SmartNews is a multinational media technology company that discovers and brings high-quality stories to the world. Founded in 2012 in Tokyo, Japan, SmartNews has expanded internationally to Asia, North America, and beyond, where it has over 40 million readers.
With a growing international team, audience, and expectations, the need to support multilingual communication within the company and have on-demand interpretation available, rose exponentially.
SmartNews looked for a reliable and convenient interpretation solution for its in-house interpreting team to use to facilitate multilingual employee communication worldwide.
Event date:
from May, 2019
Location:
Tokyo, Japan
Type of event:
Online
Interactio product:
Restreaming
“We’re extremely happy with Interactio, and not only with the features and functionality of the software. We feel that we’re constantly supported by the Interactio team on every occasion. All business aside, relationship and trust are essential, and we are proud to have Interactio as our partner.”
Challenge
The first time SmartNews looked into including a remote simultaneous interpretations solution into their daily business operations was in May 2019. At the time, the company experienced the growing need to communicate multilingually during online meetings between Japan and the US.
The physical receiver system that was used before was no longer reliable for overseas colleagues joining calls online. After trying a mix of hardware and software workarounds, SmartNews looked into a fully online, flexible mobile solution to connect the team.
Solution
Since the start of our collaboration in 2019, the team of SmartNews has almost tripled in size, and now, language learning among employees goes hand-in-hand with on-the-go quality interpretation.
The need for interpretation grew along with the team member count, and Interactio helped to connect the SmartNews’ interpreter team to every 1-on-1, group meeting, and event.
Now supporting 250-400 meetings per month, Interactio technology lies at the heart of SmartNews’ commitment to making their work multilingual, international, and inclusive.
Participants
Languages
Interpreters
Unresolved
technical issues
4 years
Tool for in-house interpretation
In the words of Hideki Kaku, an interpreter at SmartNews, “Interpretation is an intense intellectual job that requires high levels of concentration, which means having fewer actions and distractions. Interactio interpreter console is very intuitive, even compared to traditional interpretation equipment, and fulfills that goal for us: be as functional and as non-distracting as possible.”
Tool for in-house interpretation
In the words of Hideki Kaku, an interpreter at SmartNews, “Interpretation is an intense intellectual job that requires high levels of concentration, which means having fewer actions and distractions. Interactio interpreter console is very intuitive, even compared to traditional interpretation equipment, and fulfills that goal for us: be as functional and as non-distracting as possible.”
Tailored training for independent use
Since the very first day of our collaboration, SmartNews and Interactio teams have worked closely together to ensure a smooth transition to the use of the new technology. After extensive training, SmartNews became fully independent in its use of Interactio. Continuous interpreters’ feedback also resulted in numerous improvements to the virtual console, tailoring it to the professionals’ needs.
Restreaming
To cater to SmartNews’ versatile needs, Interactio restreaming solution allows them to host meetings on any video-conferencing platform of their choice, while the language team delivers interpretation through a dedicated Interactio interpreter console. Interpreters have a professional RSI workspace, whilst users enjoy the flexibility of interpretation on their devices.
DPO at InteractioInternational
karolis@interactio.io
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