Is Remote Simultaneous Interpreting the future of interpretation?

Remote Simultaneous Interpreting is having its finest hour. 

I love all things tech, and there’s been a real flurry of activity in the RSI world over the last couple of months.

Out of a difficult situation for everybody has come something positive, and both interpreters and clients are really starting to see the benefits of RSI. It’s really exciting times and the future is looking bright!

For those who are not familiar with RSI, it allows the user to host conferences, training sessions, business meetings and more online with an experienced interpreter based remotely, interpreting your message in real-time to your participants in their native language. It’s quick, it’s easy to set up, I love it.

What platforms are available?

RSI itself is not new technology, but it has seen an obvious boom in use over the last few months.

I’ve been offering RSI services for quite some time, however. In the past, I’ve worked with Andrea Baccenetti, co-founder and COO at Voiceboxer, and have been KUDO certified for several years. I’ve worked with these platforms on many occasions and I’ve been really impressed by their functionality for both clients and interpreters.

I’ve also been working with Interactio and Interprefy and am taking assignments through those platforms too. I’ve spoken about my experience with Interprefy in the past and was particularly impressed with their technical support – and it’s reassuring to know that someone is there to help if the worst should happen and the technology fails on the day!

There are other options that aren’t exclusively RSI technology too, such as Zoom (interpretation services are available through its Pro-Plan) and GoToMeeting. I’ll be covering all of these platforms in more detail over my next few blogs, so keep an eye out for those to find out more about them and their USPs.

So, with all of its benefits, does this mean the end of in-person interpreting?

The traditional interpreting model has been travelling all over the world, which I absolutely love about my job and I’m very lucky, but this is obviously a more expensive option for clients to contract and arrange. What RSI offers is a modern, fuss-free solution to help organisations continue to do business with each other, no matter where they – or their interpreters – are in the world.

Although RSI is the logical solution for the challenges we currently face, I don’t think it will completely replace in-person interpreting, and I personally hope that it doesn’t. RSI offers us interpreters more choice and more flexibility in how we can work – taking on a remote assignment is perfect for days where I may have some gaps in the diary to fill – but nothing can quite match up with face-to-face contact when it comes to building relationships with one another. I think they both have their part to play alongside each other.

That being said, there’s a growing expectation that remote working will have a much bigger role in the way that businesses work together, both during this crisis and beyond, so RSI is definitely here and here to stay.

Would you consider using RSI over in-person interpreting? Have you used RSI in the past? Let me know what you think in the comments below!