
thing would be the infrared because of all the labour and
29:08
everything and the expense like the how expensive the actual
29:11
equipment is. And then when you're whittled it
29:13
down, you're going to the full booth with the radio
29:16
frequencies. And then as the aquarium, I
29:20
guess like the the the three sided shell is that less
29:24
expensive. And then after that, it's like
29:26
the the bare bones is like the the portable transmitter I
29:29
guess. Yeah, and it also comes down to
29:32
what it is and what the setup is.
29:35
If your mother is. Sometimes we end up using all
29:37
everything like all different systems.
29:39
If you're on the go, of course you're gonna use the portable
29:41
transmitters. If you're in, if the
29:46
interpreters need to sit, there's no, sometimes you get
29:49
these events where there's no backstage.
29:51
There's it's so little backstage.
29:53
Well, we can't do a tabletop booth if you're sitting out on
29:57
the main floor of a massive general general sessions.
30:00
Sometimes the room only has a fifty person room and the rooms
30:04
only 30 feet by 30 feet. Sorry to use American standards
30:08
at measurements here though. But that's not going to fit a
30:12
full size booth when the boots is 7 is 6 1/2 feet wide by 6 1/2
30:16
feet deep. So it really comes down to
30:18
budget necessities. What's going to work best for
30:22
the job. I mean.
30:23
But sometimes you're forced to do creative things to get the
30:27
job done because the guests doesn't have the budget or
30:31
doesn't have the space or it's not the best, it's not the right
30:35
setup to do a boot. Sometimes you're on the go.
30:39
But the booth alleged. You just made me think about the
30:41
booth. You're going all over the world
30:43
with a booth. How long does it take to ship
30:45
the booth? You don't bid on it.
30:46
That's not a carry on, right? Probably not like that's £750
30:52
Booth is not a carry on. So how do you?
30:55
Like a giant coffin all. No, freight companies are
31:00
amazing and in most cases, like I said, you're not going to, you
31:05
don't. The booth really don't travel
31:07
internationally as much as you think they would.
31:10
The tabletop booths travel more often internationally and I do
31:16
have some resources in Europe if we need full size boots.
31:21
But when we start getting to like the Bali and the Sri
31:23
Lankas, they're not looking for booths.
31:25
A lot of these big international traveling events, they're not
31:30
what we think, what we expect from our conventions.
31:33
We're we're used to just going to a convention, sitting down
31:36
and join the event. When you start getting to a lot
31:39
more of these exotic locations, they're 99% of the time their
31:43
vacations for the guests. We are just at the the pleasure
31:49
to join these events and tag along.
31:52
So it's usually a dinner and it's they're going to do an
31:56
award ceremony at a dinner and then they're going to go on
31:59
excursions and then the next day and then they're going to jump
32:01
at in the hotel for one day to do a training session.
32:05
So with these kind of back and forth with these exotic trips,
32:09
you have to have equipment that still protects the interpreter
32:13
and gives the best experience, but it's travel friendly.
32:16
So the in that's where the tabletop booth really does
32:19
become your friend on the large travel events.
32:23
Now what do you do if there's like several different
32:25
languages? Do they all go side by side?
32:27
Like can they hear each other? Because there is no barrier
32:30
between them, really is. You can't.
32:32
So essentially when you're still in the booth, even though with I
32:36
just recently did an event two weeks ago where we had four
32:41
tabletop booths, the interpreters had their own room
32:45
by themselves. We had monitors in front of all
32:48
four of the tabletop booths. So the interpreters can see the
32:52
camera feed, they can see the program feed, the slides going
32:55
by and the teleprompter all on one screen.
32:58
But with four of them, I was, I was fearful of exactly what you
33:03
thought. They're going to hear each
33:04
other. They're gonna, it's gonna, the
33:06
audio is gonna bleed into each other's microphones.
33:08
So The funny thing is, I want you to think of my hands as the,
33:12
as the boots. I, instead of them setting them
33:14
side by side, I tilted them like this against each other with the
33:18
TV directly here in the middle, one TV in the middle, I tilt
33:23
them facing each other so they're blocking each other out.
33:26
And then on the other side did a mirror reverse so no one is
33:32
crossing each other's audio. So yes, there is creative ways
33:35
to make it happen to are you guys get protected.
33:37
That's awesome. Yeah.
33:39
You thought of everything because I was like I was just
33:41
picturing like 4 like next to each other and they're like you
33:43
can see your the guy who's speaking a different language
33:47
happens. But actually when I, when we
33:49
were in, I mean when I was in Vegas last time with the other
33:52
interpreters, we were like the Spanish and French booth.
33:57
And then there was a Spanish English booth.
33:59
We were next to each other. But with that shield there, I
34:02
couldn't hear the other team. So we were at a proper distance.
34:08
And most people can, you could also lean into the booth, into
34:11
the tabletop booth and it will do enough of its job.
34:15
And if the microphones you're using are high quality enough,
34:18
we can still make it work like I'm, I am using providing
34:22
headphones that do that have what's called the noise gate on
34:26
them. So you are not able to be heard
34:29
unless you speak above a certain amount of decibels before it
34:33
picks up your audio. So we put we put what's called
34:35
A10 decibel or excuse me, a three decibel noise gate on it.
34:40
So if you're sitting there just breathing heavy and say you're
34:43
huffing and puffing for some reason breathing heavy, it won't
34:47
hear you. But as soon as you start to
34:48
project your voice and get above that three decibels, now this
34:52
system picks up your voice. So I won't pick up you do it
34:55
like taking a puff of your e-cigarrete, but.
34:59
You munching on some chips in between in between sessions.
35:02
Yeah, just make sure they're not too crunchy.
35:04
And what about hybrid events? So nowadays there's a lot of
35:09
remote interpretation. Do interpreters get to travel
35:13
less or you're still bringing them along or things are
35:15
changing now? I will well first thing I want
35:19
all interpreters who are listening to this to understand
35:21
is I am a person that fights my butt off to make sure that
35:27
remote never takes over completely.
35:30
There is a human aspect that is missed that gets missed from
35:34
remote and here I have a I'll make a quick story to show of
35:38
it. I have one of my largest clients
35:41
and how we met Judy or Judy's my big fan of this company.
35:46
We have a client that takes us to a lot of very fun locations
35:50
and they tried for last five years, every other show we
35:55
would, we would lose the event to a remote company that did
36:01
remote interpreting. And then every time we would
36:03
come back, they would come back just the next event, say sorry,
36:06
we we shouldn't have done that. Remotes destroying, destroying
36:09
everything because you're losing the human aspect.
36:12
You're getting the job done, but there's no you're losing the
36:16
tour guide, you're losing the in-between conversation of how
36:20
we can approve and make things better for you.
36:23
Once the event is over, they disappear and it's cold.
36:26
So in person really does say, yes, we can save money with
36:30
remote, but you are going to only save a few dollars because
36:37
Internet is ridiculous. So I will continue to push for
36:41
in person. And if we're using remote, it's
36:45
usually because we're using a company that already has used
36:48
our services and they need something short and sweet to
36:52
help cover something without having interpreters in person,
36:56
and they already know what the interpreters have to offer.
36:58
When you're saying Internet when you're sorry, but when you're
37:01
saying Internet is ridiculous, you mean like using remote or
37:04
what do you mean by that? So you do save money when you're
37:10
using remote because you're not flying interpreters, you're not
37:14
putting them in hotel rooms. But let's say I would have
37:18
brought you to an event and it was going to cost $1000 to fly
37:22
you up very far away, far, far away place, and another $1000
37:25
over the week for a hotel room. That $2000 I saved by you doing
37:30
remote. I just spent an Internet for two
37:33
days of of Internet inside of a hotel because hotels charged
37:38
through the roof for Internet services, especially on the
37:41
commercial side of things. Yeah, here in Vegas it costs
37:46
$10,000 a day and most Expo floors to have a a direct hard
37:52
line of Internet on some of these massive $10,000.
37:57
It's ridiculous what they do. Why?
38:01
Because we're asking for such a demand of of of how high speed
38:06
Internet. The lowest you can possibly get
38:09
is $1000 a day, and that's cell phone speeds.
38:14
Yeah, I remember when I was at the Metro Toronto Convention
38:17
Centre about 20 years ago, it was already like at about $300 a
38:22
day. And I'm assuming it's just gone
38:25
up exponentially since I don't know it.
38:27
Happened. They know what they have.
38:28
They know they can monopolize it.
38:30
Yeah. And they have the firewalls to
38:32
not to prevent you from using other outside sources.
38:35
Yeah. So there it is a monopoly.
38:37
And so this brings me to maybe like talking about AI cause we
38:42
have there's, there's a few companies that are doing.
38:45
You always wanna talk about AI. Brian, I know.
38:48
I'm so happy, I'm so excited for this.
38:50
There's a lot of them, but they like, I mean, it's speech
38:52
translation. But like, um, do you, like I've
38:56
talked to some ATV companies here who are like, oh, like we
38:59
just lost this contract to a, a company that does AI
39:04
interpretation. I'll let him please take all my
39:06
contracts, take all my contracts and come back to me and come
39:09
back to me in one month. Call me after the events over.
39:14
I love, I love every clot, every client that calls me and says
39:17
I'm going to sorry, we're going to, we're going to go to AI.
39:20
I love it because I have gained double the business because of
39:27
AI. AI is amazing, but not in the
39:30
right way you think. Here's the issue.
39:35
Think about when you use your cell phone.
39:37
How often do you speak to your phone when you text either one
39:40
of you? Not that often.
39:42
But I mean I just do text send text messages to my wife or
39:45
something. I just.
39:46
OK, well, do you speak text at all?
39:49
What do you mean? Like, do you speak?
39:51
Do you use like, like I use my Airpod sometimes I'll just, I'll
39:55
hit speak text and I'll speak to Siri and talk and use and have
40:01
her formulate a text message for me.
40:03
Yeah, yeah. And send.
40:04
It all the time, yeah. How often is it 100% perfect?
40:08
Never. Exactly.
40:10
So here's the problem. AI is amazing, the human is not.
40:16
If you were to give me an event, which I have done this, if you
40:20
give me a televised event, we're gonna be 100% scripted from
40:25
start to finish. And you wanted 1520 languages,
40:29
whatever amount you want, I can give you my AI AI platform and
40:34
it will be perfect down to the T because I'm loading the scripts
40:39
into the system and we are scrolling through by hand.
40:43
As soon as the human steps on stage and the AI has to listen
40:46
to the human, it's game over. Because humans slur, they step
40:51
on their thoughts, they run over themselves and forget about it.
40:55
If English is a second language, it's impossible.
40:58
And which is most people and no matter how good AI gets, the
41:03
humans not improving. That's true, yeah.
41:08
So we are forever like everyone. I had so many interpreters call
41:12
me when the Air Pod 33 Pros came out with the with the.
41:18
Speech translation. I tried and I don't tell you I
41:22
tried and I was at an event in Quebec City and I decided to
41:26
turn it on and to listen, but the buffering was so, so, so
41:30
long and it couldn't keep up. And then it just basically I had
41:34
a wheel spinning for the rest of like for the few minutes I tried
41:38
it, just couldn't keep it. I mean, it's good if I'm in the
41:40
same China, I don't speak Mandarin and I wanna buy, I
41:43
don't know, an apple or something and I'm looking for
41:45
one. I would have looked for an
41:46
apple. Chinese.
41:47
Apples and Chinese apples, so and but basically it's just for.
41:53
It's a toy. It's a gimmick.
41:57
And you know how you know how awkward it is?
41:59
I have been actually said before I finished that sentence.
42:02
I have as as the position I am in my company.
42:07
My job is to buy everything. I want to buy every technology,
42:12
rent every technology, use it. I have every single AI app.
42:16
I have all the toys all the time.
42:19
And it's, it's, it's tiring to do this, but I have to stay on
42:24
the cutting edge. And I'll tell you how awkward it
42:27
is to be staring at your phone and go, hey, where is the
42:31
bathroom? And you're sitting there for 15
42:33
seconds just waiting for it to process.
42:35
It is so uncomfortable. And that's what the reality is
42:39
of AI. It's because it has to upload
42:42
and download from the cloud to get that information.
42:45
So we are still light years away from AI ever taking over because
42:50
the public data system that is providing these AI systems
42:56
through our phone is never going to be fast enough anytime soon
43:00
to where it can do split second translation and using on the
43:04
commercial side. No way.
43:06
I so like I said, I want all my clients.
43:10
I don't want any of my clients to do this.
43:11
But if they say I were gonna be cheap and we're gonna go AI,
43:15
please give me a call when it's done.
43:17
I'm so ready for you to have a bad experience if you're going
43:20
to, if you're going to pay attention to AI.
43:23
Yeah, I feel like the the the hype of it was more like maybe
43:26
let's say six months ago and now it's kind of fading a bit.
43:29
Already. Yeah, like I, I find that like,
43:31
like in terms of like if I look at my, my sales for my company,
43:34
like it did go down at the beginning of 2005, but now it's
43:37
slowly ramping up. But there was also the tariff
43:40
war and there's like the elections in the States,
43:43
elections in Canada, so people don't.
43:44
Know Brian 2025 thousand 5 that's. 2025.
43:53
Yeah, I know. Edited on the post production.
44:00
So, so like coming back to the, the, the equipment part of
44:04
things with the booth and everything.
44:05
So, so you have multiple booths you have, do you do, do you go
44:12
beyond that? Do you do also like the the
44:15
audio visual side or do you stick to interpretation?
44:19
No. So we have other research.
44:22
So we have we have about 10 or maybe 9 right now.
44:27
I think we're we're down to 9 full size booth, I think 6 or 7
44:32
table tops. And then the rest is having
44:36
friends like I can do, I can do probably as of right now I can
44:41
make a phone call and get up to 40 booths.
44:43
We're never gonna do that. But it's too expensive to ship
44:48
£700 booths across the world. So instead of doing that, you
44:52
make friends and locations and we same thing that you how you
44:57
and I met Brian. You're not going to ship things
44:59
from Canada. It's a waste.
45:01
I'm not going to ship my boots to Canada.
45:03
So when the time comes in an event goes that direction,
45:06
you're going to be the first person I call and say, hey, it
45:09
would be either you do you have it?
45:11
If not, who does have it? Let's make friends and let's do
45:14
this because the clients not gonna spend 10s of thousands of
45:17
dollars for shipping. They want local pricing, but
45:20
they want our services that we've been providing them
45:22
continuously. So we make friends and we go
45:26
that that path as far as equipment goes inside of God.
45:30
Sorry. Yeah, I find like that the
45:32
customs like I, I feel like Canada, US is like the worst for
45:35
like shipping stuff back and forth in my experience.
45:40
Yeah, they get, I mean, I've, I, I did something.
45:42
I'm supposed to be friends. Yeah, I, I did something in 2008
45:47
in Ireland and it was easier to ship stuff to Ireland than it
45:50
was to ship stuff to the United States.
45:51
Like and I've stopped years ago trying to ship stuff to the
45:55
United States. It's tough, it's definitely
45:58
tough. I I get it and that that's why
46:00
it's easier to have friends just because in and you also save it.
46:03
You might. As a project organizer, you
46:08
might lose a couple dollars in the process or maybe even save a
46:11
couple dollars, but the stress definitely goes away when you
46:14
don't have to ship everything across the world.
46:17
Yeah, because you're renting from other sources, so you have
46:20
to that goes into your profit, right, like.
46:23
Yeah, yeah. The other things that we're
46:25
doing though is the company helps other, we have different
46:31
ways that we are included in these events without sometimes
46:35
interpreters. The one thing that we do in our
46:38
our world is we do a lot of silent export, what's called
46:42
silent theatres or silent discos or or silent Expos.
46:47
What? Think about a party that you
46:51
would go to with no. Speakers, it's weird.
46:55
Headphones. Just headphones.
46:56
You walk into a room and everyone's wearing earmuffs like
46:59
you're wearing right now, without the cables, connected
47:02
wireless headphones and nice little LED lights wrapped around
47:05
it. And they're all blinky.
47:06
They are different colours or they're blinking and it brings
47:09
what we call a silent distal party.
47:12
You have those in. Well do those in convention
47:15
rooms. Where don't talk to each other.
47:18
It's weird. They don't talk to each other.
47:20
You can't. You can't.
47:21
They dance with each other, you can't.
47:22
You can't talk. It's impossible.
47:24
It feels weird. But when you take, it's weird
47:26
when you're like you're cranking music and you're just you're,
47:28
you're, you're jumping up and down and then you take your
47:31
headphones off and it's quiet like a church.
47:35
It's so different, but people love it.
47:39
We also used that equipment for Expos.
47:41
So we just wrapped up an event here in Vegas that has, it's a
47:48
how large? I would say it's about, I'd say
47:53
about 3-2 to 3 kilometres wide. I make it in reference to you
47:57
guys. The vent is massive.
48:00
It's the entire Mandalay Bay convention floor.
48:04
And we, it's about 1200 booths on the floor.
48:09
And we provide that same silent disco equipment for each
48:13
individual booth so they can do presentations and each person
48:18
can show up to the booth, put the headphones on and listen to
48:22
the presentation. Now do that spanned across all
48:25
these booths. It's a massive production, but
48:29
it is a really high quality service for these people to go
48:32
from booth to booth to learn about the products that are
48:35
being delivered at the at these Expo floors.
48:38
Everything's bigger in America. We don't have that part.
48:42
Then you can. I'm.
48:43
Just trying really magine. I'm just trying to imagine this
48:47
like, and I usually have a vivid imagination, but I'd have to see
48:51
it because yeah, it's, it's huge.
48:54
That's awesome. Let's just say it's the, there's
48:56
a, there's a couple of events, like there's not many of them,
49:00
but there are a few. Think of it as have you ever
49:02
been? Have you ever had the pleasure
49:03
of going to a CVS or something like?
49:05
That no, never. CBS, the consumer electronic
49:09
show, yeah, which is the OK, the massive 1.
49:12
So those same thing it's it's one of those ones where as a
49:16
technician who work in these events or organizing these
49:19
events, you're walking, it's a 30 minute walk from our bone
49:24
yard where it's where everything.
49:25
That means that's where all our stuff is to get all the way to
49:28
the other side to 30 minute walk and walking at a decent pace.
49:33
So when you're walking boot oh it's nuts.
49:36
I think Costco got Costco. Don't have the Costco OHS way
49:40
bigger. I'd say 2 Costcos.
49:44
Bigger than the biggest Costco? Ohe, it's nuts.
49:46
It is nuts. Yeah.
49:49
Yeah, I know. We don't have that kind of
49:50
capacity like I've been to. Have that many people here?
49:54
Maybe that's what it is because I've been to conferences in like
49:58
Nashville and Orlando and Vegas and like they, the size of the
50:02
convention rooms are like, I don't, I think the only place
50:05
here in Canada would probably be the Metro Toronto Convention
50:07
Centre that could have that kind of capacity.
50:10
Like there's not those gigantic spaces in Canada.
50:16
Yeah, and this, this event, I think it was about that's, I'd
50:20
have to guess 15,000 people, maybe between 10, between 10 and
50:24
20,000 people just they was it's massive and there's so many
50:28
people coming all at once. So you need to have enough space
50:32
to make sure everyone is having fun.
50:34
But essentially between the interpretation and this, the
50:38
Expo stuff, it's a lot of lot of small stuff.
50:40
The one I wish I had the opportunity to show photos with
50:43
you guys. Maybe we can, I can share some
50:46
stuff and you can and you can share it with all of and you
50:49
posted all your people is we just opened up our interpreter
50:54
studio. OK, So now we're slowly starting
50:58
to get into the Netflix, the Hulus, the Prime TV.
51:02
We're trying to get our foot in the door, which we're slowly
51:06
getting there doing voice. Dubbing.
51:09
Doing voice, yeah, yeah. Doing voiceovers, doing dubbing.
51:13
So when you watch. So now a lot of Netflix shows,
51:17
they're made, they Netflix won't tell you this, but they are
51:22
making money off these international events.
51:24
Squid Games, perfect example, Everyone, everyone seems to have
51:27
fallen in love with Squid Games from from Korea.
51:31
And it needs to be it. It got created in six different
51:35
languages, I believe. So they had to bring it to a
51:37
studio, throw interpreters into a studio, voice over everything,
51:41
and then pay a separate company to do the closed captioning for
51:45
it. That's why it seems like when
51:46
you watch some of these TV shows, the voices don't match
51:49
the close caption. Yeah.
51:50
Yeah, but, but, but I've noticed that.
51:52
But don't they use voice actors? I thought they would have the
51:55
script and then they went higher voice actors.
51:57
I did not think that it would be interpreters dubbing it.
52:01
No, most of the time it is a studio thing.
52:03
It's just it's all post production done afterwards
52:06
though, yeah, they're basically. Saying is I'm not a voice actor.
52:10
I wish, but I'm not. So how do you know?
52:14
Like, let's say I I know how to do interpretation.
52:17
I don't necessarily know how to be a character in a series.
52:22
So I. Can see that.
52:24
So how, how do you match all of these?
52:27
Or should I actually add a new thing to my career and say, you
52:31
know what, I'm a voice. Actor From now on, you are a
52:33
voice actor. Whether you whether you believe
52:35
it or not, you are a voice actor.
52:37
You are a voice personality. Look at you on on screen right
52:40
now using your radio voice to project this event you get when
52:44
you get in that booth. I promise you, you're not.
52:46
You're not a squeaky interpreter.
52:48
You are a powerful voice, whether you just haven't, you
52:53
just haven't had the right director to put you in the right
52:55
direction with the right script and the right setup.
52:58
So essentially, that's the biggest thing that most people
53:01
forget when it comes to the interpretation rule.
53:04
If you don't get a part, it's not because you didn't have the
53:08
skills as as an organizer myself, I also have to take into
53:13
place where do you fit the script for this particular
53:17
event? You might have the skill set,
53:19
you might be a law degree and this is a perfect law set up for
53:22
you. But maybe you're not the
53:24
personality, you're not the voice, you're not the this
53:27
something that matches the whole picture.
53:30
So there's a lot of other parts that most people don't see when
53:34
all they see is I didn't get the part when there's other
53:36
components that we're looking at as well.
53:39
Yeah, I noticed also like with Netflix and Prime and all those
53:43
like when they when you do the voiceover, it almost sounds like
53:46
rehearsed and there's like a script and like someone is
53:49
basically inflecting, but not as much as I clear the original
53:53
actor, right. So I think.
53:55
You'll never be as. Perfect.
53:57
No, but I think having that interpreter that like because we
53:59
do assume a role when we when we interpret like we, we assume the
54:03
role of the speaker and and I think that that would be a
54:06
really cool asset to have. So like, it seems more natural
54:09
when you're listening to a show another language to have an
54:11
interpreter instead of a voice actor.
54:15
Agreed because they're not going to you still need the
54:19
interpreter even though they're voice actor because you have to
54:21
remember as when you're taking another you're taking a TV show
54:26
and you're going to switch it into a different language you
54:29
have nobody is giving you a script in that language and then
54:33
just read the script. A lot of times the voiceover
54:36
gets done first then or they're getting done at the same time by
54:40
two different companies. That's why when you watch TV,
54:44
like I said before, if you seeing that the voice over and
54:46
the and the closed captioning doesn't seem to match, it's
54:49
because they don't match. There are two different
54:52
companies working on it because with larger production not a lot
54:57
of companies want to do both. Yeah, and that we actually did a
55:01
podcast with someone who was a did the closed captioning and
55:04
stuff for for video and stuff. Remember Daniel?
55:08
Yeah, yeah, from, from he was doing Netflix and all of that.
55:10
Yeah. And it's all subcontracted.
55:12
It's and they were having an issue with the subcontractor who
55:16
was not paying the interpreters for month or the translators for
55:19
months and months and months. So that's why he came on on to
55:22
talk about that. But yeah, it's, it's, there's a,
55:25
there's a separation between the original and what they do post
55:29
production. And you can tell like you can
55:32
tell that there's it's not as In Sync as it should.
55:35
Be but just to understand the process.
55:36
So I imagine that it was gonna be the original script, then it
55:40
was it was going to be translated and then you would
55:43
have some voice actors that would basically narrate on top
55:49
of the the lips from the original.
55:54
I thought it was it. No, so if I wish it was that way
55:58
and and if the way I look at it, it should be done where you were
56:02
when the TV show is done, close captioning should be done first.
56:07
Then once the new scripts are made, then you can choose any
56:10
actor you want, because now it doesn't have it can just choose
56:13
an English voice actor and make it perfect.
56:15
Unfortunately, that's not how it gets done.
56:18
It basically they take here's our TV show.
56:21
We need closed captioning. We need voice over Go man and
56:25
they. This expands for you because
56:27
like, this sounds awesome. Wow.
56:31
So yeah, the great thing is we have the, we have the tools to
56:35
do both. And nobody loves closed
56:37
captioning. It's any translation in general
56:41
is very time consuming and very taxing mentally.
56:45
Everybody wants to do interpretation just because it's
56:49
you. It feels like you deliver a
56:50
better product with your voice than you do standing behind a
56:53
computer and just typing. But some people love it.
56:55
But yes. People also like they like to
56:57
look at their phone also every once in a while and then you
56:59
lose a bit of the what's happening because you're you
57:02
didn't see the what the caption was exactly and the murderer is
57:06
oht. Look at this.
57:07
I got an Instagram post like. Actually, I always use the
57:12
original version and I do, I do the, the subtitles personally.
57:17
I mean, I, I'm not a, I mean, let's say I watched Squid Games,
57:21
I watched it in Korean and then I read the subtitles.
57:24
For some reason, I just, I have a hard time with the lips not
57:27
following the sound. But that's just that's just the
57:31
personal preference. I agree 100% with you.
57:35
When I'm watching a TV show that has two were were listening to
57:39
English and the subtitles are off, I have to focus on one
57:43
because like most of us, when the subtitles are on I'm using
57:48
the subtitle cues to be able to hear the audio more clearly.
57:53
So when they're off, my brains malfunctioning.
57:57
Now I have a question going back to the conferences, did you say
58:02
that you can provide a fee to the interpreters of the
58:05
teleprompter? Yes, so.
58:09
Yeah, yeah. Ideas in Vegas, that's what I
58:11
had it in Vegas. I had to tell I had a one screen
58:13
with the teleprompter on it. It was.
58:15
Amazing. I have never had that
58:17
experience, but I want that experience.
58:19
And you had you had a terrible and it's great.
58:23
Do you think it was an amazing experience?
58:24
In my opinion, it was terrible for the screen because it's not.
58:29
It wasn't it didn't live up to my expectations.
58:32
If you're going to have a monitor in the booth, it needs
58:35
to have more than just a teleprompter.
58:37
Luckily, they were able to give us just they only gave us two
58:40
options because the screen was so small.
58:43
It was going to be you get there is there's a camera feed, the
58:47
program fee, which are the slides of the event and then the
58:51
teleprompter. You either get all three on the
58:53
screen or you get 1. You can't pick and choose.
58:57
They didn't they. Didn't have the event right in
58:59
front of me. No, it was.
59:00
Fine, agreed. Agreed.
59:02
But it's still nice to have that camera view, being able to see.
59:07
Interpreters want to see expressions on faces because it
59:11
helps. It helps you in mentally to
59:15
prepare and try to dish out the emotions and match the voice.
59:18
It really does keep you on your game.
59:20
And for someone who doesn't do interpret, who doesn't actually
59:23
interpret, I understand it because I read your body
59:27
language and I can't read your body language from 100 feet way
59:30
and side profile. Yeah, and that's how you saw it.
59:35
And I finally, there's a lot of venues too, where like the
59:38
you're so far in the back of the room that you can't see what's
59:41
like the fine print and the PowerPoint presentations.
59:43
So yeah, that would be the ideal.
59:46
I agree with you, but I've never done that.
59:48
I had the teleprompter experience.
59:50
I would love to have that. It just has to be the right
59:53
event. Yeah.
59:55
But we've had, I think we had someone on our podcast recently
59:58
that said that they have a, an app that does that for them or
1:00:01
like a program on on. On the web, and do you remember
1:00:05
that there was a? I think it was a list of the
1:00:08
Japanese interpreter. I would be if I heard someone
1:00:12
say they were using an. App.
1:00:14
I'd say be. Careful bank interbank and but
1:00:17
it was based anyway. I wait, wait.
1:00:20
I'm curious to know. Just because now you know you,
1:00:22
you got me curious. So you're talking about an
1:00:24
application that listens to the and that makes a teleprompter
1:00:28
out of it. I try, I try to actually on my
1:00:30
computer but I couldn't make it work so.
1:00:33
I wouldn't trust that that's it goes right back to using AI
1:00:37
again. So it's like you're taking the.
1:00:39
Registers the teleprompter like all the script is done.
1:00:42
Pre yeah, when I tried it, but basically when I tried it, I I
1:00:47
could not, I could make it make like I could put my own feed and
1:00:51
it was putting my own script on, but not what I was listening.
1:00:55
So I could never make it work that way.
1:00:58
But anyway, 10 so guys, we're shy of an hour.
1:01:05
We had a very long discussion on the technical aspect, but
1:01:09
unfortunately we have to we have to go.
1:01:15
Any parting words Chris before we?
1:01:19
No, I would say thank you so much for having me on the show.
1:01:22
I just keep in mind for all of my interpreters out there, keep
1:01:26
doing what you're doing. There are companies like myself
1:01:29
that are fighting really hard to keep us all in the business.
1:01:33
And don't stress over AI. We're going to be here for a
1:01:36
while. Let the and just keep doing what
1:01:38
you do. And please share your knowledge
1:01:41
with younger generations. We need to keep this business
1:01:44
alive and the longer we keep sharing it, the longer we can
1:01:48
stay in business because this industry is slowing down a
1:01:52
little bit and I'd love to see it continue.
1:01:54
Yeah. And I've never seen anyone like
1:01:56
as like technicians like that. I've, I've worked with several
1:02:00
of them. But you have that passion that I
1:02:02
don't see often in in technicians to try to provide
1:02:05
the best of the best for the interpreters.
1:02:07
And I really appreciate everything you did for us in
1:02:09
Vegas. That was like, like you said, it
1:02:12
wasn't your standard, but we loved it.
1:02:15
We thought it was great. You have to say, Chris, this is
1:02:19
the first time I ever hear someone from your side of the
1:02:23
event who actually seems to care so much about the interpreters.
1:02:30
I felt it when we met in Vegas. I really feel your passion for
1:02:35
it on the podcast. And really, this is really
1:02:39
amazing. And I really look forward for us
1:02:42
to collaborate again because, you know, if you put the the
1:02:46
technical people on one side and the interpreters and another,
1:02:49
it's not as good as if we're all working together.
1:02:52
Yeah, of course. And whether you're in Bali or
1:02:55
Botswana or Bolivia, it's called global interpretation.
1:02:59
Thank you so much and I hope you do share my contact information
1:03:03
or some of my e-mail somewhere within your for your podcast
1:03:06
listeners. And please, if you're an
1:03:07
interpreter out there and you're looking just to make more
1:03:10
friends, I'm more than happy to receive emails.
1:03:13
Just give me your information. Let me put you in my roster and
1:03:17
and we might not cross past that often, but it's always nice to
1:03:21
have another friend like myself in the in your back pocket just
1:03:24
in case we cross paths. I love the whole point of this
1:03:28
business is networking and having all the resources
1:03:30
anywhere we can find it. So I hope we do cross paths for
1:03:33
all those listening. Absolutely.
1:03:36
On that, thank you very much everyone.
1:03:38
Don't forget like, share, subscribe, comment and contact
1:03:42
Chris, alright? Thank you so much everyone.
1:03:46
See you next time. Take care, Take care.