When to use an infoport system, better known as "bidule"

Some good answers here already. An equally interesting question would be "when not to use an infoport system".

Here are some answers:

• When you could fit a regular booth in the meeting room. Simultaneous interpreting in a soundproof booth will always be of higher quality and more comfortable for participants.
• When you're only trying to save some money on the booth. Ask yourself how much you're really saving when you're making communication more difficult for your participants.

Here are some tips for buyers:

• Talk to a consultant interpreter and describe your set-up to them.
• Ask whether the consultant interpreter will be on the team himself. Never trust anyone who doesn't eat their own dogfood.
• Make sure your interpreters can prepare well in advance. They won't be able to google things up from the comfort of a booth.

It is advisable to find out as much as you can about the acoustic conditions if asked to interpret with bidule - even if it is only for a short period of time.

Depending on the situation it can be very helpful to at least persuade the client to provide a microphone-loudspeaker system for the speakers so interpreters can hear better and will not disturb the audience as much as would be the case without amplification of the speaker's voice.

Pointing out to the principal that the interpreters might have to walk closer to the speaker(s) to better understand them has sometimes helped to change the principal's mind so that he ordered a booth after all.

It may also be helpful to point out that no extra noise must disturb the sound in the room - which can be extremely unpleasant if the participants cannot open the windows in the summer because otherwise the interpreters cannot hear enough due to street noise for example - again this might persuade a client to accept a booth.

However, sometimes it helps to try your level best and work with bidule (if the conditions are acceptable) but to also use the opportunity to demonstrate to the client that there will always be some background whisper and that there will always be some participants who will find it more difficult to hear because of the background noise (or think you are constantly chatting!) Quite often, they will accept the suggestion to work with a booth the next time around.

Let me quote from this website:

"Simultaneous interpretation without a booth (bidule) is a practice to be avoided because of the inherent difficulty - even at best - in producing the requisite high quality of interpretation. In exceptional cases, where such practice is unavoidable, ALL the criteria laid down must be met, namely:

• exceptional circumstances: visits to factories, hospitals and similar establishments or remote field visits
• short meetings (e.g. 2 hours)
• limited number of participants (e.g. a dozen)
• two-way equipment (i.e. 2 transmission channels and one from interpreters to participants, the other from speakers' microphones (essential) to interpreters' earphones
• compliance of such equipment with IEC914 standard. In any case, the equipment should be under qualified technical supervision."

...the answers so far are of course all good and kosher, as in quoting best practices. However,it should be added, for thoroughness' sake, that some markets and some institutional recruiters are using this more and more to replace proper simultaneous. I remember my surprise, 20 years ago when I was secretary to aiic's CdP, to be told in Washington by freelance colleagues that they were increasingly being "forced" to not only use it but also buy it, so that they could provide a package deal...and the IMF comes to mind as a big user of this equipment in missions around the world. If anything, experience tells me, manning strenghts should be upped (but they seldom are, I'm afraid) to make up for the extra vocal stress and aggro of not having an enclosed working space... on the other hand, ventilation problems stop being an issue :-). Finally, I couldn't agree more with Tanja, modern equipment does make a difference, namely when it comes to sound quality, both for ourselves and users.

In Argentina it is quite common to use bidules for small meetings. The size of the room, the number of attendees requiring interpretation, all of this is taken into account. I believe that AIIC should come up with a best practices guideline regarding all the aspects that have been mentioned in the various responses, it would be very good indeed.