How Does Zoom Interpretation Work?
With a huge portion of the workforce around the world operating remotely, businesses are relying on virtual meetings and video conferencing. Frequently, this happens on public platforms. One of the most popular platforms for video conferencing is Zoom.
Launched in 2013, Zoom is a relatively new company to market. It’s simple user experience and the fact that there’s a free version have made it incredibly popular. Within two years, it had about 40 million regular users. Between March and April of 2020, Zoom had over 300 million daily users. And these weren’t just regular business or personal users. The U.K. Cabinet and over 90,000 schools located in 20 different countries regularly use the app.
With this level of international audience and use, it’s no wonder that Zoom activated interpretation. Zoom Interpretation allows a host to designate an assigned interpreter who will perform translation on a dedicated audio channel.
When you are conducting video meetings, webinars and calls over Zoom, how can you use this translation feature? Here’s a review of what you can get with that and what additional steps you’ll need to actually use Zoom Interpretation.
Want a live, video interpretation? Tap here to learn how Translators USA interpreters can attend your live video meetings and provide translation services.
Video Conferencing Platforms With Translation
Businesses had to fast-track remote interfaces during stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders. From China to the U.S., companies who operate globally had to quickly manage remote teams and conduct meetings over video calls. Zoom interpretation gives some cross-cultural communication options. Here’s what the platform offers.
Zoom Language Interpretation
With any Zoom meeting, a host is assigned. This person has the ability to assign other hosts, screen share, take notes on screen and more. Through Zoom Interpretation, that host can assign an interpreter. The interpreter is just logged in as another participant to start. Once assigned, they will get their own audio channel to speak into. Attendees who need to hear the meeting in the interpreted language will tune into that audio channel. It’s also possible to keep the original audio channel on at a lower level.
To use Zoom Interpretation, you will need:
- A business, education or enterprise Zoom account
- An automatically generated meeting ID
- Compatible Zoom desktop or app versions (most recent)
This is a custom feature that will have to be set up by Zoom Support.
Note, the most important thing you need to have to use Zoom Interpretation is an interpreter.
fulfill each role.
Hire a Zoom Interpreter
An interpreter is a professional who can facilitate cross-cultural communication. This person is more than someone who simply speaks another language. Additional training is essential, because live interpretation is a unique skill. It requires immense focus and awareness of the nuances of spoken language.
There also may be industry-specific training or certifications that are required. Because translation often occurs in government organizations or academic institutions, these may require translators to have certain qualifications. It’s important that you only hire interpreters to facilitate important business or educational video calls who are highly trained.
Note that there are some limits to using Zoom Interpretation. The platform currently only supports a few languages. Translators USA has video interpreting services that can provide a great alternative to Zoom Interpretation.
Video Interpreters: Translators USA
Translators USA has a large team of qualified translators. We hire highly qualified interpreters who can handle any task. We have worked with government agencies, institutes of higher learning and business around the world.
In addition to video interpreting, we provide a range of services that include:
- Conference interpreting
- ASL interpreting
- Live video interpreting
- Phone interpreting
- Whisper interpreting
- Document translation
- And more!
Contact us to learn more or discover how you can hire an interpreter for your business or school.