SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION
At 1-888-TYPE-IT-UP we understand that transcription involves so much more than typing the spoken word. Of course, accurate capture of speakers' words is critical, but correctly identifying who says those words is just as important in many cases.
If you're in need of accurate speaker-identified transcripts, we always recommend filming your sessions whenever possible, because video files make it possible for our transcriptionists and transcript editors to listen and watch your sessions while transcribing. Although it takes longer to listen and watch a recording rather than listening to an audio file alone, video does make it tremendously easier to identify speakers.
That said, you should know that submitting videos for transcription does not produce the same results across the many different transcription companies on the Internet. In fact, the majority of transcription companies convert videos to smaller MP3 files before making them available to their transcriptionists.
Why does this happen? For one, MP3 files are much smaller in size, and smaller file sizes decrease uploading and downloading times for the public online work pools that most transcription companies use. At 1-888-TYPE-IT-UP we never jeopardize the confidentiality of your source material through the use of public online work pools. Instead, we manually assign every client recording to the transcriptionist best suited for the job, which results in a somewhat less efficient, more costly process that in turn produces a higher-quality transcript. Finally, another reason other transcription companies do not use your actual videos to transcribe is that videos require the use of paid software for transcription, as the free versions of transcription media players do not play video.
What does all of this mean for your speaker-identification needs? Simply put, if your recordings involve multiple speakers and you want those speakers individually identified, it pays to use a higher-quality service like 1-888-TYPE-IT-UP to eliminate the headaches and additional costs of poor-quality work.
Of course, we understand that filming your sessions is not always possible, and audio recordings may be all you have. If you can only capture the audio of your sessions, there are still ways you can ensure accurate speaker identification. For starters, we strongly recommend instructing participants to speak one at a time if your sessions involve multiple speakers. In addition, asking each speaker to introduce him or herself at the start of the recording allows us to match voices with their corresponding speaker names. You can even take this a step further by instructing speakers to say "This is [NAME]" every time they interject or say something during the recording.
While there are a number of ways to enhance the quality and accuracy of speaker identification in your transcripts, we are here to make your life easier and make transcription as hands off as possible. Depending on the audio quality and the number of speakers, speaker identification may not be 100 percent possible for every word said in a recording. However, while other transcription services often identify speakers incorrectly, we get it right the first time, and we never make best guesses without identifying them as such, thus furthering our commitment to honest, accurate transcription for anyone in need of reliable, professional service.
Are you ready to experience the 1-888-TYPE-IT-UP difference? Go ahead and upload your recordings now.
We look forward to delivering your transcripts!
