Transcription wave offers digitalization, archiving services and transcription for Audio Cassette Tapes, Betacam and VHS. The analog format which is long forgotten was once the backbone of the audio and video production industry in the past years. Today there are numerous stores of VHS, Betacam and audio cassette tapes that have been left to collect dust sitting in dark and enclosed boxes never knowing if they will ever be rescued and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Despite all the technological advancements, Transcription wave had all the equipment in conjunction with the expertise that is needed to work on the ancestral analog clunkers.

Analog Decay

With time, analog tapes usually lose their quality and clarity. As times goes by you may find that the entire media that is stored on the tapes becomes useless. To get the information from this kind of decay is next to impossible and when it can be done it requires a lot of money. Before you get to such a point of not return, you should make a point to work with Transcription wave to digitalize, transcribe and digitalize as an attempt to save the analog gems.

Digital Archiving

The benefits of coming up with a digital video or audio archive has a lot to do with the capitalization of business assets. When analog media decays with time, it also looses the value it has to your company. Depreciation usually happens slowly over a long period of time but eventually the financial stock value of old cassettes, stock footage and any other analog media disappears. It therefore makes a lot of sense to spend a little money in the digitalization of the media to preserve their value financially while maintaining the integrity of video and audio permanently. Word Wizard is able to work with any format that you might have stored to ensure you don’t lose a thing.

Legacies of Progress

When the world was still young very many years back, it used to take a room full of machines to go through the process of transcription especially with time codes. Transcription wave spent a lot of money to acquire top notch quality decks that can handle any video or audio format. The company likes doing the work as it reminds them of yester years. While most companies will only focus on digital media the company prides itself in the maintenance of original analog capabilities that gives them the cutting edge over their competition without a doubt.

Video transcription is essentially the process of transforming video into text format. The transcript in this case contains all the words spoken in the video and in some cases the non-verbal cues as well.

The conversations in a TV show or movie are accurately captured during the video transcription process. The transcription also notes the sound effects accompanying the visuals. These transcriptions are commonly used to subtitle films or TV shows, so that they can be watched and understood by anyone around the globe. Subtitles also help the deaf to enjoy movies and TV shows just like anyone else.

Video transcripts serve a number of other functions, not only for the audience but also for the video production team. During filming of movies or TV shows, producers often have to meet stringent deliverables from networks or studios; hence they produce the transcripts to show the filming progress as well as accurately capture the content and dialogue. Transcripts in this case also help to document camera shots and angles as well as time codes (which are very important during the editing process). Translations are also usually derived from video transcripts, so that diverse translations of the video content can be generated.

Video transcription is not only confined to movies and TV shows; video recordings of commercials, academic sessions, business meetings, songs and interviews can also be transcribed for diverse reasons. These transcripts are often used as references or for documentation purposes in schools, universities and corporate organizations. Transcription has been simplified by digital video formats such as mp4, Quick time, WMV and Real media. Transcripts are also highly useful when it comes to search engine optimization for web casters and pod casters.

Most people upload video transcripts alongside YouTube videos, and thus increase the accessibility of their videos through search engines. The transcript essentially contains the information about a video and search engines such as Google are able to capture certain phrases, which are used to generate the video in Search Engine Results Pages. This means that web users are able to access your video easily and to serve their needs; the video may also at times begin playing at the precise point where the search engine phrase is used.

Video transcription is popularly sort by television networks, film producers, multimedia companies and educational organizations. It is wise to seek the services of a professional transcriptionist because video transcripts require the highest level of accuracy, in order to effectively serve their intended use. More on television transcription.

Having worked in transcription for over a decade, I have heard just about every transcription myth that exists. After hearing them over and over again, I decided that it is time to demystify some of these transcription myths.

1. It takes an hour to transcribe an hour long audio recording

This could be the most popular transcription myth that floats around, but it does not hold any water. It can take longer than an hour, even up to three hours or longer, to transcribe an audio file. However, this depends on some aspects including:

• The technical nature of the recording
• The accents of those captured in the recording
• The client’s formatting needs
• The transcriptionist’s general experience

Another thing to have in mind is that audio recordings with multiple speakers generally take longer to transcribe. For instance, an hour long audio recording with multiple voices could take between 3 to 4 hours to transcribe.

The transcript also goes through a confirmation stage involving listening to the recording once again. This stage takes an equally longer time than the actual length of the audio recording.

2. Transcriptionists need to be fast typists

This is one of the other myths commonly floating around about transcription. It is in actual sense not true; in a s much as fast typing skills are an added advantage when it comes to transcription, what matters most is a keen ear to get down the right information.

The first step is to have a listen at the recording and to accurately type the information.

It seems like an obvious step right?

Surprisingly, this is the most difficult phase of transcription and even the clearest recording still takes time to transcribe.

Dealing with a recording with several voices is often the toughest task, as well as working on a recording with several voices with diverse accents. It can also be a difficult task to carry out transcription for a new client or on an unfamiliar subject.

Take note of the client’s requirements and guidelines to carry out the transcription effectively.

Clients have differing needs and it is important to accurately carry out transcription according to the client’s requests. Formatting requirements, whether verbatim is needed or not and the turnaround time are important aspects to note down when initially taking on the task.

3. Transcription is simply typing, anyone can do it – it’s easy!

The number of times I have heard this could make me a millionaire if I got a dollar each time.

It is true that technology has advanced and most people have computers at home, and pretty much everyone can type. However, not everyone can transcribe; transcription involves a combination of listening skills, hearing and documenting what you have heard. As easy as it sounds, it definitely is not that easy and that is why we are not all transcriptionists.

Transcription is also not everyone’s cup of tea and most people view it as an arduous task, hence the reason why most people outsource this work to others. The work also involves a good level of research to make sure that the names of people, places and terminologies are documented correctly.

Video tape or electronic video files can be defined as video. Digital video files can be used to extract digital audio files which are then transcribed. For easier transcription an intermediate audio tape is made from video tape transcriptions. There are several more formats and standards that can be converted but with a slightly longer lead time.

For video tapes (NTSC) then the formats include

• VHS
• SVHS
• 8mm
• Hi8
• digital 8
• Beta
• ¼ inch

With digital video the formats can include

• WMV
• MPG
• MPEG
• MP4
• FLV
• Quick time files
• AVI
• DVD
• Real video
• VOB

Digital/Tapeless/Phone-In Dictation

Digital dictation and transcription have become the most common in the industry. They are replacing the hand held tape recorders. One can use a hand held recorder that has stores the dictation in memory modules or a phone-in dictation systems.

The initial digital recorders capture audio in proprietary formats which are difficult to convert using conversion machines which do not support their proprietary software.  Devices produced after 2009 can create files in several standard file formats like MP3, MP4 and WMA.

It is encouraged that one considers phone-in dictation as it has several advantages.  Transcription wave also has the capacity to download audio files for transcription, we can also transcribe from voicemail, devices and other digital transcription services.

Digital audio recorders have quickly replaced tape recorders, but audio tapes are still widely used for various applications. Three primary tape sizes are commonly used and Transcription wave carries out transcriptions on all these formats. Listing them in order of their popularity, the three tape sizes are:

1. Micro Cassette
2. Standard Cassette and
3. Executive Cassette

These tapes have corresponding transcription machines readily available, making it simpler to directly carry out transcriptions using any of these tapes. Video tapes also fall under the category of audio tapes (including VHS, BETA etc), which can all be transcribed by Transcription wave. In the case of video tapes, we would begin by making copies on any of the primary tape sizes listed above. It is important to note that the size of Executive and Micro tapes is almost similar. Try and avoid going for longer regular tapes if you are using these cassette tapes with transcription in mind. Opt for T-60 regular tapes with 30 minutes of recording on each side. The main reason is because longer tapes have a higher likelihood of jamming in transcription machines, which are used during the playback process. On the other hand, Executive and Micro tapes are primarily designed with transcription in mind and they rarely jam.

Despite their slight difference in size, Micro and Executive tapes cannot be interchanged and used for recordings in their respective machines. Executive tape systems are quite expensive, but they offer superior clarity in recordings.

Tape Formats

Recorders mainly record in two formats, mono and stereo. Some recorders have two speeds that you can choose to record with.  The higher speed will give you the best quality, but the disadvantage of using this speed is that it uses less recording time.

Certain situations require the use of multi track recorders. Multi track recorders are mostly used where extremely accurate transcriptions are needed. They are also used where more than one person is speaking at the same time. Court sessions use multi recorders to record their sessions. They normally have four track recorders that get audio from different microphones placed on the judge, witness and the two lawyers. It is then recorded on different tracks. The quality of the recordings is very high and one can listen to individual tracks or all at once. Tape format however is being replaced by digital systems.

Dictation Quantity per Tape

Different tapes have different capacities of storage. Several things contribute to this, the pace at which the people speak the length of quiet time and the length of the tape. Putting all these factors in the range can vary from 3000- 12000 words per individual tape. As for the pages they can vary from 5-50 per tape.

Most tapes have capacity of one page per minute and therefore a 60 minute tape may get an average of 60 pages. When recording a fast speaking person or multi speakers pages are bound to be more.

There are some people who do not differentiate between legal transcriptionists and court reporters and think that the 2 professionals are similar.  Although they have some similarities there are also major differences. One of the main differences is that the court reporter transcribes speech that is in real time and a transcriptionist on the other hand deal with recorder speech. The later is at an advantage because they can replay the speech they are working with to get all the words correctly. In addition to this, the 2 jobs require different educational backgrounds.

Court reporters

The primary duty of the court reporters is to deal with real time verbatim transcription of the speech that is happening in court real time.  In addition to this, they are some duties they are supposed to perform depending on the judge that they are working with. Some of the additional tasks they perform include:

• Preparing documents and any other administrative duties that they are supposed to work on.
• Administering oaths to the witnesses on the stands
• Providing notary public services
• Real time reporting on the things that have been recorded already
• Additional research for the items that have been entered into records.

Regardless of the court reporting method that has been used i.e. (voice writing, stenotype reporting) the educational requirements are basically the same. Certification, licensure and formal schooling are a must. You need to go through academic programs for 2-4 years and some of the classes include business law, medical vocabulary, legal research, legal terminologies and procedures and the English language mechanics and grammar. There are some states that require the reporters to have certifications while others need licenses from legal associations.  Certificates are awarded when you pass exams.

Legal transcriptionists

There is no formal degree or certification that is required for a person to work as a transcriptionist. It is however important to have some background information on the topic to make work easier. Most legal transcriptionists tend to specialize in the field to do the best work. The professionals do not work in a court room as they work in companies that offer the transcription services.

Court reporters who work outside the courtroom

The court reporters many also work as freelancers. Other than the courthouse they can also work for government agencies, corporations and other organizations. They are needed to transcribe speech in real time when they attend functions like seminars, meetings and press conferences. More on legal transcription

If you are interested in working in the courtroom an Regis online masters criminology can help you get your start.

Video marketing has greatly grown in popularity, because it is one of the mediums used to expose a brand to millions of viewers. Internet marketers who have experience exposing websites and brands using SEO (search engine optimization) have spread their marketing abilities to video sharing platforms found online. YouTube is an online video sharing platforms which is greatly used by internet marketers. This article will explore the use of YouTube’s audio transcription and closed captioning services as video marketing methods.

Video marketing is definitely a field which every business owner should strive to learn. Google has been improving and broaden the scope of search engine results by launching a beta machine for the transcription of online videos. The beta machine is accessible to YouTube and Google, but video owners have to manually upload active transcripts and YouTube closed captioning. It is important to note that these technologies are still relatively in their early stages and the result is still dependent on the clarity of audio accompanying the video. In the end, uploading your own transcript to accompany your YouTube video is the best bet to guarantee accuracy.

The best way to gauge the capabilities of Google transcription is to simply try it out. From your YouTube account select a video and edit it. From the editing options choose caption/subtitles and then download Google’s beta machine to your computer. You will then be able to access the file using note pad or any other text editor to view the contents.

Since Google has now accommodated audio transcripts, it would be beneficial for you to come up with transcripts for your videos. These transcripts will prove to be highly useful, because Google crawler can access them and broaden the reach of your message/brand/website online. The great thing is that you can provide as many transcripts in different languages, to further broaden the reach of your video/website/brand. It is easier to have an English transcript and use Google Translate to create multiple language versions of the transcript.

It is also important to note that not all audio transcription providers will provide closed captioning. You can manually insert time codes to your videos using your Google machine transcription file or an equivalent online service. The transcription might seem like an arduous task and most people generally don’t have time to carry out the task personally. YouTube closed captioning might appear to be technical for some people and in this case the best choice would be to outsource the services of an online marketing service provider. more on YouTube transcription

Have you ever watched a documentary about a given person and as the person seats down on an interview the shot cuts to other footage which might depict what they are talking about? A B Roll is essentially cutaways or secondary footage inserted into interviews to break the monotony of the main shot. In this article the main shot or primary shot will be a reference of the actual interview recording.

B Roll is an integral part of video recording, because it acts as a support or reinforcement of the narrative. It also adds visual flavor and interest, therefore bring life and meaning to the interview piece. B Rolls are also used to emphasize or create a visual backing of what the interviewee is talking about. For instance, if the interviewee is talking about their daily routine then it would be visually appealing to see segments of their daily routine such as taking a bus to work and working.

They do not necessarily have to match what the interviewee is saying. General images such as the interviewee interacting with family members or work mates also add visual flavor to an interview. The cutaways can also act as ‘patchwork’ allowing the video editor to present only the best shots and avoid unflattering segments of the footage. The interviewee might also use a lot of unnecessary words such as errs and ums; cutaways can also be used to seamlessly remove unnecessary audio seamlessly. The other vital use of cutaways is to join different shots together to create the final video in its entirety.

Designing the final look

Having the final look in mind helps to narrow down on the target audience and create a visually appealing end product. Crash zooms and whip pans can be used to capture the attention of a youthful audience, while drifting or slow shots may be used inversely.

The planning process is important

B Rolls do add production value and they therefore deserve proper planning to make sure that only the best footage is obtained. A shot list goes a long way when it comes to capturing cutaways. Planning the sequence of shots is also an important aspect of coming up with good cutaway footage.

Create a professional video interview

Audiences will generally not seat down and watch an entire interview which comprises of only the main shot with all its quality problems. A professional video interview takes into account that at the end of the day the audience have to be captivated and get the message being conveyed. The role of the B Roll is to essentially create a professional video interview. more on b roll transcription

Other than human labor, it is also possible to transcribe speech into text using Adobe premiere CS4 & sound booth CS4. In addition to this, motion graphics fire power can also be used with the after effects CS4. Speech can be transcribed from a Quicktime video to come up with the subtitles needed. To get this done, you will need:

• Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
• Barackin.mov

Creating transcription in Adobe Premiere CS4

Start a new project:

1. Begin the Adobe Premiere Pro
2. Select New Project from the Welcome Screen
3. Specify the name and location of the project in the New Project Panel
4. Click OK
5. Select DV- NTSC Standard 48 kHz in a New Sequence dialogue box
6. Click OK

Importing the video clip

1. Select file > import then move to the BarackIn.mov clip
2. Import the video file to the Premiere by double clicking on it
3. Double click on it once it is on location to have it open at the Source Monitor
4. Use transport controls in the Source Monitor to view the video for a few seconds. Pay close attention to the audio when doing this to judge whether a good job will be done at the end.

Open MetaData View

1. Select the Metadata window to see whether it is enabled
2. Check to see whether it has 3 headings i.e. clip, file and speech.

Creating the Transcription

1. Ensure the clip has been selected and highlighted on the project panel and proceed to click on the transcribe command.
2. You will get a number of options where you are supposed to set the appropriate setting according to the content of the video
3. Select between high quality processing that is usually slower and medium quality processing that is normally faster.
4. You can select identify speakers if you are dealing with more than one speaker.
5. Click OK
6. Adobe Media Encoder handles transcription in Adobe Soundbooth and Adobe Premiere and it launches automatically when you have completed the transcription dialog.
7. The clip should be set in the correct format when it is loaded into Adobe Media Encoder
8. Click on Start Queue command
9. The Encoder encodes the clip while adding the speech transcription metadata on to the video file.

You can work with the new transcription Metadata to correct some of the mistakes made in the transcript.

Intelligent verbatim transcription can be defined as the process of converting any type of recorded speech into text format and cutting out any redundant phrases and words.

Not everyone is able to speak in coherent and logical sentences that have a clear begging, middle and end. You will notice that there are lots of gaps that are left out when you listen to people having a conversation especially if a person’s train of thought takes them somewhere else. One word can also be repeated a number of times as a person seek to find the best way to express themselves. Another example of a pause for thought is usually represented by some filler expressions like you know, sort of, kind of etc.

There are times when it is vital to capture everything that a person says including the pauses, fillers, repeats and the ‘ers’ and ‘ums’. This is what is referred to as verbatim transcription that is mostly required when studying all the details that happened in a certain situation or in legal context like transcribing the recordings of the words that were spoken by a pilot right before the plane crashed.

You will notice that most of the transcription however is focused on capturing the meaning of what was said not necessarily how it was said exactly in a process that is called Intelligent verbatim transcription. When you are converting interview or speech into text one of the most important priorities is to capture the words that have being spoken not capturing all the words that have been used.

Intelligent verbatim transcription permits, repeats, filler words and other irrelevant material to be cut out.

Flavor of the speech is however not messed up with as the changes in direction and sentences that are half complete are usually included. It is the work of the transcriber to avoid making grammatical corrections as well as making small deletions and additions that they think will improve the entire project. The professionals are supposed to remain objective and only get rid of the material that is irrelevant and clearly surplus.

Intelligent verbatim transcription usually costs less that the traditional type of transcription as it is usually less detailed. It also does not take up a lot of time when it comes to transcription. This allows a person to save both time and money that can be used for other important duties. Always make sure that you best the best person for the transcription job to get a great end product.