🎧 Multilingual Translation Setup Using a Gigaport HD+ USB Audio Interface

Easily create up to 8 Zoom instances and route their audio output to 8 mono channels using a Gigaport HD+ USB sound card. This setup enables simultaneous translation or multilingual broadcast capabilities.

This repository provides a set of scripts to simplify the process.

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🧰 Requirements

• ALSA
• PulseAudio Required tools: pactl, qjackctl
• JACK2 Required tool: jackd
• Chromium
• Devuan Linux (or compatible distro using openrc instead of systemd)
• (Optional) Move the .sh scripts into ~/.local/bin/ or /usr/local/bin/ for easy execution

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🔧 Hardware Test

1. Connect the Gigaport HD+

Then run the following command to verify the device and its channel capabilities:

cat /proc/asound/card1/stream0

Example output:

ESI Audiotechnik GmbH GIGAPort HD+ at usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2, full speed : USB Audio

Playback:
  Status: Stop
  Interface 1
    Altset 1
    Format: S16_LE
    Channels: 8
    Endpoint: 0x01 (1 OUT) (ADAPTIVE)
    Rates: 44100
    Bits: 16
    Channel map: FL FR FC LFE RL RR FLC FRC

2. Run a speaker test:

speaker-test -c 8 -r 44100 -D hw:1,0

This will output pink noise through each of the 8 mono channels sequentially. You can watch the LED's blink.

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⚙️ Setup

1. JACK Audio Routing

Run:

./setup_jack.sh

This will split the card’s stereo channels (Windows-style) into 8 mono sinks, labeled as zoom1 to zoom8.

2. Route the Audio

Use QJackCtl to route each Zoom sink to its respective channel:

• zoom1 → Channel 1
• zoom2 → Channel 2
• …
• zoom8 → Channel 8

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3. Launch Zoom Instances

Edit setup_zoom.sh and define the languages you want to broadcast (up to 8). Then run:

./setup_zoom.sh

This will:

• Create a Chromium user profile for each language
• Launch a separate Zoom instance in each profile
• Fill the name with language suffix
• Open the browser windows automatically

In each browser window, select the correct audio output device matching the sink/channel index.

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🖥️ Optional: Window Manager Optimization (e.g., dwm)

If you're using a tiling window manager like dwm:

• Assign each Zoom instance to a separate tag (e.g., MOD+1 to MOD+8)
• Match Zoom language windows to the appropriate channel
  • Example: If zoom_ger uses Channel 1 → put it on tag 1
• Quickly switch between streams using keyboard shortcuts

This enhances control, speed, and overview.

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🎤 Future Plans

To include microphone input channels (e.g., for interpreters), we plan to:

• Use a second Gigaport HD+
• Route audio input from interpreters to Zoom channels

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🧑‍💻 Author

Made with ❤️ using Linux and open-source tools.