I just saw a press release issued today by Intrado. I haven't had a chance to check out the new functionality, but from the description it looks like it's the very first implementation of a feature I have been requesting for years in our industry.
The press release says that event hosts can upload presentation slides in several different languages, allowing attendees to choose their desired presentation language. The corresponding slides are shown on that user's screen.
Several products have previously allowed simultaneous interpreters to provide audio translations to webcast attendees, but as far as I know, nobody has addressed the issue of translated visuals.
To do this right (and remember, I have not seen Intrado's version, so I'm just guessing at this point), I would assume something very close to the following workflow:
1) The presenter creates a complete slide deck in their preferred host language. I'd be willing to bet that this works for PowerPoint only.
2) The presenter sends the slide deck to a translation agency, which creates translated versions in each desired viewing language. The number of slides must be identical in all translated version files.
3) The presenter uploads each language's slide file to a content "slot" dedicated to the desired display language.
4) In the meeting, the presenter advances slides as in any other web conferencing product. Intrado Studio manages synchronized movement to the same slide number in each of the other display languages.
The press release also mentions that the new Intrado Studio release supports audio interpreters to provide real-time translation of the audio content in each attendee's desired language.
I have a number of questions about the details, and normally I would wait to speak with a company representative before posting this. But I know that Intrado is being hit with the same overwhelming load of customer inquiries as every other vendor in our industry, and it may take them a while to have time to speak with me. I'll follow up with a deep dive as soon as it's practical.
This is a great advance in supporting true multilingual access for global webcast attendees. I'm delighted to finally see it added to a commercial product!
