Progress report of the ALternative Interpretation System working group

Background The AL.I.S w.g. has been working since the Athens EPA towards designing, testing and implementins a reliable, cost-effective and quality alternative interpretation system to be used in the Athens ESF. After several months of work, and several experimental applications in the Prague EPA, the Meditteranean SF in Barcelona, several smaller events in Greece and the Istanbul EPA, we are in the position to proceed to the manufacture of the system.

System Specifications

The system is based on three main components: One console that supports
two interpreters, and one FM transmitter, and the FM receivers.

A prototype of the interpreters' console has been constructed by a small
local electronics industry. It uses contemporary technology (microchips,
controlers, electronic switches), it is full featured, supporting full
retour and relay for 6 booths, has all the appropriate buttons and
indicative leds, and a good sound quality. The manifacture is going to
be fully automated, following industry standards.

The FM transmitter we will be using is a PLL transmitter made by a local
electonic. It is the model we have concluded to after testing several
others that were available, on the grounds of reliability, sound quality
and price. It has a variable power ranging from 0.6 to 1.2 Watt, to
accomodate for different room sizes and frequency clarity. It has line
input (taken from the interpreters' console) plus an XLR mic input: that
way, the transmitter alone can function as a mini interpretation system
for one language, by simply plugging in a mic.

The FM receivers will be of the normal type, with digital indication of
the frequency.

All the booths that will be used will be of the closed cabin type. They
will either be built or hired, depending on the availability.

Recording

The system will allow the recording of the speeches and the
interpretations. We are planning in recording all the (interpreted)
seminars, digitally, using computers.

Cost

We have calculated a cost of 1000 Euros per booth, a price that may even
go down. For comparison, a commercial system is rent for 1000 Euros per
day. We plan the manifacture of 150 booths, number that might change
depending on estimations from the Programm Committee. Since the
manufacturing will be made "once" (in a production line) we are planning to build 200 consoles and transmitters, to allow for extra needs and equipment failure.

The cost of the main components is 120 Euros for the console, and around
80 Euros for the transmitter. We are still in search of the most
appropriate microphones and headphones, as well as cables and booths.

The cost of the receivers remains to be specified, but we are
calculating that it will be at around 5 Euros each. That is the price
range for a standard model produced in SE Asia. This price means that
they can actually be bought by the participants. Alternatively, they may
opt to bring their own receivers from home. This means that the
organizing committee will be saving people (volunteers or workers) that
would otherwise be distributing and collecting receivers for the
duration of the Forum.

Remarks

We had initially planed to have the production ready by the end of
December, 2005. Some delays that we had mean that we might have the
equipment by late January. That is still early enough to make all the
necessary tests and assure the proper functioning of the system during
the forum.

The system will be made available to the future european forums.  This
will effect in cutting the expensed for the renting of comercial systems
by several hundreds of thousands of euros.

The general rehearsal of the system will be at the Vienna EPA.



For more information, see the Alis website at http://www.babels.org/alis
or e-mail alis (at) lists dot babels dot org