43rd ASEAN Summit
Jakarta Convention Centre, Indonesia, 5-7 September 2023.
CASE STUDY
The 43rd ASEAN Summit uncovered
Background:
The ASEAN Summit is the highest policy-making body in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). It comprises the heads of state or Governments of all ASEAN Member states and aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members.
The 43rd ASEAN Summit was held at the Jakarta Convention Centre, Indonesia on the 5th-7th of September, 2023. It was chaired by Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia.
The attendees of the meeting included leaders and representatives from Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Canada, Australia, India and Thailand.
The main discussion points involved reviewing the current progress and commitment to strengthen ASEAN and its leaders to be able to best address today's challenges to ensure growth and prosperity for the future world. The key deliverables included developing the ASEAN Community's post-2025 vision, maritime cooperation, connectivity and the UN Sustainable development goals.
Participating world leaders included:
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President of The Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo
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Sultan Brunei Darussalam Hassanal Bolkiah
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Prime Minister (PM) Lao PDR Sonexay Siphandone
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PM Cambodia Hun Manet
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PM Singapura Lee Hsien Loong
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PM Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim
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PM Viet Nam Pham Minh Chinh
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President of The Philippines Ferdinand Marcos Jr
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Head of Delegation of The Kingdom of Thailand Sarun Charoensuwan
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PM Timor Leste Xanana Gusmão
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PM Cook Island Mark Brown
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President of Bangladesh Mohammed Shahabuddin
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President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol
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PM of China Li Qiang
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PM of Japan Fumio Kishida
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PM of Canada Justin Trudeau
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PM of Australia Anthony Albanese
PM of India Naredra Modi -
Vice President of The USA Kamala Harris
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Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov
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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
Setup and Testing:
Earlier this year Congress Indonesia was chosen to supply an end-to-end solution covering conference microphones and interpretation for the 42nd ASEAN Summit. Due to the success and organisation of this event Congress was chosen for the 43rd Summit.
During the two-week setup, Technical Producers from Congress Indonesia meticulously checked and tested the conference microphone and interpretation configurations. This was a particularly challenging setup with two centralised areas that needed equipment for 15 languages each. Prior to this the team designed an effective equipment setup to cater to the three different rooms that had tight and varied meeting objectives. It was essential to ensure all microphones corresponded to a specific design to suit each leader's position which meant extensive testing was necessary to ensure this.
Conference Microphones:
ASEAN leaders spoke using Bosch Dicentis Wired Conference Microphones which is an award winning and innovative system using advanced Bosch audio technology. The microphones have a touch screen feature that allowed the event logo to be displayed prominently. These microphones use internationally recognised encryption and open standard security technology, ultimately assuring the best protection against unauthorised access. They also allow for uncompressed digital audio to be fed straight into the system, meaning latency-free interpretation channels are easily accessible through the unit itself.
Interpretation Equipment:
Interpreters worked in a nearby room from a remote interpreter hub. The hub had fifteen side-by-side ISO 4043:2016 compliant soundproof Audipack Interpreter Booths. Each Interpreter, seated in a booth, used a Bosch Dicentis Interpreter Desk and had a live feed of the meeting on the screens through the front window of the booths.
Languages:
Live simultaneous interpretation was available in 15 Languages. These included English, Indonesian, Malay (Malaysia), Malay (Brunei), Khmer, Lao, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Russian.
Each leader could use their provided headphones and select their desired language channel directly from the touch screen of the Dicentis microphone.
With this equipment, each member in the room or leader participating in the meeting could listen and speak in their preferred language, maintaining seamless multi-lingual communication throughout the meeting.
Challenges:
There were a few challenges which were important to consider and plan in advance to ensure the event was able to run smoothly. The main challenge was providing the interpretation from a central location to different rooms. This was important as the equipment needed to be able to transition the audio and video from these different rooms while the leaders moved between locations. Although this meant less booths were required for the system a higher level of technical skill in the design and implementation was essential. This event also required a long lead time to build the system, as there were long cable runs and layers of infrastructure that needed to be carefully considered. This build complexity meant collaboration with other suppliers and organisers was essential to ensure a coordinated approach. This was achieved through long working days in the lead up to the event as well as starting early on the event days to be thoroughly prepared.
