The recent pandemic has unmistakably changed the way conference interpreters perform their work: the transition from the traditional booth with participants in a conference room to the fully online booth at the interpreter’s home came suddenly and under the pressure of (inter)national health regulations. Although developments in interpreting technology are not novel and have been addressed since the 1990s, with first announcements like “conference interpreters in the electronic age” (Moser-Mercer 1992, 2005, 2015), a real technological turn is only happening now and receives increasing scholarly attention (Fantinuoli 2018, 2021; Corpas Pastor 2021). What still needs more scrutiny, however, is how these solutions are implemented in the daily interpreting business and how interpreters evaluate their use. In this study, funded by AIIC (Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence), we report on how interpreters experience the use of RI through video-based interpreting platforms (VIP), including virtual booth setups, in their professional life. Findings show that it is not all for the best, but that VIP solutions, preferably with an online booth, definitely are here to stay and that the pandemic has made interpreters discover at least some advantages of the novel work mode.
