Here the interpreter sits in a sound-proofed
booth from which he/she has a view of the
conference hall. The speech to be interpreted
is fed directly from the podium microphone
to the interpreter's headphones and, with
practically no time lag (simultaneously),
the interpreter gives an oral rendition in
his target language of what is being said
on stage. The conference participants can
follow the interpretation via their headphones.
Simultaneous interpretation requires an enormous
amount of concentration. For this reason
simultaneous interpreters work in teams of
two or three colleagues per booth and take
over from each other every 20 to 30 minutes.
The advantage of this type of interpretation
is that the speaker does not have to keep
pausing to allow the interpreter to render
his words in another language. It is therefore
usually the method of choice for large meetings
with an international audience.