The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela has launched a simultaneous translation app that allows worshippers to follow the mass in their own language. The app synchronises with the church’s public address system, reducing latency to a few seconds, and supports five languages: English, German, French, Portuguese and Italian. The project was developed and financed by the Cathedral Foundation, which also carried out extensive trials with the Association of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people in Galicia. The app is free, can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play, and can serve up to 500 simultaneous users.
"The participants were very excited, one even cried," says the foundation’s director Daniel Lorenzo.
"We managed to make the translation come almost simultaneously with the voice, without disturbing the solemnity of the service," he adds.
The main goal is to allow all attendees, even those who do not speak Spanish, to understand the liturgy. Future plans include expanding the functionality and adding new languages.
