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CODE FOR THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CONFERENCE INTERPRETATION

1. At any multilingual conference at which new technologies are part of a video/tele-conference using cabled or non-cabled networks, the Internet etc., interpreters must be consulted in advance about the feasibility of the project. They must also be involved from the start in the detailed planning of the meeting. In any event, and at the very least, the working conditions must comply with standards ISO 2603, ISO 4043 and IEC 60914.

2. For interpreters, one of the fundamental rules in standard ISO 2603 is a direct view of the room. If they follow a debate on a screen, however good the picture and sound, they are deprived of the general non-verbal context which enables them to carry out their task.

This is what justifies their critical attitude towards video-conferencing; there are also arguments relating to health and quality. For an exception to be made, the following conditions need to be fulfilled:

• All the other principles of the aforementioned standards must be strictly observed, in particular as regards the quality of the sound (faithful transmission of the 125-12500 Hz waveband), which would rule out any video-conferencing based on the H320 Standards which restrict the frequency to 7500 Hz, whether by ISDN, LAN, the Internet, etc.
  
  
• The interpreters must have high-definition picture, synchronised with the sound, of a quality which makes it possible to distinguish clearly the facial expressions and gestures of the speakers and participants.
  
  
• In view of the specific constraints of video-conferencing (the loss of non-verbal information, eye fatigue caused by the screens, the absence of daylight, the extra concentration and stress, etc.), the interpreters should not have to work more than two hours a day

Moreover, the temptation to divert certain technologies from their primary purpose, for example by putting interpreters in front of monitors or screens to interpret at a distance a meeting attended by participants assembled in one place (i.e. tele-interpreting), is unacceptable.

3. In any version of a multimedia meeting, interpreters must have access to the same information as the delegates, which implies that when new conference rooms are built or modernised, interpreters' booths need to be properly connected.

Technical annex: applicable definitions and standards (references and brief description)

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