On-site interpreting in Wavre
meetings, site visits, congresses
Audit of a production site, operator training, works council, general meeting, scientific congress in Louvain-la-Neuve: three interpreting techniques depending on the setting, from simple accompaniment to a fully equipped booth.
24 h
To deploy an interpreter
3
Techniques available
2
Interpreters per language in a booth
16
Municipalities served
What each format allows and what it costs in time
Three elements decide: how many people are in the room, how the floor is shared and how long the session runs.
Liaison
With no equipment whatsoever, the interpreter renders exchanges in sequences. The format holds up to around fifteen people present: meeting, negotiation, tour of an installation.
Consecutive
After a few minutes of speech the interpreter takes the argument over. Fits addresses, training sessions and official remarks, with double the time factored in.
Simultaneous in a booth
Two interpreters per language work live from an acoustically isolated booth. Reserved for congresses and large assemblies.
Portable system
Without a booth a transmitter and receivers are enough: that is the solution for workshops, production lines and groups on the move.
Equipment and technician
The equipment arrives the day before: booths, consoles, microphones and receivers are rigged and tested, with a technician on duty until they come down.
Multilingual teams
Several language pairs covered at once on the same event, with handovers and coordination between booths.
The booth is rarely the right answer
Requests for a simultaneous booth serving twelve people around a table come up regularly. Liaison interpreting does the job almost every time, costs a fraction of it and copes far better with a meeting that wanders.
The answer comes out of three questions. How many people will be in the room, how will the floor be shared, and how long is the session? Equipment is decided afterwards, never before.
For a general meeting or a congress in Louvain-la-Neuve the booth genuinely is called for. We then bring the equipment, rig it the day before and leave a technician in the room until everything is taken down.
- Liaison, consecutive or simultaneous
- Rigging on the eve, tests included
- Technician present throughout
- Travel included
What the province asks of us most often
The pharmaceutical cluster, university research and the proximity of Brussels supply the bulk of the demand.
Production sites and audits
Commissioning of equipment, quality audit, site inspection, operator training. The procedures are written in English while the teams sometimes work in another language.
Logistics and business parks
Operations meetings in the business parks of Wavre Nord and Nivelles, supplier audits, exchanges with foreign clients along the E411.
Companies and institutions
Brussels lies twenty-five kilometres away: management committees, social negotiations and appointments with European institutions and multinational head offices set the rhythm of the week.
Congresses and study days
Scientific congresses, seminars, presentations of results, thesis defences: Louvain-la-Neuve and its science park draw an audience from everywhere.
Simultaneous interpreting in a booth presupposes two interpreters per language. Without a handover after half an hour, attention drops and the rendering follows it down. Be wary of an offer built on a single interpreter for a whole day: the session will deteriorate before the afternoon resumes.
From request to dismantling the booth
Allow five to ten working days for a congress, the time needed to assemble the team and secure the equipment.
- 01
You describe the event
Date, duration, venue, languages, expected attendance, arrangement of the speaking slots.
- 02
We propose the technique
On that basis we recommend liaison, consecutive or simultaneous, together with the equipment required. If something simpler will do, we say so.
- 03
Briefing the interpreters
Slide decks, programme, glossary, in-house acronyms, names and roles of the speakers go to the interpreters beforehand.
- 04
On site
Everything stands ready by the previous evening. The technician mans the room and the interpreters are seated when the doors open.
A congress or a multilingual site visit?
Tell us how the event is built. We will name the technique that fits and what it truly costs.
Our guarantees on the day
Interpreters briefed
The file reaches them beforehand. A quarter of an hour is lost when an interpreter discovers your acronyms mid-session.
Two interpreters in the booth
Handovers run in blocks of twenty to thirty minutes. The rule applies to a half-day assignment as well.
Equipment supplied and tested
Delivery and rigging the day before, tests ahead of the opening, technician present, collection of the equipment once the event has ended.
Travel included
Not a kilometre charged across the sixteen municipalities served, whether the room is in Wavre, Louvain-la-Neuve, Nivelles or Braine-l'Alleud.
Confidentiality
Board meeting, social negotiation, results not yet published: the agreement is signed before anyone enters the room.
A complete quote
Everything is priced in advance: fees, equipment, technician and travel. No item appears on the final statement that you had not seen earlier.
Frequently asked questions
What suits a meeting of roughly ten?
Liaison fits in almost every case. Nothing to install, full flexibility when the meeting drifts, and a budget bearing no relation to that of a booth. Simultaneous only becomes justified with a large audience or a programme running to the minute.
What is the second interpreter in the booth for?
Simultaneous interpreting is exhausting: after twenty to thirty unbroken minutes the rendering loses precision, and that is physiological. The pair hand over and pass each other figures and proper names. The rule is international and does not artificially inflate the invoice.
Should we arrange the hardware ourselves?
There is no need. We bring the compliant booths, the consoles, the microphones and the receivers for the audience, with rigging the day before, a technician on site and collection after the event. A single quote bundles the lot.
Which documents should we send before the session?
Programme, slide decks, glossary if one exists, in-house abbreviations, names and roles of the speakers. The better the interpreter knows the file, the sharper the rendering, and the confidentiality agreement covers those transfers.
How much notice for a site visit in Dutch?
Often 24 to 48 hours for liaison work in Dutch, English or German: the language border runs a few kilometres north and the pool is deep. A booth, by contrast, needs five to ten working days to assemble the team and block the equipment.
Get your free quote within the hour
Send us your document or your date: firm price, precise deadline, no obligation. You then decide, with everything in front of you.