Live event audio streaming platform Mixhalo announced this week the launch of a new translation offering. Simply called Mixhalo Translate, Mixhalo Translate combines the startup’s ultra-low-latency in-person streaming with AI-generated audio translations. It’s a pairing that makes a lot of sense in a conference setting.
“Interpreting at conferences and live events is done the same way today as it was in 1995,” CEO John Vars said in a statement. As someone who attended several conferences in Asia not too long ago, I can attest to the fact that modern stands haven’t changed all that much in the past decade.
AI translation, on the other hand, has come a long way in recent years. These days, you can regularly see people communicating between languages by passing a smartphone back and forth. In fact, it’s commonplace to the point where we already take it for granted, as if it’s not truly world-changing technology.
Mixhalo, which was launched at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in 2017, claims to have “crack[ed] the code for delay.” Live concerts were the original app, and this unveiling appropriately featured an all-star lineup featuring Pharrell, Incubus founder and guitarist Mike Einziger, and future TechCrunch Minute host Anthony Ha.
The idea there was to ensure that everyone in the crowd had equal access to soundboard quality, regardless of whether they were in the orchestra pit or had nosebleeds. The technology has also been used in MLB, NBA, NHL and Nascar events. In 2021, as venues were starting to reopen amid the pandemic, Mixhalo introduced Mixhalo Over Cellular and Mixhalo Rodeo. The first works on 5G and the second uses Wi-Fi space.
Mixhalo has not revealed its AI partner for Translate. This is one of those cases that requires first-hand experience to properly evaluate, but there is a wide range of accuracy depending on the underlying technology. Overall, however, there is room for improvement across the board.
Conference attendees can access the technology through an app on their own smartphone. At launch, Mixhalo Translate will handle interpretation and transcription in 50 languages.
