Overview
ISO 20109:2025 - Simultaneous interpreting - Equipment - Requirements defines equipment and signal-quality requirements for simultaneous interpreting. The second edition (2025) updates the 2016 edition to reflect remote and hybrid workflows (interpreting booths, interpreting hubs, and individual remote setups) and clarifies requirements for audio and video delivered to interpreters and from interpreters to audiences, regardless of physical location.
Key topics and technical requirements
The standard covers technical and usability aspects of interpreting systems, including:
- Location scenarios: requirements for interpreters working in the same room, in separate locations, or in hybrid setups.
- Sound quality: general audio requirements and specific topics such as digital inputs/outputs, sound pressure level (SPL), frequency response, distortion, noise and hum, level consistency, and hearing protection.
- Image quality: requirements for incoming video, synchronization of sound and image, and video display specifications for both local and remote interpreting.
- Latency: specifications and considerations for acceptable delay in same-room and remote interpreting contexts.
- Interpreting equipment: detailed requirements for interpreter interfaces (hard consoles and soft consoles), microphones, interpreters’ headphones and headsets, and portable interpreting systems (transmitters/receivers and transport).
- Signed-language interpreting: additional audiovisual requirements (camera, microphone, background, incoming image and sound) tailored to signed-language workflows.
- Microphone behaviour: expected behaviour of interpreter, speaker and ambient microphones to ensure intelligibility and minimize interference.
- Accessibility and operation: normative annexes address hard-console accessibility, conference-system operation, and measurement methods for hearing-protection levels.
Practical applications and who uses ISO 20109:2025
ISO 20109:2025 is essential for stakeholders who design, procure, operate, or certify interpreting services and equipment:
- Audio-visual (AV) and conference-systems integrators specifying equipment for multilingual events.
- Manufacturers of interpreting consoles, headsets, microphones, and portable interpreting systems.
- Conference organizers, venue managers, and translation/interpreting service providers planning in-person, hybrid, or remote interpretation.
- Interpreting hubs and remote interpreting platform operators seeking to meet standardized audio/video and latency requirements.
- Accessibility and standards professionals aligning signed-language interpreting setups with technical best practice.
Keywords: ISO 20109, simultaneous interpreting equipment, interpreting system, audio quality, video quality, latency, interpreting consoles, interpreters’ headsets, signed-language interpreting, conference interpretation.
Related standards
ISO 20109:2025 is intended to be used alongside other standards such as:
