On-site interpreter in Tournai
from the meeting table to the booth
A negotiation with a Flemish buyer, the handover of a machine in a quarry, a food industry audit, a Eurometropolis event run in French and in Dutch: the interpreter travels to you, and we bring a booth only when one is genuinely needed.
24 h
To deploy an interpreter on site
3
Techniques, depending on the format
2
Interpreters per language in simultaneous
16
Municipalities where travel is included
The arrangement follows the format, not the reverse
Before talking equipment we ask how many of you there will be, who takes the floor and for how long. Everything else follows from that.
Around a table
Up to a handful of participants, the interpreter sits with you and renders in a low voice, in short sequences. No equipment, nothing to install, and the meeting keeps the pace of a conversation.
In front of a hall
The speaker talks for two or three minutes, then the interpreter takes over. The session doubles in length but needs only a microphone. This is the format for openings, assemblies and award ceremonies.
In a booth
Rendering in real time, without adding a minute to the programme. It calls for a soundproof booth, consoles, receivers for the audience and two interpreters per language who hand over every twenty to thirty minutes.
On the move
A tour of a quarry, a production line, a building site or a museum: the interpreter speaks into a transmitter, the group listens through receivers and keeps walking. The case is carried by hand.
Equipment and technician
Booth, control desk, microphones and receivers arrive the day before, get rigged and get tested. A technician then stays in the room throughout. Nothing to hire elsewhere, nobody to coordinate.
Several languages at once
Three or four languages in the same room call for as many booths, as many channels and a team leader. That is the arrangement for cross-border days and for conferences.
When the table switches to English, everyone loses something
The scene plays out often: half the table French-speaking, half Dutch-speaking, and to avoid offending anyone everybody switches to English. More or less everyone follows, and nobody negotiates in their own language.
On a courtesy visit that costs nothing. On a set of specifications, a warranty clause or the sharing of liability inside a cross-border project, the approximation goes into the minutes, then into the contract. An interpreter gives each side its language back, and with it the right to search for the right word.
That leaves the choice of arrangement. Two delegations and an interpreter sitting between them are enough for a working meeting; a booth only becomes necessary with a hall and a continuous programme. We propose the lightest arrangement that holds, which is also the cheapest.
- Three techniques, depending on room and duration
- Booth rigged and tested the day before
- A technician present from start to finish
- Travel not charged in the 16 municipalities
The four most frequent requests
Three of them follow directly from where the town sits: France begins ten kilometres away, Flanders twenty.
Machine handover
Commissioning in a quarry, a cement works or a workshop. The manufacturer's engineer speaks his language, your operators theirs, and safety training tolerates no misunderstanding.
Audits and specifications
A client or a contracting party visits your food production site. He consults the records, questions the production staff and writes down what he hears. The interpreter follows, workshop by workshop.
Cross-border meetings
A negotiation with a Flemish buyer, a project committee with a French partner, a meeting of the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis, which works officially in French and in Dutch.
Conferences and panels
A study day, an architecture jury at UCLouvain Tournai, training given by a foreign speaker, a delegation received at Notre-Dame cathedral or at the belfry.
Two interpreters per language in a booth is not a sales pitch. Beyond half an hour of unbroken simultaneous work, concentration slips and mistakes surface: the profession has known this for decades. An offer built on one interpreter holding a booth for a full day quietly schedules its own failure somewhere after lunch.
What gets ready before the doors open
A working meeting can be set up in 24 h. A programme in a booth takes five to ten working days, the time needed to block the interpreters and the control desk.
- 01
You describe the room
Number of participants, languages present, programme, duration and the layout of the space. A photo of the room says more than a description.
- 02
We propose an arrangement
The technique chosen, the number of interpreters, the equipment needed and the matching quote. If a lighter formula is enough, we say so, even when it earns us less.
- 03
Briefing the interpreters
Agenda, slides, names and roles of the speakers, in-house glossary. An interpreter briefed the day before does not hunt for words the next morning.
- 04
On the day
Equipment tested before the participants arrive, technician on site, interpreters in position. All that is left for you is to open the session.
A bilingual meeting or a conference to organise?
Describe the format, the number of participants and the languages. You will receive a priced arrangement, equipment included, within the hour.
Six guarantees when the event opens
Interpreters briefed
Whatever you send over is read and the vocabulary is written up before the session. Without that preparation an interpreter stays accurate and turns slow.
Two interpreters in the booth
As soon as a booth goes up, two professionals hand over in short blocks. Neither of them faces a whole day of simultaneous work alone.
Equipment supplied and tested
Booth, consoles, microphones and receivers come from us, rigged and checked before the room fills up. You hire nothing elsewhere.
Travel included
Travel appears on no invoice of ours, anywhere in the sixteen municipalities: Tournai, Beloeil, Mouscron or Leuze-en-Hainaut alike.
Confidentiality
Prototypes, prices, clauses under negotiation: the confidentiality undertaking covers the interpreter as it covers our translators, and the briefing documents are destroyed.
A quote with no annex
Fees, equipment, technician, rigging and travel fit on the same page. No line appears once the event is over.
Frequently asked questions
A meeting of eight: do we need equipment?
Liaison interpreting, with no equipment at all. The interpreter settles into the group and renders in short sequences. Above fifteen or so people, or if the session runs all day without a break, you move to a booth or to a portable case.
Two interpreters in a booth, is that indispensable?
Because simultaneous work consumes an attention that does not hold for more than twenty to thirty minutes at a stretch. The two hand over, and whoever is off the microphone writes down the figures and proper names for his colleague. One interpreter covers a short intervention, never a full day.
Should we hire the booth ourselves?
No, and it is better not to. We deliver the booth, the control desk, the microphones and the receivers, we rig the day before and we test before the doors open. One contact, one quote, and nobody passing responsibility to anybody else if the sound drops during the session.
What does the interpreter need in order to prepare?
The agenda, the slides if they exist, the list of speakers with their roles, and any in-house glossary. In-house acronyms and product names are what most often stops an interpreter. Nothing leaves the team, and everything is destroyed after the assignment.
Can an interpreter follow a tour of a quarry?
Yes, with a portable system: a transmitter for him, receivers for the group, and nobody has to stop walking. Tell us which protective equipment the site requires and the interpreter will arrive kitted out like your visitors.
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.