How to add live translation to your church service from the soundboard.

What you need

• A spare output on the desk. An aux or matrix send you can dedicate to translation. A record or USB output works too, as long as you control what goes on it.
• A way into the computer. A small USB audio interface is the usual answer, and one input is enough. Many digital desks also show up on a computer as a USB audio device, which works the same way. Koine takes a single mono channel, so put the feed on the first input.
• A computer running Koine Booth. Booth runs in a browser, or as the Mac and Windows app. Use the app on a computer that stays in the booth; it can also drive a second screen or float captions over your presentation software (see the ProPresenter guide).
• Internet in two places. The booth computer sends the audio out, and every listener's phone receives the translation over the venue Wi-Fi or its own mobile data. A wired connection for the booth computer is one less thing to go wrong.

Which mix to send

Send a speech mix, not the room mix. Koine listens for speech and translates it, so everything else on the send competes with the words. The pastor's mic, the host and announcement mics and whoever reads Scripture belong on it. The band, choir and audience mics and your effects returns do not.

• Mono is fine. Booth captures one channel, so a stereo send gains nothing.
• Post-fader is usually right. When you pull a mic down in the room, it drops out of the translation too, and nobody's pre-service conversation on a lapel mic reaches every phone in the building.
• Keep the channel processing, drop the effects. High-pass filtering and compression help. Reverb and delay make words harder to pick out.
• Keep talkback and cues off it. Anything spoken on the send gets translated. If you turn on Original room audio, listeners who choose Original hear the send itself.

Setting the level

Aim for speech peaking around −12 to −6 dBFS at the interface, with headroom for the preacher who gets louder at the end. On Booth's Input level meter that looks like a bar that moves with every phrase and swings through the middle without sitting against the right-hand end. The status line reads Good signal. The booth can hear the speaker.

Too loud. Lower the soundboard or interface level. means the signal is clipping. Turn down the send or the interface gain, because distorted speech translates badly. If the send is already at maximum and the bar barely moves, fix the gain at the interface first; Booth's input menu also has an Edit volume control that adds up to 18 dB. Too quiet only appears when almost nothing is arriving, so read it as "no signal", not "a bit low".

Booth sends the feed as it arrives. The computer's automatic gain control, noise suppression and echo cancellation are off for a one-way room feed, so the level and the cleanliness you send are what Koine works with. If you save a preset for Sunday, set its Audio source to Soundboard. With no desk output at all, a microphone near the speakers will work, but expect noticeably weaker results than a direct feed.

Set up the event and share the link

1. Open the event in Booth (My events, then Prepare), or plan it first in Koine Platform.
2. Set the Spoken language, the language coming from the stage, and the Listener languages people need.
3. Under Audio input, choose your interface or desk by name. Default system input is often the laptop's own microphone.
4. Share the listener QR code or copy the link. If the event belongs to a room, the room's permanent QR code opens whichever event is live there, so one printed code on seat cards or in the bulletin works every week.

Listeners scan the code, choose a language and read captions or, for most languages, listen to a translated voice, all in the phone's browser with no app and no account. If the browser asks, they tap Start listening once. In the room, earbuds stop the translation from leaking into nearby microphones. If someone needs a language you have not switched on, they can request it from their phone, and the request waits for approval in Booth unless automatic approval is on.

A ten-minute sound check

Do it during the band's line check or run-through, with someone speaking into the pastor's mic at preaching volume.

1. Test sound in Booth. The meter should move with the voice and the status line should read Good signal. Tap the laptop: if the meter jumps, you are on its built-in microphone, not the feed.
2. Scan the QR code with a phone on the guest Wi-Fi. Before you go live it shows the event as planned or waiting, which proves the link and the network.
3. Start translation for a minute (in some views the same button says Go live or Start). Speak a few sentences, watch the original text and the translations appear in Booth, and check one phone per language, captions and voice.
4. Pause, don't end. Pause keeps listeners connected. End event retires the event code, and restarting may need a new event and a new code.

Running time is counted per language; paused time is not. The exception is the free event: its three hours start the first time you go live and keep running through pauses, and it opens only on the day of the event. On the free plan, do this check in your Test event instead: it gives you 15 minutes from its first go-live, any day, and does not use up the free event.

When the meter does not move

• Wrong input. Pick the interface by name and refresh the list. Reconnecting the USB cable sometimes helps.
• Nothing on the send. Check the aux or matrix master, the channel's send level, mutes, and which USB channel the desk routes it to.
• Interface gain at zero, or the feed plugged into an input you did not expect.
• No microphone permission. Allow it in the macOS or Windows privacy settings or the browser's site settings, then choose Allow microphone in Booth. Close any other app that has taken the interface.

If captions work but a phone is silent, tap Start listening, open the gear menu and check that Sound is on, then check the phone's volume. More symptoms and fixes are in Troubleshooting.

Common mistakes

• Sending the main mix. It sounds right in the room and gives the worst translation: music under every sentence.
• Band bleed. An open lectern or choir mic next to the drums puts the band on your speech send. Keep unused mics out of the send, and a headset mic close to the mouth reads best.
• The wrong spoken language. A guest speaker preaching in another language needs the Spoken language changed before you start.
• Starting too late. People who scan before you start see the event waiting, and some give up. Start before the welcome and pause for the songs if you prefer.
• Wi-Fi nobody tested. A guest network with a sign-in page, or no coverage at the back of the room, looks like a broken app. Test from the back row; mobile data is the fallback.

What it costs

Koine is priced by the language-hour: one language translated for one hour, counted while translation is running. You never pay per listener, and nobody is cut off. A 90-minute service in two languages is three language-hours, which is $30 at the $10 one-off rate. Monthly plans start at $96 a month for 12 language-hours, about four such services, with extra hours at a lower rate. Each plan is sized for a typical audience (75, 150 or 500 listeners; unlimited on Campus and one-off events); pricing has the details.

A new church gets one free Sunday: up to three hours from when you go live, pauses included, in up to five languages, sized for 25 listeners. It is applied for automatically when you sign up; the check usually takes a few seconds, and occasionally a person reviews it. No card is needed. The free Sunday opens only on the day of its event, and a separate 15-minute test event lets you do the sound check beforehand without using it up.

If you already use interpreters or headsets

Koine is machine translation, and it does not replace an interpreter your congregation relies on. It can run alongside one. Keep your interpreter and receivers for the language they cover, and use Koine for the languages you have no one to staff. Both can take the same speech send, but keep the interpreter's own microphone off the send to Koine, or Koine hears two languages at once.