Language interpretation in meetings and webinars

Zoom's Support FAQ was just updated today and the FAQ for "Language interpretation in meetings and webinars" says the following as the first line of the Overview:

"Overview
Contact Zoom Support to have this feature enabled. After contacting support, please allow up to 3 business days for the feature to be enabled."

As an SLS, I cannot do this since it seems the only ones who can contact Zoom Support are Owners/Admins.

It seems, however, that the Church's Zoom Account Owner or Admin has already done so since I can follow the rest of the steps listed in that FAQ article. The only thing is, We can't seem to make it work.

Can anyone confirm that this contact with Zoom Support has been accomplished? We have Stake Conference this weekend and would love to translate live in Spanish. The "three business days to activate" is my main concern if that is needed for each unit account.

wheelhom wrote:We have Stake Conference this weekend and would love to translate live in Spanish.

According to this post, all you need to do is enable it in the account settings and then you can configure languages and add interpreters to your meetings/webinars.

Thanks - I have done all that but it still does not seem to work and we as STSs cannot ask Zoom Support questions since our account level is "User" and only Paid Account Owners or Admins can get phone or non-bot chat support.

wheelhom wrote:Can anyone confirm that this contact with Zoom Support has been accomplished? We have Stake Conference this weekend and would love to translate live in Spanish. The "three business days to activate" is my main concern if that is needed for each unit account.

You do not need to contact Zoom to enable language translation. That's only for some account types. We use interpretation every Sunday for our Spanish ward and used it a couple weeks ago for our stake conference.
You need to do a few things to enable it:
Log in to the Zoom website with your ward/stake credentials.
In Settings (left side), in the "In Meeting (Advanced) section, look for Language Interpretation. Make sure it's enabled. There are 9 languages available by default. You can add others if needed.
From the Zoom website, schedule a meeting or webinar. You'll see "Interpretation" as one of the settings. Check the, "Enable language interpretation" box to enable it. You'll then need to enter the email address of the interpreter(s) and select the languages they will translate between. When you save the meeting, they will get an invitation from Zoom to be an interpreter. The interpreter should have a Zoom account. It can be a basic (free) account. We've seen problems if they don't have an account. They use the same link as everyone else to join. For webinars, they will show up as a panelist.
The host then clicks the "Interpretation" button and sees the list of interpreters who have joined the meeting/webinar and clicks the "Start" button to enable them. The interpreters then see a toggle button on their screen for the 2 languages. They select which language they are currently speaking and their audio goes to that channel. Others in the meeting see a button to select a language channel to hear.
If doing that still doesn't work, post another message here with details of what you are seeing and we can try to help you.

swigginton wrote:You'll then need to enter the email address of the interpreter(s) and select the languages they will translate between. ... The interpreter should have a Zoom account. It can be a basic (free) account.

I'm assuming the email on the interpreter's free account has to match the email you've entered. (Which raises a question of what happens if they use a Google or Facebook login).

Also, I think they need to start the app and log into their account and THEN join the meeting. Failure to do so is likely to result in the system not recognizing them. Trying to join the meeting from the URL might not work (depending of if it launches the app and if they're already logged in.). At least, that's some ways I can foresee this going astray.

Good information.

russellhltn wrote:I'm assuming the email on the interpreter's free account has to match the email you've entered. (Which raises a question of what happens if they use a Google or Facebook login).

Good question. We've not had that situation. There should be some kind of email address associated with the account, so I'm guessing as long as that matches they will be good. But, that's just a guess.

Also, I think they need to start the app and log into their account and THEN join the meeting. Failure to do so is likely to result in the system not recognizing them. Trying to join the meeting from the URL might not work (depending of if it launches the app and if they're already logged in.). At least, that's some ways I can foresee this going astray.

Yes, they should be logged in. The Church-provided accounts have a 120 minute timeout. That's something they must have intentionally configured. Our previous accounts (and my personal account) don't have that timeout, so they are always logged in. That should help limit the issues.

Thanks swigginton, for the confirmation and further knowledge! We were able to successfully test this morning and are ready to go.

We tested three things.
1. Using all as you described and hosting from the unit account credentials.
2. Same as one except using a participant who claimed the host role first.
and 3. Selecting a random participant to be the translator and not using the pre-assigned translator.

All three tests were successful if the translator understood what their language buttons were for-to pick the language of the portion of the audience they needed to speak to.

We also discovered that the listeners need a tad bit of training to confidently use the service.

And finally, Hosting from a phone or tablet will not work for this feature.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how it works to have a ASL translator? With ASL, it's visual, and not audio.

russellhltn wrote:Out of curiosity, does anyone know how it works to have a ASL translator? With ASL, it's visual, and not audio.

For ASL, the host uses the "Spotlight" option to lock a participants video on screen for the audience. In a meeting, an individual participant can also "Pin" another participant's video so it's always on screen.
Zoom also supports closed captioning, so you can go that route, as well.

swigginton wrote:Zoom also supports closed captioning, so you can go that route, as well.

Options are good, but depending on the group, it may not be a good way to meet their needs.

It's completely different language skills for both for the member and the translator.

We do have a deaf group in our stake, so I may be needing this around May.