International Seabed Authority: RSI and AV support at hybrid event

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is an autonomous international organization made up of 167 Member States, and the European Union. It is mandated under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to organize, regulate and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area for the benefit of mankind as a whole.

Overview

The 2022 Women in the Law of the Sea Conference celebrated the 40th anniversary the adoption of UNCLOS in New York in September. The three-day conference took place in a hybrid format and gathered over 330 participants who joined either from the Permanent Mission of Singapore, the United Nations headquarters in New York or remotely. Structured around nine panels, the Conference was the opportunity to hear from leaders and experts in ocean governance and the law of the sea. 

For this event, like in over 30 other in-person, hybrid and virtual events since 2019, ISA turned to Interprefy to enable remote simultaneous interpretation.

The Challenge

A venue without the technical setup 

Because the Conference happened during a high-level week in New York, ISA had venue issues which meant a new venue had to be found last minute for the first day of the event.  The available venue, however, happened to lack any technical setup. 

Though accustomed to working together, ISA and Interprefy found themselves just a few days away from the start of the event with an added challenge to resolve: the lack of even internet connection at the event venue.

The Approach

Leveraging an international network of professional AV providers

ISA informed Interprefy about the lack of technology resources at the venue and the Interprefy Team jumped on board to help solve the situation. At that point, it was a matter of either finding the technological setup and enabling an internet connection or calling the event off. 

The Interprefy Team searched among their trusted network of audiovisual providers in the area and secured the assistance of Mainline AV International. 

A technician from Mainline AV International travelled to the event venue on the same day of the event and took care of everything in-person.

Photo Credit: International Seabed Authority. A camera was set up at the front of the room to capture the delegates (photo above) and another one at the back of the room to film the speakers and presentation (photo below). The technician sourced by Interprefy ensured that the feeds remained stable and of the highest quality at all times so that the remote interpreters, remote attendees, and in-person attendees could follow seamlessly. 

The Outcome

The AV team sourced by Interprefy managed all the cabling, the cameras, the internet and the remote simultaneous interpretation set-up onsite and ensured the event could take place.

Additionally, having an Interprefy partner already trained in the ins and outs of remote simultaneous interpretation on-site meant that the interpretation streams were easily set up and the in-person and remote attendees could follow the Conference successfully in the language of their choice. 

Thanks to the Interprefy Team who did their magic and provided us with literally everything, from the internet access, to equipment, to the person to support us on-site, sort of last minute, we could run the Conference successfully.- Katharina Serrano, Programme Management Officer at ISA