Live translation for your service, conference or classroom.

The honest answers

The questions people actually ask before their first event.

Will names and place names come out wrong?

Sometimes, yes. Unusual names, place names and scripture references are the hardest part of live translation, and Vonal will occasionally spell one differently than you would. It gets the sentence around the name right, so people follow the meaning. If a name matters a lot, put it on the screen as well as saying it.

How far behind the speaker is it?

Captions appear roughly half a second to two seconds after the words are spoken, depending on the sentence and the connection. It feels like reading subtitles on live TV, not like waiting for an interpreter to finish.

What happens if the room audio is bad?

Translation is only as good as the microphone. A lapel or handheld mic feeding Vonal directly works well. A laptop picking up a room from twenty feet away, with music or crowd noise, will produce mistakes. If you already run a sound desk, use the same mic you always use.

Do people need to download an app?

No. They scan a QR code or open a link, pick their language, and read along in the browser. It works on any phone with a data connection or wifi.

How does this compare to hiring an interpreter?

A human interpreter for one morning typically costs more than a whole month of Vonal, and covers one language. Vonal covers 40+ languages at once. A trained interpreter is still more accurate for weighty or formal moments — most teams use Vonal to widen the door, not to replace a person.

What happens to our audio and transcripts?

Audio is translated as it is spoken and is not used to train models. Transcripts stay in your account and you can delete them at any time.

Who Vonal isn't for: certified legal, medical or court interpretation, anything where a mistranslated sentence has legal consequences, and rooms with no usable microphone. Hire a qualified human interpreter for those.