Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Romanian Parliament on Monday evening, but his speech was disturbed, for the first seconds, by a series of technical problems. On Tuesday, Alexandru Tănase, the director of the Technical Department of the Parliament, explained what happened during the transmission.
President Zelensky’s speech began with problems, and the first few tens of seconds could not be heard. Eventually it began to be heard, but without translation.
The director of the Technical Department of the Romanian Parliament stated that there was a “parameter change” made just seconds before the start of the speech, which would have upset the intervention of the Ukrainian president.
“We wanted to insert a media footage. Later, during the sitting, at the time when it was necessary to take over the speech of President Zelenski, it was discovered that there was a change in the parameter made very shortly before. Basically, the soundtrack used by the translator was shared after changing the parameters with the sound coming to us from Ukraine. (…) When the broadcast with Ukraine resumed and the computers were broadcast, then it was discovered that it was broadcast on another channel. An attempt was made to identify the channel on which the President could broadcast at that time. They were identified and recalibrated“, said Alexandru Tănase.
“The translator is also the one used by the Ukrainian Embassy. He had the speech two hours before. When that parameter change was made within the transmission system, practically the voice overlapped over the translation channel”, he continued.
Asked why he was not a second translator, “as required by protocol”, the technical director replied: “Basically, the technical problem was not with the translator. This was the configuration of the system when the meeting started. “