Simultaneous interpretation

[1] Unlike in consecutive interpreting, this way the natural flow of the speaker is not disturbed and allows for a fairly smooth output for the listeners.

A patent was received by an IBM employee Alan Gordon Finlay[3] and was used sporadically before the Second World War.

Finlay played an essential role in the design and development of SI equipment together with Edward Filene, the American businessman and philanthropist.

In this letter, E. Filene talked about his idea to use simultaneous interpretation in the League of Nations as early as April 2, 1925.

E. Drummond on that day:One high-quality microphone will be placed on a pedestal or stand at the speaker's location to pick up his words.

The interpreter's booth will be provided with an ordinary telephone desk stand on which is mounted a high-quality close-talking microphone which will be connected through another amplifier to a number of headsets located at a designated section of the auditorium or meeting hall.

[4]The Nuremberg Trials employed four official languages: English, French, German and Russian.

Many were former translators, army personnel, and linguists, some were experienced consecutive interpreters,[5] others were ordinary individuals and even recent secondary school-graduates who led international lives in multilingual environments.

It was believed, that the qualities that made the best interpreters were a broad sense of culture, encyclopedic knowledge, inquisitiveness, as well as a naturally calm disposition.

Longer range FM systems are more powerful, leading to improved cancellation of radio interference, increasing sound quality.

On the other hand, they're open in the back, which means you can't completely ensure comfortable work conditions for the interpreters because these booths are not fully sound-proof.

Naturally, such interpreter booths are much harder to transport and assemble and require at least a couple of technicians for this task.