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Ability to combine the host and interpreter roles

It is great that it has finally been possible to use Webex for simultaneous interpretation. However, something is definitely missing there. Namely, when I am the host for a meeting with simultaneous interpretation enabled, and I try to assign myself to be an interpreter, I get the message "You can't assign the host, the presenter, or a cohost to be an interpreter".

I can understand some possible reasons for such implementation of roles. Maybe the developers were thinking about the use case where an entity with a Webex account of enterprise type hosts events and contracts interpreters for those. However, those developers seem to have failed to consider another use case, namely, intepreters hosting events for their clients. I am an intepreter, and I have some clients who sometimes (rather rarely) need simultaneous interpretation for their meetings and other events. I would offer them my services based on my Webex account, which does have this simultaleous interpretation feature enabled. However, if I host a meeting for my client, I cannot assign myself to be an interpreter for that meeting.

Of course, there is a workaround. Imagine myself as the user "Maksym No. 1", being the admin and host. This user, "Maksym No. 1", can add a "copy" of myself, using my second e-mail address. Then "Maksym No. 1" assigns that "copy", "Maksym No. 2", to be the host, and "Maksym No. 1" drops his own powers as the host; after that, "Maksym No. 2" assigns "Maksym No. 1" to be the interpreter. It works, but it takes extra time, and it is not very convenient.

Compared with Webex, Zoom is lacking many good aspects of simultaneous interpretation support; however, in Zoom, when I am the host, I can assign myself to be the interpreter (or one of the interpreters) for a given language combination. It would be nice to see such feature in Webex.

  • Maksym Kozub
  • Nov 24 2021
  • Future consideration