ICANN74 Policy Forum: The Hague
The World Forum, The Hague, Netherlands, 13-16 June 2022.
CASE STUDY
Congress Rental Australia Supports ICANN74 with the help of Jacot Audiovisueel and the Congress Rental Network
Background:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a multi-stakeholder group and non-profit organisation responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the network's stable and secure operation.
ICANN74 was held as a hybrid meeting in The Hague, Netherlands. It was the first in-person ICANN meeting since 2019 and brought together representatives from around the world to discuss internet policy issues, including representatives from the domain name industry, technical community and governments.
Client's vision:
ICANN’s mission pertains to a unified global internet, participants join the meeting from around the world. This requires live interpretation so that each guest can listen to the meeting and speak in their own language, both in the room and remotely. Having a solution for on-site attendees and remote attendees to easily access the same live interpretation feeds was essential for a smooth and cohesive multilingual conversation.
Our solution:
The setup provided varied room by room based on the language requirements, the amount of space available and availability of interpreters. There was a mix of simultaneous interpreters working in booths in the room, remote interpreters working in hubs outside of the room, and remote interpreters working from home. Regardless of where the interpreters were stationed, the language options were integrated virtually into Zoom for online delegates and available using handheld infrared receivers with a set of headphones for on-site delegates.
Our collaboration with Jacot Audiovisueel via the Congress Rental Network:
The solution provided was enabled via a collaborative effort between ourselves and Jacot Audiovisueel. Jacot is our Dutch partner company from the Congress Rental Network, a network of technology meeting specialists like ourselves that work in collaboration with one another all over the world. Congress Rental provided detailed knowledge of the clients requirements, specialised hybrid integration equipment and the technical support to all the remote interpreters. Jacot provided local technical expertise along with local equipment.
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Having Jacot as a partner was very advantageous. They were familiar with the venue, knew all the best routes to get equipment to and from rooms and had a local supply of additional equipment available on short notice if necessary. Additionally, as a team they were technically highly competent, lived locally and extremely easy to work with.
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Mississippi (ALAC)
The Mississippi (ALAC) room hosted many sessions including: How it works: ICANN Policy, At-Large Regional Leaders Meeting, ALAC and SSAC Joint Meeting, among others.​ The key element to this room was to trial on-site interpreters with on-site delegates and remote participants joining by Zoom. The client wanted to see what this would look like with all of them able to speak able to speak and listen in any language either in the room or online.
Interpreters worked on-site at the back of the room out of Audipack ISO-compliant, soundproof Interpreter booths using Bosch Dicentis Interpreter Desks. From this premium setup, they were able to deliver interpretation in English, French and Spanish.
Delegates in the room that required access to the live interpretation feeds were able to get it using Bosch Integrus Infrared digital receivers. To ensure COVID safety, the client requested that we provide 500 sets of headphones branded with the ICANN logo and that receivers were wiped down with antiseptic wipes after each use.
Remote delegates joined the meeting via Zoom, and accessed the live interpretation feeds was just as easily. These feeds had been configured on the backend so that delegates could simply click the 'Interpretation' button on the Zoom toolbar and toggle it to the language they spoke. Upon doing this, clear interpretation came though as audio to their personal device.
A Congress Rental technician was stationed at the back of the room next to the interpreter booths. From here, each of the interpretation feeds was monitored, ensuring audio quality was maintained at all times throughout each of the sessions. An additional advantage of the IP based solution used was that it enabled (at late notice) language feeds to be sent to the overflow room so the client could manage COVID distancing restrictions in the main room.
King Willem Alexander
The King Willem Alexander room is an auditorium and hence better equipped to host the large-scale plenary sessions. Sessions that took place in this room were centred around outlining who sets ICANN's priorities, procedures and various geopolitical, legislative and regulatory developments.
The head interpreters were on-site and needed somewhere to work where it was quiet and COVID safe. Because of the room's setup, the booth's could not be hosted physically inside so an interpretation hub was set up behind the stage. Each lead interpreter managed a small group of additional interpreters working remotely from home. A Congress Rental technician was located inside the room, behind the audience managing interpretation feeds.
Upon entry to the room, on-site delegates grabbed a pair of ICANN branded headphones and an infrared receiver to enjoy the high quality live interpretation feeds being distributed by our in-room radiators.
In Sydney, Congress Rental technicians coordinated with the lead interpreters on-site and managed the interpretation feeds of all the additional interpreters working remotely from home offices. These interpretation feeds were integrated directly into Zoom and remote delegates could easily toggle to English, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish and Arabic.
View of an on-site Delegate
View of a remote Delegate
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Atlantic (GAC)
From the Atlantic (GAC) a number of key discussions took place including the opening plenary, various joint meetings, discussions about data protection, DNS abuse, and communique draftings.
Just like the other rooms, delegates in this room had the option to access live interpretation via the infrared receivers and headsets made available upon entry to the room and throughout the venue. A technician from Jacot was stationed in the room monitoring the integration of the interpretation feeds with the physical hardware.
Sessions in this room were available in English, Chinese, French, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic. As usual, these feeds were directly integrated into Zoom for virtual delegates and easily accessed from the toolbar.
For this room, all interpreters worked remotely from home. Congress Rental technicians in Sydney managed the interpretation feeds and provided remote support.
With Congress Rental technicians working in both Sydney, Australia and The Hague, Netherlands, help from our Congress Rental Network Partner Jacot Audiovisueel, and the AV team at ICANN74, we were able to deliver a smooth and successful multilingual meeting experience. Delegates, both on-site and online were able to listen to every speaker and talk in their own language using our seamless interpretation solution.
