GUIDE
Multilingual congress sessions and Q&A: how to set up the interpretation system
In three sentences
- At a congress each hall is set up as an independent event with its own permanent QR, listener, operator and capture links and managed under one program; attendees scan the QR of whichever hall they enter.
- When the session language changes the operator switches among the supported source languages; target listener rooms are chosen per hall as needed, and each target uses language-minutes.
- A question from the floor is interpreted into the stage language through the Q&A capture input and reaches the speaker; the answer is broadcast to every language. For legal, medical or high-stakes sessions a mixed setup with human interpreters is decided together during rehearsal.
A congress differs from a seminar: parallel halls, an all-day program, speakers and languages that change from session to session, questions from the floor and an expectation of recording. This guide explains how a booth-free, headset-free setup is built for a congress, where a mixed setup with human interpreters is needed and what rehearsal verifies.
What makes a congress different?
A seminar has one stage and a few hours. A congress has three to ten parallel halls, a program from morning to evening, a different speaker per session, sometimes a different source language and Q&A in every hall. In a booth setup that means a booth, an interpreter team and headset distribution per hall; in the QR-and-phone setup it means one audio source and one event record per hall.
Program and one event per hall
The congress is defined as a program; each hall is a permanent event under it. Every event has its own listener and help link, operator link, QR poster, stage and Q&A capture links and archive. When a hall name, time or speaker changes only that event record is updated; the poster is not reprinted.
When the session language changes
Congress openings and panels may use different languages. The operator selects a supported source language at the start of each session. Target listener rooms (English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish; more per project) are chosen per hall as needed, and each target uses language-minutes. The stage language always stays open as the return room.
Questions from the floor
At a congress Q&A is not a courtesy but part of the session. The floor microphone is connected to the Q&A capture input; a question asked in another language is interpreted into the stage language and reaches the speaker, and the answer is broadcast to every selected language. The operator chooses which source is live; stage and Q&A may stay connected but only one is processed. Rehearsal shows that this hand-over is smooth in the hall.
Recording, transcript and retention
Congress owners often want recordings and transcripts; sponsors and attendees add to that expectation. Recording, transcript and replay follow the event contract and retention period; which hall is recorded, how long it is kept and who can access it is written down in advance. The privacy and security pages describe the personal-data approach.
Mixed setup: when a human interpreter?
VerbaStage works with AI only. For legal, medical, diplomatic or high-stakes negotiation sessions a human interpreter is essential; the practical answer for most congresses is a mixed setup: a booth with human interpreters for the main language pair, AI for the other languages. This decision is taken together during rehearsal over the session list; the risk of the content is not hidden.
Rehearsal and site checklist
Before doors open every hall is rehearsed with the real microphone and real phones: mixer output and level, internet and backup connection, source and target languages, delay measurement, Q&A return, listening on the lock screen, help page. A hall does not go live before rehearsal passes; that is a rule, not a flexibility.
Cost logic
Congress cost grows with halls × speaking hours × target languages; attendee count changes the scale of the broadcast, not the interpretation cost. There is no headset distribution, counting or return logistics. See the cost guide for the detailed arithmetic; current plans and tax-inclusive prices are published on the plans page.
Frequently asked
- Can one operator run a ten-hall congress?
- Each hall needs one audio source; the number of operators is set during rehearsal according to program density. Trained customer staff can act as operators.
- What does an attendee do when changing halls?
- Scan the new hall's QR; choosing the language takes seconds in the browser.
- Does it work for poster sessions or the foyer?
- It works for any setting with a single audio source; accuracy drops in noisy settings where several people speak at once.
- Are the speaker's slides translated too?
- No; the system interprets speech. Sharing slide text in the pre-event term list improves translation consistency.
- What happens to the output after the congress?
- Recordings and transcripts defined in the contract stay accessible in the admin panel during the retention period and are deleted when it ends.
Instead of reading, listen: a live demo with your own voice.
Start a short live demo with a few details and microphone permission; see the delay, audio and captions on your own phone.
Last updated: 2026-08-27. This guide describes real product behaviour; figures follow our realism principle.