If you have ever organised a multilingual event, the quote is familiar: a booth per language, a transmitter, receivers priced per unit per day, a technician, plus delivery and collection. It is quoted per day of hire, not per hour of use — so a conference with five hours of actual sessions pays for a full day of everything, twice over if it runs across two days.
This page is about the alternative: delivering every language to the phones delegates already carry. It is not the right answer for every event, and further down there is an honest note about where it isn't.
What the rental quote does not include
The line items are easy to compare. The hidden work is not, and it is usually what makes the day stressful:
- Someone has to staff the desk. Receivers are handed out one by one, usually against an ID or a deposit, exactly when the registration queue is longest.
- Someone has to get them back. A predictable percentage walk out in coat pockets, and you are charged for those.
- Charging and hygiene between days. Earpieces used by hundreds of people need cleaning, and the units need charging overnight.
- The count is a guess. Order too few and delegates are turned away; order too many and you paid for stock that sat in a crate.
- A late language change is impossible. If a delegation arrives speaking a language you did not plan for, nothing can be done on the day.
How the equipment-free approach works
The room's audio already exists — it goes to the speakers. You take a feed from the same desk into one laptop running a browser. From there the speech is transcribed and translated in real time into every language your delegates have selected, and each person reads it on their own phone about a second or two behind the speaker, or listens through their own earphones.
- One laptop per room, set up once in the morning.
- One QR code per room — on the holding slide, the lanyard insert or a stand by the door.
- Delegates choose their own language and can change it between sessions or mid-talk.
- No desk, no deposits, no collection at the end of the day.
The cost shape is completely different
| Booth & receiver rental | Phone-based translation | |
|---|---|---|
| Priced by | Day of hire, per receiver, per booth, per language | Hour actually broadcast, per language |
| Coffee breaks & overnight | Charged in full | Costs nothing |
| Adding a 6th language | Another booth and another interpreter | Select it — including mid-session |
| Audience size | Capped by how many receivers you rented | Not capped by hardware |
| Parallel rooms | Duplicate equipment and staff per room | A laptop and a QR code per room |
| Logistics on the day | Desk, deposits, charging, collection | None |
The practical consequence: the cost stops scaling with the number of delegates and the number of languages, which are exactly the two things that make multilingual events expensive.
Where you should still rent booths and hire interpreters. High-stakes diplomatic negotiation, legal proceedings, medical or regulatory sessions where a mistranslation carries real consequence, and any event where an accredited human interpreter is contractually required. This is not a substitute for a qualified professional in those rooms. It is what lets the other rooms — and the other five languages you were never going to fund — get covered at all.
What you actually need on site
- A feed from each room's sound desk. This one thing determines quality more than any setting. A mic-in-the-room fallback works, but the desk feed is noticeably better.
- A laptop per room with a browser and a stable connection.
- The QR code visible — large enough to scan from a seat, ideally on the holding slide between sessions.
- A one-line briefing for speakers: talk into the microphone and finish your sentences. That is the whole briefing.
Optional but appreciated: a small box of cheap earphones at the registration desk for delegates who want audio and did not bring their own. Reading needs nothing at all.
Frequently asked questions
Can you really do simultaneous interpretation without equipment?
Yes. The translation goes to each delegate's own phone over the internet. You need one laptop per room connected to that room's sound desk. There is nothing to rent, transport, charge, distribute or collect.
How much does interpretation equipment rental usually cost?
It is priced per receiver per day, plus booth, transmitter, technician, delivery and collection — and charged per day of hire rather than per hour of use. The receiver count also has to be guessed in advance.
Do delegates need to download an app?
No. They scan a QR code and it opens in the phone's normal browser. No app store, no account, no deposit and no ID left at a desk.
What about delegates without earphones?
They read the subtitles silently, which needs nothing. Listening is optional. Many organisers keep a few cheap earphones at the desk for the handful who want audio.
Is it as good as a professional human interpreter?
For nuance and for high-stakes legal or diplomatic settings, a qualified human is still the right choice. What changes is coverage — funding interpreters for eight languages is usually impossible, so most events cover one or none. This covers all of them without the cost scaling per language.
How many delegates can it support?
There is no receiver to hand out, so the audience is not capped by hardware. A hall of 800 costs the same as a room of 12.
What if the venue Wi-Fi is unreliable?
Delegates can use their own mobile data — subtitles are text and use very little. The connection worth making sure of is the laptop that broadcasts.
Price your event without the rental line
Free credit on signup, no card required, and nothing to return afterwards.