We have four rooms running at once. Is that four accounts?
No. One account holds as many venues as you have rooms. Each room has its own
link and its own feed from its own desk, and the bill is the hours each one ran.
Conferences and AGMs
Every delegate follows in their own language.
Delegates arrive late, step out for a call, and move between rooms. Each one opens the listening link, picks a language and follows whichever session they are sitting in, from the opening keynote to the last breakout and the AGM at the end of the day.
The delegate’s day, start to finish
The listening link is in the registration email, on the lanyard card and on the screen at the front. A delegate opens it on the way in, picks a language, and the keynote is already running when they sit down. When they move to a breakout, they open the room link posted at that door. When they leave for twenty minutes, they put the phone away; when they come back, it is where they left it.
The AGM at the end of the day runs the same way. Motions, the chair’s remarks and questions from the floor are captioned as they are spoken into the room microphone, and a member who reads better than they listen follows every word.
Where it earns its place at a conference
The sessions an organiser has to cover, and what the translation does at each.
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Keynote and plenary translation
One speaker, the whole hall, every delegate reading in the language they registered with. The room screen carries the language most of the hall needs.
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Breakout rooms and parallel tracks
Each room is its own venue with its own link. Four rooms at once, each billed for its own hours and the languages its delegates picked. How to set up two rooms at once.
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AGM and member meetings
Reports, motions, the chair’s remarks and questions from the floor, captioned as they are said into the room microphone, with a transcript after.
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Panel discussions in more than one language
Set the spoken language to any and let the panel hand over between languages. The delegate reading Portuguese reads the whole exchange in Portuguese.
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Trade events and product launches
Visitors who came for the product follow the presentation from the stand, from a QR on the banner, without a receiver from the organiser.
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The live stream for members at home
The caption band over the broadcast in the language you choose, with the listening link on screen for the viewer who wants another.
How it is done
Three things, before the doors open.
The venue technician does the first.
The programme does the rest.
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01 /
A venue per room, fed from its desk
Add a venue for each room, start each from its own mixer feed, and read the first line on a phone at the back.
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02 /
The link in three places
The registration email, the lanyard card and the screen in each room. The same link serves every session in that room.
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03 /
Start and stop with the programme
Start the keynote, stop for lunch, start the afternoon. The bill is the hours each room ran, in the languages its delegates used.
What a conference needs
A venue with a sound desk, more than one room, and a programme that changes on the day.
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One venue per room
Each room is a venue in your account, with its own desk feed, its own link and its own settings. A plenary and three breakouts are four venues, started and stopped on their own programme.
- Minimum
- A laptop in a browser at each desk
- Better
- The desk app on the venue computer, fed from the room mixer
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The link in three places
The registration email, the printed programme or lanyard card, and the screen at the front of each room. A delegate should never have to ask.
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The programme’s own words
Speaker names, session titles, your organisation’s acronyms and the names of your sponsors, entered once in each venue’s glossary so they are spelt the same in every language.
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The stream, if there is one
The caption band goes over the video for the members watching from home, in the one language you choose for the broadcast.
A panel that changes language mid-sentence
A panel of four may speak three languages between them. Set the session’s spoken language to any language and whatever comes through the room microphones is recognised as it was spoken and translated into the language each delegate chose, so the moderator can hand from one panellist to the next without touching anything at the desk. The delegate reading in Portuguese reads the whole exchange in Portuguese.
Questions from the floor work the same way, as long as the question is asked into a microphone. One shouted from the back of the hall is not captioned, which is one more reason to pass the roving microphone.
Why SpanVoice
What organisers are usually offered. And what this is.
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Paying for it
Most translation servicesUsually an annual hour bank bought in advance, or a per-session fee with add-ons.
SpanVoiceThe hours each room runs, per language, after the event. No bank to size beforehand.
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Hours you did not use
Most translation servicesOften valid twelve months; what is left when they lapse is gone.
SpanVoiceCredit never expires. The next conference uses what this one left.
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Languages
Most translation servicesOften a base set, with a charge per extra language per session or per channel.
SpanVoiceAny of the sixty, charged only for the ones delegates actually opened.
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Delegate numbers
Most translation servicesOften plans sized by attendee count: up to fifty, up to five hundred.
SpanVoiceFifty or five thousand, the same price. Nothing per delegate.
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Parallel rooms
Most translation servicesOften each room is another licence or another session fee.
SpanVoiceAs many venues as you have rooms, in one account, each billed for its own hours.
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Getting started
Most translation servicesUsually a sales call and a quote before you see it work.
SpanVoiceSign up, run a rehearsal in the real room, read it on your own phone. Then decide.
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The app at the desk
Most translation servicesUsually a web page the venue technician has never seen.
SpanVoiceA Windows desk app that takes the mixer feed, built by people who run event sound desks, and a browser page for the room without one.
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Where it runs
Most translation servicesRarely stated.
SpanVoiceServers in Australia, Europe and the United States, close to the hall.
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Price
Most translation servicesCompare it yourself: price the whole programme with any service you like.
SpanVoiceIf you find a similar service for less, tell us and we will look into it.
What a conference costs
Worked out the way an events manager would, before asking for a quote on headsets. Captions are A$1.05 per hour, per language, at today’s rate in AUD. A language is only charged while somebody is listening in it.
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A one-day conference, two languages
Plenary and breakouts, nine to five. 8 hours, 2 languages — A$16.80.
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A two-day conference, three languages
Both days, one room, three languages running. 16 hours, 3 languages — A$50.40.
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The same conference with a second room
Two rooms for both days, three languages each: the room-hours add up. 32 hours, 3 languages — A$100.80.
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An AGM, one language
Reports, motions and questions, one language. 3 hours, 1 language — A$3.15.
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A member forum, four languages
A two-hour evening with a mixed membership. 2 hours, 4 languages — A$8.40.
Before the programme is printed
Questions from the events team
More than one room, a stream, or a venue with its own AV company? Tell us the plan.
Talk to usDelegates move between sessions. Do they have to sign in again?
No sign-in at any point. They open the link for the room they are in, pick a
language, and read. Post the room link at each door and on each screen.
Do we have to tell you the languages in advance?
No. Delegates choose from the full list on the day, and you are charged for the
languages that were actually used. A language nobody picks costs nothing.
Can members watching the live stream follow as well?
Yes. The caption band goes over your stream in the language you choose for the
broadcast. Members who want a different language open the listening link on a
phone beside the stream.
Try it on the next session.
Start one room from the desk feed, put the link on the screen, and read along from the back.
A$10 of free credit when you sign up, no credit card needed. Credit never expires — use it this week or next year.