Compare event interpretation
Baian is a KUDO alternative for organisers who want AI interpretation from stage audio to attendees’ phones. KUDO also supplies human interpretation, so the decision includes whether your event needs a professional interpreter service as well as AI.
Who shows their accuracy?
Side by side · Checked 11 October 2026
Product features, not an accuracy ranking.
| Requirement | Baian | KUDO |
|---|---|---|
| AI audience languages | Audio varies by language and access by plan | 77 across Audio & Captions and Captions-Only modes ↗ |
| Human interpretation | AI interpretation with Baian’s live interpreter | 200 spoken and sign languages through its human service ↗ |
| Attendee access | One QR code or link; phone browser without an app | Scan or click on attendees’ devices; no downloads needed ↗ |
| Venue input | Supported mixer USB audio or a sound card into a laptop | Audio-to-USB interface feeding a laptop session ↗ |
| Speaker audio connection | Stage audio feeds Baian’s live interpreter on a laptop | Microsoft Teams native integration and a Zoom embedded widget ↗ |
Results
| Service | Published accuracy evidence |
|---|---|
| Baian | Results on named public tests, with dates and methods. See them ↗ |
| KUDO | A private May 2023 test that KUDO itself calls out of date. Source ↗ |
The practical differences
KUDO’s published facts were checked on 11 October 2026. Its human service covers 200 spoken and sign languages. Its AI catalogue lists 77 languages across Audio & Captions and Captions-Only modes, so check which required languages have audio.
KUDO AI permits custom glossary uploads for specific subject matter. Try names and terms from your programme when assessing the feature; a general language demonstration may not cover them.
KUDO AI’s subject-matter glossary option ↗KUDO advertises 12,000 professional interpreters available on demand. That is a reason to consider it when the organiser wants human interpretation. Its documented Teams connection also matters if the programme already runs inside that platform.
KUDO’s June 2025 release announces its fourth consecutive SOC 2 Type 2 attestation and a transition to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification. Ask for current documentation and scope if those credentials are a procurement condition.
KUDO’s interpreters and meeting connections ↗KUDO’s June 2025 security announcement ↗For an AV team replacing interpreters, booths and receivers, Baian runs in a laptop browser with a clean feed from the sound desk. Use the mixer’s supported USB connection or a USB audio interface. Attendees scan the QR code, select a language and read or listen through their own headphones.
Existing headset systems can remain in use: Baian’s headset output sends supported language audio to two or four separate channels on a compatible audio interface. The AV team connects those channels to the existing headset or infrared system and tests every language on the real receivers.
Laptop and sound card connections ↗Connecting an existing headset system ↗
Customer story · QIYADA, Doha
At Qatar Foundation’s QIYADA conference, attendees scanned the code and followed Arabic and English on their own phones. The interpreter booths were taken down.
Tell us your languages, audience size and sound setup. For up to 10,000 listeners at once, we’ll confirm capacity and support before you book.
Discuss your event ↗WhatsApp More comparisons →1st in Arabic (5.1%) and Korean (2.9%), 2nd in Russian and Danish. Fewer errors than all three OpenAI real-time models in 13 of the 14 languages we publish.
FLEURS: short Wikipedia sentences read aloud. Measures how many words come out wrong.
AssemblyAI published scores for 14 real-time engines. We ran Baian’s live interpreter on the same test set.
We joined clips into 15-minute recordings with 1.5-second gaps and played them into Baian’s live interpreter in real time, like a microphone, with automatic language detection. AssemblyAI streamed each clip separately with the language set in advance. Scoring ignores punctuation, capital letters, Arabic vowel marks and how numbers are written. Our charts show 13 of AssemblyAI’s 14 engines; the full table is on AssemblyAI’s site.
Caption Tool scored above the translators in Hausa, Swahili, Tamil and Urdu (preferred on 67% to 75% of sentences). Baian’s live interpreter had about the same overall quality in Arabic, Hindi and Korean.
148 English sentences that also have professional human translations. Measures translation quality with Google’s MetricX-24 automatic judge.
Baian ran the test. The human translations come from the public FLoRes-200 set.
Baian worked from the spoken audio; the translators worked from text. We compared scores sentence by sentence and counted a result only when the 95% range did not cross zero and two runs agreed. “About the same” means the test found no clear difference; it does not prove the translations were identical.
Median 2.1 seconds across 53 recordings in 15 languages (1.3 to 2.7 seconds per recording).
How long after a sentence ends its finished translation appears.
Baian, on its production Live service.
Measured on Baian’s production Live service from 13 to 15 October 2026, from the end of each spoken sentence to the finished English line in our captured listener feed. Earlier words in a long sentence wait longer than this. Spoken audio arrives a little after the text and was not measured.
Median 2.69 seconds behind the speaker, across 180 speeches.