Bilingual online interpreting for a hearing at the German Federal Court of Justice

At the latest since the COVID pandemic started in 2020, many courtrooms in Germany have been equipped with cameras and microphones for video conferencing, generally using the Webex software. This makes it possible to take part in hearings online.

This particular hearing at the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) in Karlsruhe in November 2022 was about a patent dispute. The judges and the lawyers were present in person. A member of staff from the legal department of the law firm’s client was unable to travel from the US to attend the hearing, and wanted to follow the developments via Webex. The catch was that everything at German courts is done in German, so the law firm needed remote simultaneous interpretation to provide an English version for this online listener.

We combined Webex and Zoom to provide interpretation

At that time, Webex did not have an interpreting function, so we couldn’t add our English audio channel directly to the video feed. From our interpreting booth, we logged in to the Webex meeting to obtain the audio and video input from the courtroom in Karlsruhe. We arranged a separate Zoom meeting for the observer in the US which allowed her to hear our simultaneous English translation of the hearing. So at her workplace she was able to watch the events in the courtroom via Webex while using a second device to listen to our English interpretation on Zoom.

With this kind of solution, everyone benefits hugely from our interpreting booth, where we can easily combine several streams. The technical host and the remote interpreters use several computers so they can see all the participants. We have a high-speed internet connection with built-in redundancy, plus an emergency generator, to handle even the most unlikely glitches.

Testing in advance is essential

In all our remote interpreting assignments, we attach great importance to testing the equipment beforehand. In this case, we wanted to be sure that the sound quality of the Webex audio stream from the courtroom was good enough for simultaneous interpreting. On the day before the hearing, the court allowed us to conduct some tests which included the observer in the US, so we had everything prepared for the live hearing the following day.

Law

Hybrid events

Court hearing

Approx. 20

Organising the technical implementation, arranging the interpreting team, interpreting

Remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI)

German, English

Mannheim and Karlsruhe, Germany

Have a look at this selection of our past projects and compare your requirements with the events where we have realised complete solutions with interpreter services and equipment.