There is always something to know. Even for experts there is a little nugget of knowledge which sets itself aside, or even lost within, waiting for discovery or an “a-ha!” There’s a fine line between inundating yourself with information and not having enough. That line is only apparent once you hit it. It’s a little like Wile E. Coyote chasing Roadrunner off a cliff: he only knows when it’s too late. But, like Mr. Coyote, there’s always another go at it. As a customer or even just an interested party, having as much information as possible about a product, a business, a service – whatever it may be – is always best advised. This isn’t just a security tip so you can ensure that there will be no funny business. It’s so you know that what you’re getting is right for you, is what you need. The transcription service has a fair few caveats. In this article, we will go over some of those things to hopefully help you be more informed.
What is It?
Transcription is, essentially, making a written copy of something. This can be speech, data, texts, music, or thoughts, for instance. This practice is ancient. In the Christian world, a key example would Jesus: his spoken words became written. There were Greek philosophers and other examples before then also.
Transcription services, in the contemporary world, often have to convert pre-recorded or live audio to text. The content will be sent into the service, who will then convert the audio into a written format saved as a text file. It will detail what is said, who said it, and when in the audio file.
Transcription is still important today. There are many industries in which it’s fundamental to everyday tasks and work. The human hand is still a contributor. There are colleges which prepare transcriptionists for specific roles like a courtroom reporter. However, as technology has advanced, businesses like Verbit have a highly accurate audio transcription service which is AI-based. It competes well with the human hand for accuracy, reliability, and speed. It learns more with every job. One key difference is cost, though: digital solutions are cheaper than human ones.
Industries
As mentioned above, there are many industries which make use of transcription services.
Legal firms enlist transcription services for their clients’ statements. It is much easier to distribute, analyze, and work with a written transcript – which can be done verbatim (which includes all the filler words like “erm”, pauses, and laughter) or more edited – than an audio file. This is also true for journalists and medical practitioners.
Lecturers, professors, and doctors in academia use transcription services to convert their seminars and lecturers to text. This can be for their own use – if they are going to write a book based on a series of lectures, like the Feynman Lectures – or for their students. Transcription services, much like captioning (its sister practice, so to speak), helps those who are deaf or hearing-impaired access the content in a medium which is suited to them. Additionally, it alleviates the need for students to produce notes during a talk, which will help them concentrate on understanding now rather than later.
Transcription will continue to be the lifeblood of history unless the need to remember and distribute information ceases.
