By: Everton Morais

Everton Morais — Thu, 17 May 2018 13:05:34 +0000

Thank you for the article Silvana, it is certainly important to keep this conversation going.
After nearly 10 years doing voluntary SI at my local church, my first ever “paid job” as an interpreter was at a conference for the global leaders of my church, in an event that gathered over 25k attendees. As you can imagine, the venue (Orlando Convention Center, FL) was gargantuan. In the main hall, our booths were set up behind the stage, and we had 2 large (32″ maybe) LCD screens, one featuring the visual aids being used, the other one a camera showing the main speaker.
I was told how to operate the console, and then they wished me the best of luck. My booth partner was more experienced than I was, so that gave me some level of ease, knowing that she had done this before. We performed our tasks for the next 10 days, and everything went pretty smooth.
Today looking at RSI, I feel like there is little difference from what my first ever experience in a booth felt like. Although I agree that meeting with the speaker(s) before hand, feeling the room, having materials and access to the technician is always helpful, in my 10 years of professional experience, I have come to find that we do not always get those things, we certainly do not get all of those things in most of the times.
My technical experience with RSI has been good thus far, but looking into the future, I will certainly miss traveling to the different locations (sometimes exotic ones). Having to commute 1 hour to get into a booth set up in a windowless room, is very different from traveling from the U.S. to the Netherlands or New Zealand. I can see how some of the conferences I have worked int the past will move very quickly to adopt the new technology, but I also know there are some clients who will not be doing that in the next 5 years. So as for me, I will cherish every trip to location now just a little bit more, knowing that tomorrow instead of getting to see the Tasman Sea for the 1st time, I will likely be staring at the rails of the New York subway (which are not a pretty sight by any measure), as I “travel” to do my work.
Cheers to all of those among us, who have been part of the days when one could really get excited about “going into work!”

Comments on: Remote Simultaneous Interpreting: The Upside and Downside

By: Everton Morais