Remote translation on Qonda

In an increasingly remote and globalised world, language barriers play an increasingly important role. That is why we hire interpreters (or oral translators) for our events. But does interpreting also work in a digital format? The answer is yes. But for it to work, platforms that allow working with more than one language are required.

In previous blogs, I have already talked about the most currently well-known remote interpreting platforms. This time, I bring a hidden gem that has not yet received the recognition it deserves, and one that we use at AbroadLink, among others. I would like to analyse the features of this new platform in comparison with others available on the market today. But let's start with a brief introduction.

Qonda is a platform designed to hold multilingual online events. Basically, it is an interface that allows organising meetings, conferences, webinars and other types of online events as well as offers audio, video, screen sharing and poll functions, among others. But unlike similar platforms that we are used to, Qonda has some special functions. Let's take a closer look at them.

1. Multilingual channels

Perhaps one of the most important features of Qonda, and what sets it apart from other similar platforms, is that it supports an unlimited number of language combinations for interpreting. This means that, as a client, you can offer interpreting services in as many languages as you need, without any limitations. The star platform Zoom, for example, does not offer this possibility, as the number of interpreting (or oral translation) channels are limited.

Thanks to numerous studies conducted by the platform's creators Mike Bertsch and Benjamin Bühl, it has been found that many listeners prefer to hear only the interpreter's (or oral translator's) voice, rather than hearing the interpreter with the speaker's voice in the background. That is why the creators have not only implemented the possibility to turn the original audio on and off in multilingual channels, but you are also allowed to adjust the volume to your liking. If the initial setting transmits 80% of the interpreter's audio and 20% of the original audio, you can easily adjust the percentage that suits you best.

2. Relay interpreting

What is relay? When we talk about relay in interpreting, we refer to an interpreter carrying out an oral translation from another fellow interpreter rather than directly from the main speaker. Let's look at the following example: you have planned a webinar with 50 participants to introduce your company. But some of the attendees only speak either English or French, so they will need an interpreter to convey the information into English and another interpreter to convey the information into French.

So far so good. But suddenly one of your Russian partners wants to make a small intervention in your webinar, obviously in Russian. If we assume that the English interpreter works with both Spanish and Russian, the English-speaking attendees will have no comprehension problems. However, the French interpreter only works with Spanish and English.

In these cases, for the French-speaking attendees to follow the Russian partner's speech, the French interpreter interprets what their colleague interpreting into English is saying, instead of directly interpreting the speaker's words in Russian.

Most of the programmes I have seen so far do not allow the interpreter to connect to the audio of another interpreting channel. But Qonda makes it possible, providing you with many advantages and significantly reducing your costs.

3. Interpreter shifts

As you surely already know, webinars that exceed an hour or an hour and a half in duration require more than one interpreter. Since the speaker speaks continuously without pause, interpreters must swap every half-hour or 40 minutes. That implies that the interpreters must be listening to each other and signal when they are going to relieve each other.

In many platforms, including Zoom, that is not so easy, as interpreters must be connected on two different channels to be able to listen to each other and know when to swap. This results in losing part of the information at each switch.

In Qonda, however, there is no need for the interpreter to be on two channels connected with two computers to know when to make the switch. This is due to Qonda allowing easy handovers by having only one channel activated. How is that possible? Very easy. The platform includes a "HANDOVER" button that the interpreter can use to signal their colleague that they want to be relieved. The colleague, in turn, can accept the handover with a click on the tick while a second click directly passes the connection to the other interpreter.

And what happens if the active interpreter has a problem? The booth partner has a "FORCE TAKEOVER" button that they can press at any time to self-assign the handover and continue with the interpreting until the colleague has solved their problem.

The same occurs if the connection drops. The Qonda system checks every 20 seconds if both the participants and the interpreters are still connected. As soon as the system detects that an interpreter has lost connection, it sends a notification to the booth partner asking if they want to continue with the interpreting.

4. Conference simulation

Have you ever had a conference delayed because the interpreters didn't know how to use the platform? If not, you've been lucky. However, there are still many interpreters who are not familiar with remote simultaneous interpreting platforms (or remote simultaneous translation).

With Qonda, this doesn't happen, as all our interpreters can access the platform and familiarise themselves with it through a simulation. This allows interpreters to get to know the platform as well as test the handover, chat, and audio functions. This way, you can be confident that the interpreters are well-prepared, eliminating frustrating delays and technical issues.

5. Additional features

After everything you've read about Qonda, you may think that it's quite a comprehensive platform. But there's more. In addition to the features I've explained in the previous sections, Qonda can be integrated with other platforms like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex or Zoom.

As an interpreter, another feature that I consider eye-catching is the chat. Unlike the chat functions of other platforms, the Qonda chat makes it possible to write to all participants, as well as to all interpreters or only to those with the same language combination. Likewise, there is also a small button you can see below that allows the interpreter to send quick messages like, "Relieve me" or "I'm off for 2 minutes".

But the most fascinating thing about the chat is the option "The speaker speaks too fast" which can be sent directly to the speaker to make them speak at a more moderate speed.

There are many more outstanding features of this new platform that we will mention in our blogs. But for now, we just wanted to give you a brief introduction to one of our digital language solutions.

In my opinion, the only flaw I see in the platform is the price, as Qonda doesn't charge a monthly subscription like other platforms, but sets prices per event. That means that depending on the duration of your event, the number of attendees and speakers, and the languages you want to interpret from and to, a fee will be applied. The rule is simple: the more hours and languages, the cheaper the rate. Therefore, it's not very viable for small projects, for which I would still recommend Zoom.