Interprefy Glossary

An overview of the most common terms and jargon associated with Interprefy

RS, PM, HO - abbreviations and industry jargon can be confusing. In this article, we're giving you an overview of the most common Interprefy terms and what they mean.

Interprefy Glossary

Last update: October 1 2021

2FA	Two-factor authentication: an extra layer of security to ensure only the people allowed are on Interprefy's platform.
Audience	A person attending the Conference or Meeting who is not expected to speak. They are said to be non-participating or non-speaking. Participating members are known as Delegates.
Allowlist	A cybersecurity strategy under which a user can only take actions in a software or application if an administrator has explicitly allowed it in advance. This term has in some cases replaced the earlier term “whitelist”.
Caption	A written translation of what is being said by the Speaker at a Conference or Meeting. Captions are useful as a backup to hearing the spoken words, for those with limited or no hearing or for where listening conditions are difficult. The terms Caption and Subtitle are often used interchangeably but the term Caption is preferred at Interprefy.
Captioning	The process of creating readable written text from speech. For RSI use, the Captions are created from words spoken by the Speaker or an Interpreter in real time. See Caption.
Chair/Chairperson	Someone who manages or controls an event. Within the Interprefy platform, the Chair takes the role of a Host. See Host.
Classroom	See conference
Cloud	The Cloud refers to a combination of computing power and digital storage accessible over the Internet. The Cloud has many advantages including the fact that it is universally accessible making remote or Virtual operation straightforward and ensuring multi-person remote access is simple too. Another benefit of the Cloud is that it makes scalable solutions easier to build.
Conference	Conference is a term commonly used to describe a form of gathering where delegates listen to one or more Speakers in turn. From a technical point of view, in Conferences delegates are called to take the floor (to speak) on one at a time by a chairperson or chair. The other type of gathering is a Meeting. A Meeting does not have a Chair and so each Delegate speaks according to when they themselves feel it is the right moment.
Delegate	In RSI, a person attending a Conference or Meeting who is able to participate actively. Delegates and Hosts are the only categories of attended that can speak or vote. People who attend but don’t participate are known as the Audience. A Delegate can be considered as a special form of Attendee. A Host is a special form of Delegate.
Dry-run	An optional rehearsal of a maximum of 1 hour taking place days before the actual event where the client can see with the project manager how the system and solution work.
Event	Within the context of Interpretation, Events are gatherings where information and ideas are exchanged between Delegates. An Event takes one of two forms, it can either be a Conference or a Meeting. See also Conference and Meeting.
Floor	For physical meetings, the term Floor refers literally to the location of the speaker, usually the floor of the auditorium or stage. At an Event, whoever is currently speaking is said to hold the Floor. The language spoken on the Floor is generally the one being interpreted from, so it is called the source language.
Gateway	The Gateway is a piece of software used to connect a third-party virtual conferencing solution to the Interprefy RSI platform. This allows the Speakers’ voices to be fed to remote Interpreters and for the voices of the remote Interpreters to be fed to the audience so that the audience can choose their preferred language using either the Interprefy on-screen Widget or the Interprefy app. A Gateway is necessary where the main conferencing system being used is a third-party solution and not an Interprefy solution.
HO	Hand-over from one interpreter to the interpreting partner
Host	The Delegate that operates the Interprefy system on the front-end and controls the meeting is known as the Host. They have many mechanisms for managing an event such as allowing Delegates into the event, granting permission to speak, conducting polls and so on. A chairperson is often given the role of Host and the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. To make managing events easier, there can be more than one Host. In some cases, the duties of the Hosts are split with one taking the controlling chair responsibilities such as introducing Delegates and ensuring they stay on time while someone else provides the background technical functions such as granting permissions and conducting polls.
Hybrid Event	An event where participants are both on-site and online.
Interpreted languages	The language or languages into which the source content is interpreted. Also known as the target language. See also Language Channels
Interpreter	A person who renders a spoken message from a source language into a target language. There are different types of Interpreters: simultaneous, consecutive and liaison interpreters. In RSI, interpreters mainly provide simultaneous interpretation. The target language can be a spoken language or a sign language.
Interpreting	Changing content in one language to another language in spoken or signed form. Interpreting is used to allow Delegates and the Audience to understand what is being said regardless of the language used by the Speaker. See also Simultaneous Interpreting, Consecutive Interpreting and Liaison Interpreting.
iframe	An iframe, also known as an inline frame, allows embedding interactive media within a page. In our case, it is used to embed the Interprefy audio language selector within a third-party webcast page.
Interprefy Connect	The web Meeting product from Interprefy that brings down language barriers. The Connect product is designed as a straightforward solution for Meetings where all Delegates have equal speaking rights and in RSI terms, do not have a Chair. The platform is able to host meetings with up to 3000 attendees and 15 active speakers.
Interprefy Connect Pro	The advanced web Meeting and Conferencing platform from Interprefy that brings down language barriers in events and conferences . Interprefy Connect Pro is used for events which have a Chair (multiple Chairs can be supported) who will call on Delegates to speak one at a time. The addition of a Chair role also means that it can be used for classroom-style presentations. The product includes advanced features such as the raise-hand function and also comes with a larger capacity, able to host meeting with up to 500 active speakers and 3000 attendees.
Interprefy Select	Interprefy Select is Interprefy's global solution to access real-time interpreting during events held on any selected third-party virtual event or web conferencing platform.
Language Channel	The Interprefy platform manages feeds of languages which the Delegates and Attendees can then listen to. These are curated so that no matter which language is being used by the speaker, the listener will only hear the named language on their feeds. These managed feeds are known as the Language Channels.
LSP	Language Service Provider
Machine Translation	The use of software to translate text or speech from one language to another. Machine Translation is the generic name for all technologies that take content in one language and turn it into written content in another language.
Meeting	A form of gathering where multiple Delegates come together to share ideas and information and to debate. In a Meeting, Delegates contribute but they are not directed by a Chair (see Conference). For this reason, Meetings require a level of discipline from all Delegates to ensure that multiple people do not speak together for the RSI to be successful.
Moderator	In the past, the term Moderator was used within Interprefy to label the Remote Support person. Within the events industry, this term refers to the chair/Host who manages the event. See Remote Support.
PCO	Professional Conference Organizer.
PM	Project Manager - the client's assigned manager supporting the event setup, interpreter sourcing, and quality assurance
Poll	A Poll is a function within Interprefy products that allows Delegates to vote. Polls can be used to canvas opinion or to make decisions. Polls are quick and simple to use. They make for a fast, and if necessary spontaneous, way of gathering feedback from Delegates.
Presentation	A form of gathering where attendees listen to a speech or lecture. A presentation is really a special form of Conference based around informing rather than discussing. Raise-hand
Raise-hand	The Raise-hand feature is part of the Interprefy platform. It is available on the Interprefy Connect Pro platform. Raising a hand allows a Delegate to indicate that they would like to speak or can also be used for rough and informal voting – a show of hands.
Real-time	Actions are said to be Real Time when they are actioned live for consumption now, rather than processed in the background for later use.
Relay interpreting	Also known as "indirect interpreting". Relay Interpreting means the Interpreter is not working from the original Source Language but from a secondary language which has already been interpreted. The Relay Interpreter listens to the secondary language and reinterprets into a third language. Relay Interpretation may be used when the source message is in a language the interpreter does not have in their language combination so they need to use a “bridge” language.
Remote Support	A technical person that works for Interprefy, or a partner organisation, and ensures the smooth running of the event. They are responsible for managing technical and back-end matters within the Event related to RSI and the Interprefy platform.
Retour Interpreting	When an interpreter works from their mother tongue into a second active language.
RSI	Remote Simultaneous Interpreting
Services	In the case of Interprefy it refers to: - interpreting services - professional services: project management, training, on-site and remote support, equipment set-up and configuration, monitoring of audio and video via expert technicians during the event.
Simultaneous Interpreting	The art of turning the spoken or signed message in one language into a different language in real time. Simultaneous Interpretating allows Attendees and Delegates to follow a complete Event even when the Speaker is talking in a language that they do not understand. This allows full participation from all Attendees and Delegates regardless of languages used and the language skills each possess.
Solution	The different ways of making RSI available to your meeting depending on the event set-up.
Source	Source is the term given to the feed of languages which comes from the Floor. This is what each interpreter listens to, and from this feed they derive their interpreted speech, unless they are using Relay interpreting (see Relay). A user listening to 'Source' will hear whoever is currently on the floor in their original language without any interpreting.
Speaker	The Delegate at an Event to whom the other Delegates and audience are currently listening is termed the Speaker. In RSI terms, the Speaker is the person who currently holds the Floor, speaks in the Source language and whose words will be interpreted. Obviously, for interpretation to work there needs to be only one Speaker talking at any time.
Subtitling	Subtitles is another common term for Captions with the two words often used interchangeably. Within Interprefy we favour the term Caption as subtitles implies the application of written text only to a video feed while Caption is a more general term.
Target language	Language into which the content is translated or interpreted.
Transcript	The written record of the complete spoken content of the event provided after the event.
Transcription	The process of turning spoken language content into written form.
Translation	Taking content in one language and making it available in written form in another language is called Translation. Translation is distinct from the action of Interpretation which makes content available in spoken or signed form. See Interpretation.
Translator	A person who changes the content in one language into another language in written form. This is distinguished from an Interpreter that changes content into another language in spoken or signed form.
Token	An 8-digit event access code provided to each event participant to access Interprefy's platform. There are the following tokens: s-token (for speakers / delegates) i-token (for interpreters) audience token m-token (for moderators and technical support)
Viewer	Audience in a meeting or event. They generally don't speak.
Virtual event	An Event is said to be Virtual when Attendees and Delegates do not physically meet. Virtual events take place entirely online.
Widget	The Widget is a software device used to provide the benefits of Interprefy’s RSI platform within other conferencing software. The Widget appears as a box within the host platform software’s graphical user interface and contains the controls and display capability needed to deliver interpreted languages.