Live television interpreting has increased in recent years and is commonly seen as one of
the most difficult and stressing forms of interpreting. However, both the actual difficulty
and stress involved highly depend on the physical and technical conditions the interpreter
has to face in every particular situation. The main goal of the present paper is to examine
a corpus – which partly draws on the author’s professional experience in various
international events broadcast in the media – of digital video recordings of live
interpretations from Spanish and international TV channels to discuss the backstage
conditions of the interpreting assignments. Backstage conditions (a new concept
introduced in this paper) are understood as a factor affecting quality according to two
salient variables: visibility and exposure. Since they will determine the quality standards
achievable in each particular case, and the quality of the interpreter’s performance will
thus be negotiated and assessed accordingly, awareness of all actors involved in the process
shall be raised with regard to their relevance. Further stages of the current project will
expand the corpus into a more comprehensive one that will eventually become STICor
(Spanish Television Interpreting Corpus).
