Official Languages committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak with you this afternoon. After hearing my French, you will probably understand why I feel more comfortable addressing you in English. I hope my colleagues won't be confused by this. Thank you for invitin

Official Languages committee  Is this better?

Official Languages committee  Heidelberg University hosts one of the most venerable M.A. conference interpreting training and research programs. Interpreters are trained in eight working languages for EU institutions and federal ministries in Germany. COVID lockdowns, however, have forced a large share of the

Official Languages committee  Yes, I am aware of this being a general problem in conference interpreting, not only related to the current situation and the use of headphones. The main problem is that headphones are not just worn professional gear—this we are used to—but in this day and age many parliaments ar

Official Languages committee  That is a very well-put question. The sound systems established for conference interpretation have been around for the better part of 80 or 90 years, and they are well established. There are professionals servicing these, professionals measuring the compliance of equipment with t

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely, I entirely agree that everyone involved has been putting in their best effort and trying to keep things moving and trying to keep people in a position to be able to work. Interpreters are always trying to make do with what they have and keeping people in touch. I work

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely. The problems are occasioned by the fact that people are calling in with a range and variety of connection issues and laptops connecting to Wi-Fi—even though a wire is connected in my case today. There is all manner of interference when you use a PC sound card whe

Official Languages committee  I will provide the answer in writing, of course, as far as I can. As I said, I'm not personally involved there. However, I have been instrumental in designing our three conference halls in Heidelberg, with a total of 60 interpreting console places. I'll now answer Mr. Beaulieu's

Official Languages committee  Yes, I agree.

Official Languages committee  You're entirely right. The conference interpreting system you have in-house is excellent. It would be possible to ensure better quality than you have at the moment if you had a dedicated, tunnelled connection with fixed bandwidth. Sound engineers would have to decide that, but

Official Languages committee  It was, I suppose—as everywhere else in the world, in parliaments around the world—designed by sound engineers and measured by professionals, and designed for simultaneous interpreters. However, the chat and video systems and telephone lines are not designed.... If you've tried s

Official Languages committee  Yes, it can, but it will not address the central problem. We need a fixed bandwidth connection between all participants.

Official Languages committee  Yes. There is a whole host of ISO standards and also of best practices that sound engineers and sound technicians use. This would go far beyond the scope that we can discuss today, but this is an established science. There is a human component. There is the outer ear canal. Medic

Official Languages committee  This is precisely my point. The system that connects the House of Commons system to where you are currently located, where you're speaking from, that goes over the Internet. There is a way to connect over the Internet with good quality, but that's quite expensive. You cannot do t