he UN climate change conference , COP26 , took place in Glasgow at the beginning of November 2021 . At the event , a record number of delegates gathered and were joined by world leaders and campaigners across the spectrum . The conference took place under tight Covid-19 restrictions yet with the need to meet , listen and be heard as strong as ever .

Silent Seminars , the wireless headsets and technical services for the conference , exhibition , and live events industries , were awarded the contract to provide headset systems for a number of presentations in the main exhibition hall . Duncan Strain , director of Silent Seminars , describes the process of how the contract came about and what delivering the technology entailed .

How it started In the middle of September 2021 , we were approached by an agency seeking multiple headset systems for a number of unknown corporate presentations at an exhibition hall . The agency wanted to know how many simultaneous headset systems Silent Seminars could cater for and we responded that we had the capacity to run up to 16

“ Throughout the course of the 14-day event , we delivered crisp , clear audio to approximately the 10,000 delegates who visited the pavilions .”

Silent seminar headset

systems with the ability to source additional channels if required .

The contract was awarded and , following the signing of a non-disclosure agreement , we discovered the headsets were required for COP26 taking place just three weeks later . There was little more detail at that stage : the key dates , logistics and running orders were still unspecified . The brief continued to evolve in the run-up to the event , requiring daily responses from us .

The event At COP26 , there was in excess of 80 pavilions within the exhibition hall , all with varying sized seminar rooms hosting talks , of which 27 open-plan theatres required headsets . Our challenge was to deliver clear audio without any conflicting noise bleed between the areas .

Five days prior to the event

opening , our technical team was on site to oversee the rigging , installation and to support rehearsals for using the headsets . This included advice on sanitising the headsets after every use in order to minimise the spread of infection . Silent Seminar technicians remained on hand throughout the event in order to assist with any further issues .

Naturally , further challenges arose throughout the course of the event , such as high-profile speakers appearing without any publicity , resulting in spikes in demand for headsets , all of which we responded to with flexibility .

Overall , 700 pairs of headsets were available from 8am to 10pm , daily . Throughout the course of the 14-day event , we delivered crisp , clear audio to approximately the 10,000 delegates who visited the pavilions , ensuring messages were able to be successfully shared . CN