Microphones are the interpreter’s staple diet and daily companion. They are a blessing, if used properly. However, sometimes they are mishandled:
I would like to give you one of many examples: Once the speaker was wearing a fancy two-piece suit without any pockets. So the radiotransmitter was attached to the inside of her skirt’s waistband; the cable that connected it to the clip-on microphone was hidden below her clothes. So far, so good. During her presentation the radio transmitter fell down and took along all the rest: cable, mike…everything slid all the way down on the inside – and the interpreters were eye witnesses! We do not REALLY want to be so close to the speakers.
Recently a very active speaker used the hand-held microphone as a pointer for his PowerPoint slides. So we could hear only half of his sentences….
Where are the G&Ps for microphones?
(Read more about microphones here.)
