At Interactio, we live for a good compromise. It allows us to solve complex problems and settle a common ground when the agreement seems hardly possible. But there’s one thing we can’t compromise on – quality.

Quality comes first in interpretation regardless of the conditions. Remote or on-site, we adhere to the latest ISO standards to deliver the product we’re confident in.

Wait, do you know what ISO means and why you should care about it as an interpreter, event organizer, or AV technician? If no, Interactio’s ready to tell you more.

Background info

What is ISO

ISO, a shortened version for the International Organization for Standardization, works to develop universal rules and regulations for virtually all goods and services provided on the market. ISO aims at ensuring high quality standards of production and control testing to protect the rights of consumers and employees.

Read more about ISO here

How does ISO work

ISO is a huge organization which works across the borders to meet the needs of the international community. Entities, mostly represented by countries, are divided into standard-related departments. Standard-related departments – into committees; committees – into subcommittees that eventually break down into working groups. As a last unit, working groups meet locally to create a standard for quality.

More about Interactio’s journey

How it all began

Long-term friends with Klaus Ziegler, a tech adviser and conference interpreter for AIIC, Interactio first heard about ISO after a discussion of standards for hardware consoles in 2018. Not much longer after, the US Department of Standards pushed for the development of regulations for remote interpretation.

As one of the few experts on remote simultaneous interpretation in Lithuania, we joined Lithuanian technical committee as a part of the Lithuanian Standards Board (LSD).

Alongside with a team of technical profs from all around Lithuania, we worked hard to draft the requirements for audio quality assurance. The toughest task was to create a realistic standard which would meet all the needs of customers while protecting the rights of interpreters, adhering to it.

What did we do

Since the beginning of 2019, Andrius Dovydaitis, our Customer Solutions Engineer, and Henrikas Urbonas, Chief Executive Officer, participated in the series of online meetings, representing Interactio.

Supporting around 500 events per month in 2019, Interactio team raised the quality standard quite high already. Yet, we weren’t ready to stop: our goal was to make sure that this high standard remains valid for the entire market.

In mid-June 2019, Henrikas also attended a yearly ISO plenary meeting, held in Canada, to combine the efforts of all international working groups in real-life.

Above all, we’re grateful for the opportunity to learn from Marguerite Lely, Klaus Ziegler, and all the members of the ISO group who came to collaborate and share experience for the better quality on the RSI market.

“I think remote interpretation is here to stay and as all key organizations and corporations in the world are transitioning to remote, ISO standard gives crucial guidance to all parties how to achieve the best performance while providing remote interpretation at the highest level. We are very proud to be working with experts in the industry and share our experience from over 11 thousand events we have done so far.”

Henrikas Urbonas, CEO at Interactio

And what?

Almost a year long intellectual race ended with a successful voting for the new ISO standard no. 24019. Platform regulations, audio quality requirements, and proper logistics were outlined to give interpreters an ability to work from home with respect to their earnings and time.

It’s been already 1 year since Interactio joined the ISO discussion, advocating for higher quality, better user experience, and improved working conditions for interpreters, event organizers, and AV technicians.

Today, our multilingual participant tool fully follows the guidelines of the latest ISO specification for SIDP (simultaneous interpreting delivery platform).

With all our features, either it’s an interpreter console, supporting relay interpreting or the panel interface, friendly to the signer, interpreter, moderator, participant, and technician, we care that you enjoy your experience regardless of the set-up.

For more details on the standard no. 24019, click here