People say "latency" for three different things. Each has its own cause, its own gauge and its own fix. This page helps you tell them apart, so you watch the right gauge during a session and fix the right thing.
The three delays
- What listeners get. The time from the speaker's words to the caption or voice on a listener's device. A few seconds is normal. Translation and AI voices add the most. See Where the delay comes from.
- Your computer's connection. How long a round trip takes from the computer you are using to InterScribe. This is the network on that computer, not the room's sound and not the listeners.
- What you hear in your own headphones. When you speak and hear yourself, or hear the floor, the delay comes from your devices and your headphones. It is separate from the first two: InterScribe's servers are not in that path when your computer plays your own microphone back.
Which gauge measures which
- The lag next to each channel in the Console measures the first delay for that channel: how long it takes to follow the floor's newest caption. It reads behind from 3 s and down from 15 s. See Captions arrive late.
- The connection badge at the bottom right of the Console measures the second delay, for the computer showing the Console. It does not measure the room's agent, which has its own connection. See The connection badge.
- The Agents page shows whether the room's agent is sending, and when it was last heard from. It does not show a delay. See Read the Agents page.
- Nothing in InterScribe measures the third delay. You judge it by ear. A delay of your own voice in your headphones is the one that makes speaking hard.
Watch it during a session
- STEP 1Before you go live
Check the connection badge on the Console computer and run Test audio on the room's agent. See Get good audio into InterScribe.
- STEP 2While you are live
Glance at each channel's lag and at the connection badge. A steady lag of a few seconds is normal. Act when a channel keeps falling further behind, or when the badge turns amber or red.
- STEP 3When one gauge changes
A channel behind with a good badge points at that channel. A slow badge with every channel behind points at the Console computer's network. Follow Captions arrive late.
Delay in your own headphones
- Bluetooth headphones add a noticeable delay. When you need to hear yourself or the floor while you speak, use wired headphones.
- Hearing yourself over speakers makes the room hear itself back. Use headphones.
- A delayed copy of your own voice makes speaking hard. The most direct way to hear yourself with no delay is hardware that plays your voice itself, before it reaches the computer.
See Hear yourself while you speak for the Console's headphones button and what an interpreter can do in the Booth.