The Faculty of Interpretation and Documentation of the University of Salamanca has renovated its main simultaneous interpretation classroom using Soroll Electronic’s innovative solutions for training students of the Degree in Interpretation
Translation and simultaneous interpretation have evolved over time and adapted to the needs of society. And they will continue to do so, facing new challenges such as remote interpretation or the unstoppable appearance of translation tools based on artificial intelligence. These new technologies are also an opportunity, making it necessary to diversify both the tasks and the profiles of the professional interpreter, enhancing their human differential factor, a factor that is decisive and essential to address issues such as the subjectivity of the language or its grammatical coherence, the immediacy of the interpretation, the level of literacy and the cultural peculiarities of speakers and listeners, social sensitivity, irony or humour, in addition to the legal and ethical responsibilities of the interpreter, which can never be demanded of a machine.
Aware of all this, the University of Salamanca has made a significant investment for the future to renovate one of its interpretation laboratories, equipping it with a state-of-the-art professional Bosch Dicentis simultaneous interpretation and conference system fully integrated with the LABTRA Digital teaching software, all supplied by Soroll Electronic. The classroom has 13 interpreting booths for interpreting students, one of which is double and adapted for students with reduced mobility, a speaker area with debate units with a language selector for 8 students with the role of speaker/listener, in addition to the essential teaching position. The classroom’s computer network, its lighting and electrical network, the ventilation of the booths, the furniture, as well as the provision of audiovisual media with a large-format interactive screen and a sound reinforcement system have also been completely renovated.
Through LABTRA Digital, teachers can manage the entire debate and interpretation system, send content to students both in files and on different streaming channels, carry out activities, conduct exams, communicate bidirectionally with students, as well as monitor them in real time and save their work.
For their part, student interpreters can view, listen to and interpret the content, interpret the language of the classroom by viewing the image of speakers and teacher captured by two Full-HD PTZ cameras that automatically position themselves to focus on the speaker, among other tools designed for normal classroom activities. But the most noteworthy thing is that they can save their work using the LABTRA Wave tool, a solution that allows the recording of the original video, the student’s video captured by their webcam, and the triple-track audio (original, interpreted and ambient sound from the booth). With LABTRA Wave they can also view the waveforms of the tracks, enter and move over marks, receive messages with instructions from the teacher, as well as enter annotations or subtitles.
The system supplied by Soroll Electronic is prepared for Remote Simultaneous Interpretation ( RSI ), and can even function as an interpretation hub with capacity for up to 13 languages. For example, students can currently practice interpreting with events held in the Faculty’s Assembly Hall without interfering with them, and the classroom can also be used as an extension of the Hall’s booths, and therefore of the available interpreted languages.
In addition, the LABTRA Digital software has been customized to meet the teaching needs of the Department of Translation and Interpretation’s faculty. This possibility of adaptation is one of the strengths of Soroll Electronic’s solutions for interpreter training, since it develops 100% of them without depending on third parties and always taking into account the requirements of the teachers and counting on their validation for the final delivery of the tool.
Finally, it should be noted that the sustainability of the laboratory is assured with a preventive/corrective maintenance service and another support service for both the faculty and the technical staff of the Faculty. The support service handles any queries or incidents that may arise regarding the operation of the classroom, providing an immediate response to the teacher by telephone, video conference, email, or even with a remote connection to the classroom devices.
