What is transcription?

To put it simply, transcription means the conversion of speech to written/electronic text. The speech could exist in a recorded form like in the form of an audio/video or as a live, ongoing process.

Transcription involves taking the audible components and vocal elements from the speaker and precisely recording them in a documented form. In many fields, it becomes a raw necessity to provide with the written data of essential information. Such services are especially revered where information retention is needed, and vocal data has to be recorded for future references.

Who performs the transcription process?

The transcriber: The person behind the pen.

Law authorities and proceedings, healthcare procedures, medicine industry, student purposes and the educational field, orators and speakers, market researchers, podcasters, publicity coaches, entrepreneurs, and authors; all of them require transcription services. Such proceedings are converted to text by the transcriptionist for use by other authorities. The transcription procedure is generally based on a pre-recorded vocal file. Even so, in some cases, the speech is directly composed of text at the time of speaking.

Today, transcription services could be charged in a multitude of ways:

• Based on the number of words in the final text( per word basis).
• Based on the duration of the audio/video clips, per minute / per hour basis.
• Based on the average time to read the final text.

The requirements vary depending on the industry. By the industry standards, it takes about to an hour to transcribe 15-minute long audio. 

History of Transcription

History of recording texts varies in all the different parts of the world. We had Buddhist monks recording the precious advice and teachings of their spiritual leaders in leaflets. Kingdoms and empires marked important information like the amount of taxes, war tactics and as such in manuscripts. We had engineers recording the construction of sites and monuments; doctors and students jotting down the details of an ongoing surgery and human anatomy.

Back when the concept of digitalisation was still a distant thought, people had developed a simple mechanism to store important information. Court proceedings, education lectures, medical communication; all of them required to keep track and note the invaluable data. Obviously, due to technological restrictions, people had no way to record the data other than writing it down. This had laid the foundation of the transcription services we see today.

As you can see, whenever there was a need for storing information, transcription has existed. So did the need for translating the verbal communications, so that topics of great value didn’t face any lingual prohibitions. With limited technology, the job of a transcriptionist was a daunting one. They had to be present at the place of the event for noting down all the occurrences and communications. Not to mention, to keep up with the speed of the speaker and jotting all the points meticulously was an arduous task in itself. 

But as soon as, the humankind modernised, we came up with life-changing gadgets. Conspicuous to say, the future of transcription services was about to change.

With the ability to record and store ongoing live events and even the audios associated with them, revolutionised the transcription process.

The introduction of cassette tapes helped out the transcriptionists. They were able to record the scenarios, and suitably listen to it, rewind and fast-forward it; with all these added features, the precision to transformation to text increased. It also encouraged to smoothly convert speeches and audios to documents in a score of languages.

Today, sharing such video/audio clips can be done in an eyeblink. The transcriptionist can replay and pause the audio/video several times without any delay or hassle.

Hence, we have achieved new levels of accuracy and precision to pinpoint each detail and to convert them to texts conclusively.

Also, we have developed speech recognition technology which boasts of automatically converting speech to text.

Advantages Of Transcription Services

The actual advantages of an efficient transcription service could be brought out only by veteran transcribers.

In every industry, due to the involvement of multi-ethnic groups, communication could become haphazard. Thus essential information could not be interpreted due to verbal restrictions. In such scenarios, a transcriber having the genius of multi-languages and vocabularies is a must. 

One added advantage of transcription as to their digital counterparts is breaking the lingual restrictions. Just like subtitles, transcription service could provide the client with the translated text. Thus with a skilled and proficient transcriptionist, you can expect a comprehensive breakdown of the entire audio/video file into a cognitive language.

Native transcription has its own set of perks, which are relished throughout the verbal industries. 

The presence of strong accents and dialects is something quite prominent. Obviously, having a distinct pronunciation or thick voice is not unusual. Thus, in such scenarios having human expertise is the best option. Native speakers and experts easily understand such differences and provide terrific results.

Why choose a professional team for transcription services?

Transcriptioning is a complicated process and requires veteran personnel to achieve this feat.

With the evolution of speech recognition tools, the internet has flooded with speech to text operations. Google Translate is a prime example of this decent feature.

However, the accuracy of these softwares is often questionable. Not to mention, an organisation can’t simply trust their confidential data without any disclosure contracts, that many of these online portals lack.

Also, most of the audio/video clips provided contain a colossal amount of data. With so many different accents, dialects and inadvertent sounds, the recognition AI is unable to provide a reliable text.

Thus conspicuous to say, your institution should opt for a professional transcription team for the following reasons:

• Unmatched Accuracy: The speech recognition tools have become a sensation, but they still lack utmost precision. Many audio/video files contain a variety of sounds. The speakers may use different dialects; the pronunciation might vary, and naturally, the use of local words exist. Such evident and general conditions are, in fact, very complicated for the tools to decipher. Hence human intervention is imperative. With a skilled team of transcribers and translators, you can expect unparalleled, authentic texts; translated in a multitude of languages for widespread use.
• Easy on the pocket and conserves time: For any business or industry, tackling such requirements themselves could result in terrible results. Transcription is an intricated process. Without a proficient team, the organisation could suffer substantial losses both economically and on the time consumption front. Thus, it’s always lucrative to hire third-party groups for such purposes. With an efficient team, they deliver swift workarounds at very reasonable rates. They have the right equipment for analysing the media files. They possess the befitted talent-pool for identifying the speech and all the vocal elements. And finally, the expertise of master translators and interpreters, to provide a comprehensive approach to transcription.
• Guaranteed Quality Work: By joining hands, with an established agency, the hallmark of excellence could be achieved in your projects. The trained teams have years of experience and are veterans when coming to an in-depth evaluation of media files. They also hold multiple inspection sessions to scour out any possible mistake. With strict eyes and proofreading, you can easily rely on the final documented record provided by the agency.
• Reduces Workload: Most of the operating corporations are already dealing with multiple projects. Since the transcription process requires a great deal of dedication, it could pressurise the entire framework of your association. Thus outsourcing and depending upon separate dedicated teams for the task is the best choice. It vastly reduces the load on the system and also provided with a relaxed workaround to focus on other ongoing activities.
• Confidentiality and Security: We can’t place our trust in every transcription service available online. With confidential data, we can risk losing it or even watch data abuse behind the scenes. With an established name, you can eliminate such risks. Non-disclosure agreements bound most of the official transcription agencies. Also, such corporations offer complete transparency to their clients. This ensures smooth reviewing and dedicated feedbacks to the project team. Moreover, such qualified platforms always keep the security of your files on their checklist. The entire file transfer protocol (FTP) is highly encrypted to prevent any loss of data. In this manner, you can expect no breach of privacy.