Digital Transcription Is The Next Stage Of Audio Transcription

digital audio transcription

Digital Transcription Is The Next Stage Of Audio Transcription

Transcription, as long as anyone can remember, has always been a process that works with the involvement of a person. At one end, you have the source file and on the other side, there is the destination file. In the middle of these two – source and destination – there is the human interpreter of sorts doing all the heavy lifting.

Technology is always marching ahead, coming up with faster and better ways of doing things that were previously thought be impossible. Transcription is a complicated task, but it looks like technology is finally catching up. This is made possible with advanced algorithms and hardware tech that enable much of it to be completely digitized. This includes the elaborate process of transcription.

audio Transcription

Digital Technology

This is digital transcription, so everything has to be in some form of digital data. The process itself is easy to fathom if you know how conventional transcription works. To get a picture of digital transcription, replace the transcription worker with computer hardware and software, and you just understood digital transcription!

What makes this work are some of the latest emerging innovations in recording as well as speech to text conversion software. In most cases, companies have either migrated to digital recording equipment or are in the process of doing so. Old archive data that is unfortunately stuck in analog formats can be converted in no time.

With the source already in a digital format, the only challenge is conversion. A simple example, of how much things have improved, is how we interact with our phones. Most of us can simply speak to our phone to perform tasks like calling, messaging and searching. When you also consider the fact that most of the time our phones do what we ask them to, despite our varying accents and all the extraneous noise, you can see how much speech conversion technology has improved.

In many ways, most of the challenges associated with acquiring audio data and processing it are slowly weaning away.

Benefits

We know how digital transcription works. We also know why it is working now, instead of say, ten years ago. That brings us to the more important question, why should this service be opted for? If the regular transcription is already working to meet all your needs, is there room for digital transcription along with the old fashioned variety?

Let us put in front of you a scenario that you are probably familiar with. You have audio files that need processing and you send it to your conventional transcription partner, either via an email or even a server upload. The files are then processed by a human operator and an estimate is given with caveats which include making allowances for human error and other delays. Finally, the files are done and sent back to you.

Contrast this with digital transcription. With digital transcription, the system works round the clock, and all you need to do is upload the files directly on to the system. No sooner are the files uploaded than you get an estimate as to how long it will take for the files to be processed. If you are going to be using the system at irregular intervals but frequently over the course of the day, the benefit of knowing when the work will be done is invaluable.

Removing the Human Factor

The reason for additional comfort is that there is no human element to deal with. We are not saying that having to deal with human transcription agents is a bad thing. We are just saying that dealing with machines is always simpler, easier and faster. It’s like email and the postal service. When you send a letter by ‘snail-mail’, it may not reach the intended recipient on time, or reach at all. When you send an email, the chances of it getting lost are probably one in a hundred million.

To make things even better than they already are, digital transcription services also have an inclusive system of alerts that works via short messaging service as well as email. You could subscribe to these alerts and be content that you are being informed of the progress automatically. Once again, this is a digital system and machines are proving to be more reliable than people in almost every way.

You can be sure that your reminders will be sent on time, without fail, just like the end product. Once the work is completed, you simply download the completed files from wherever you are. Overall, it is like an automated system similar to booking tickets for your vacation or grabbing some movie tickets off the web.

The author has used audio typing services for long and recently upgraded to digital transcription services. The latter is simply better.

 

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