What do transcription services do?
Transcription services are businesses that offer the service of converting speech, either in a live context or from a recorded audio file, into written or electronic text documents. Transcription services are used in several contexts including business, medical and legal. Common examples are transcriptions of proceedings taking place in a court hearing such as a criminal trial which has been recorded by the court’s reporter or a doctor’s recording of his or her voice notes if it’s medical transcription.
Some transcription services will send their transcriptionists to events, speeches, or seminars, where they will then convert the spoken words into text. Some transcription services also accept recorded speech, either on cassette, CD, VHS, or as sound files.
Transcription services mainly offer their services to private law firms, local, state, and government agencies and courts, trade associations, meeting organizers, and not for profits.
Why do I need a transcription service?
When you use a transcription service it means your business can access accurate written accounts of important human interactions like business meetings, so that they can be stored and read at a later date. It also helps to avoid disputes about what was said at a meeting because the transcription is an accurate written account of the spoken words at the meeting. The transcriptions can be shared later in various formats.
How do I choose the best transcription service provider?
The quality of transcription service is evaluated in terms of its accuracy and value for money. There are several providers, but their quality isn’t necessarily the same. Here are some tips to consider when choosing transcription services:
What are the types of transcription?
Verbatim transcriptions
Verbatim transcription is the word-for-word replication of verbal data, where the written words are replicated exactly from an audio recording of the words.
Phonetic transcriptions
Phonetic transcription is a visual representation using symbols for speech sounds. The most common type of phonetic transcriptions uses a phonetic alphabet, like the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Intelligent verbatim transcriptions
Intelligent verbatim transcription is a transcription that gives the transcriber who is transcribing an audio recording a certain amount of discretion. This means the transcriber may omit words that don’t add any meaning to the transcription.
Edited transcriptions
An edited transcription is a form of edited transcription. The transcriptionist erases repetition and stammers and corrects grammatical mistakes and makes sure that the core of the message is accurate.
Academic transcriptions
In today’s academic environment students and lecturers are constantly under pressure. Using transcription services to transcribe conferences and lecture room recordings.
Business transcriptions
From board meetings and interviews to multi-day conventions transcription services can accurately write up these important events so they can be referred to when there is time to do so.
Conference transcriptions
Conferences and large-scale conventions provide a wealth of information that is shared at the time but transcribing key speeches and workshops means participants can go over what they heard at a later date.
Medical transcriptions
This is used by doctors, health centers, hospitals, healthcare professionals, and medical researchers throughout the world to transcribe recordings of medical opinions, autopsy discussions, surgical teams, and meetings of health teams.
Legal transcriptions
Interrogations, hearings, and depositions all need legal transcriptions as these are far easier to use and understand than continually rewinding and playing a recording to get the gist of an event. They are used by law firms, lawyers, and public prosecutors, just to mention a few.
Audio transcriptions
If you have an audio file that needs transcribing it is easy to use a transcription service that works entirely online. All you have to do is upload the digital files and the text will be emailed to you when the transcription has been completed.
What type of business needs transcription services?
There are many kinds of businesses that gain from using transcription services which include the following:
- audio and video podcasters;
- entrepreneurs;
- keynote speakers;
- law firms, court reporters, paralegals and attorneys;
- market researchers;
- medical and healthcare providers;
- students and lecturers;
- video production firms.
Human transcription services vs. automatic transcription services
Automated Transcription
Transcription technology that is automated such as speech recognition software is fast and can be remarkably accurate but if the audio that needs to be transcribed is full of slang the software starts to lose its accuracy. You have to decide how important it is for the transcription to be completely accurate and this is likely to be dependent on your audience.
Many organizations will choose automated artificial intelligence if they need the transcription almost immediately or their budget is limited or if they just require a rough draft of the text which will be perfected at a later date. Automated transcriptions are more likely to be accurate if the audio is clear and there isn’t much background noise and the audio-only involves a couple of speakers. Journalists, students, media professionals, podcasters, and workers who wish to record and then transcribe a meeting’s notes often prefer to use automatic transcription services.
Human Transcription
Using a human transcriptionist is more likely to bring about accurate results than if an automated service was used. Humans have a better capacity when understanding nuances of speech than any artificial intelligence solution.
For example, a human transcriber can more easily distinguish the different homophones in the spoken word and can also understand better language that is spoken when heavy background noise is present.
What is the average rate for a transcription?
In Australia, a professional transcription starts at Aus$1.50 per minute. This is for a high-quality transcript of an audio/video recording that may have several speakers. If it is a complex transcription the fee is Aus$2.50 and this includes providing a quality transcription from an audio file that contains different accents and difficult dialects.
