Interpreting from Your Home Office Calculated in Minutes?
Video interpreting it seems is becoming more and more popular. Over a short period of just a few weeks I have received two offers from interpreting agencies. In the case of the new video interpreting systems the interpreter, the speaker (and his audience) or the negotiating parties log-in on a dedicated server, resulting in an exceptionally good sound and picture quality, which is far better than anything you have experienced through Skype and similar services. And all this can be done by the interpreter from his home office over the internet.
However, it looks like the technological shift leading to more home office assignments is about to change the attitude of principals, since one of the interpreting agencies offered me an assignment calculated on the basis of interpreted minutes. One Euro/minute does not sound bad for Hungarian standards (in the case of 8 hours this adds up to 360 Euros), but linking the assignment to a stand-by duty of 2.90 Euros/hour puts the whole thing into a less favourable light: It’s not about „normal” assignments, it’s about ad hoc jobs (in the health care sector) that are being calculated in minutes rather than hours. In the end I couldn’t find out how much you can earn with these assignments, since I found the offer less appealing.
The offer of the other company, on the other hand, was much more generous: They provided a possibility to test the system and even their fees were up to European standards: Except for a short, 2 hour assignment (which can be a good option when working from home), their fees included only half-day and one-day jobs.
I think we should keep an eye on this new type of interpreting as our profession is likely to experience a change driven by technology (quite similar to the translation industry a decade ago when CAT software became widely available). These recent developments will result in a different sound and picture quality compared to interpreting over the telephone or via Skype. User experience will be high on the agenda and due to the dedicated server technology interpreting will be performed in a closed system. This will also be a guarantee for customers eager to conclude confidential negotiations. The good old analogue form of interpreting will of course still be with us, but the pressure to decrease the timeframe for a minimum period of service will increase. (Calculations in minutes are not like to be offered, but may be 15 minutes?) It depends on us whether we are willing to give in or whether we stick to the unwritten rule of interpreting according to which all assignments need preparation ahead of time. The fee payment has to include this too.
