Transcription Services and Information for Urgent Turnarounds
As I often get questions from transcription clients about various different aspects of our transcription services and information for urgent turnarounds. I thought it would be a good idea to go through some of our most requested styles and areas of transcription to help clients learn more about the transcription services we provide.
Here at Transcription City, we carry out a lot of transcription work for Live TV show, News stations and Journalists who often need their transcripts to be turned around as quickly and accurately as possible. However, with great speed, comes great responsibility (something I learned from experience and from Yoda) with that in mind, there are a few things to remember with regards to sending us audio or video files for transcription.
Sending Audio or Video Files for Transcription.
Urgent Transcripts – The smaller the better!
When it comes to speed, audio is generally much faster to upload and download than video because of the file size. So unless there are multiple speakers in your video, then we would suggest sending audio only for urgent turnaround transcripts. Depending on the size of your file, you can add extra minutes or even hours to the turnaround time if we are waiting for you to upload your file and then having to download large files. It is often possible to extract the audio from your videos, with very little effort, so feel free to contact us if you need assistance.
Transcription Services for Live TV Shows and Videos
Provided you are able to give us advance notice, we are able to record live TV shows for transcription. To speed things up and ensure accuracy, we recommend that you give us as much information as possible with regards to when the video will be aired, the names of the speakers, the maximum length of the video and the subject matter. This information is important because it allows the typist to do much of the research beforehand and therefore speeds up the transcription process, meaning that you receive your transcripts much faster and with a higher accuracy.
Transcription Services and Audio or Video Length (Please be honest!)
Whenever we accept an urgent transcription booking, one of the most important things that we need to know is the required turnaround time and the 
length of the audio or video. The reason for this is simple; one person can only type a certain amount of dialogue within a given time frame. Knowing the length of the audio, lets us organise the correct amount of typists needed for each project or file in order to meet the deadline you set. We often get clients ask us to transcribe files with little or no prior notice, who have on occasion been frugal with the truth when it comes to the length of the audio, just to get us to transcribe it. This is a false economy, as without the correct information, we cannot meet set deadlines or organise a project properly. I am working on a solution for bending space time, but in the meantime, we need to know the exact lengths for your urgent turnaround audio and video files.
Transcription Services, Urgent Files and Accuracy
As mentioned above, the more information and notice you can give us the better, when it comes to urgent transcription files. With adequate time to research and plan for your transcript, we can produce highly accurate transcripts with minimums errors. Most urgent files will not allow sufficient time to carry out a separate independent proofread and although our typists will always proofread their own work on completion, it is recommended that files with an urgent turnaround should be checked by the client before submission to the press or distribution lists.
Transcription Services, Sending Urgent files via Email
We do not recommend sending urgent files via email. Although it is possible to send audio files up to around 30-40 minutes long (if highly compressed) in an email, we do not recommend sending files using this method, as they slow down our email servers and often get truncated in transit, meaning that half your transcript will be missing and the audio will have to be resent anyway. This will obviously slow down the turnaround of your files significantly. Please contact us if you are unsure on the best way to send us your files and we will come up with a solution that suits.
Transcription Services, Deadlines
Finally, we come to transcription deadlines. It is imperative that we know your exact deadline for any file you send for transcription. Simply saying that a file needs to be back urgently is not sufficient information. To avoid disappointment, let us know (to the minute if necessary) what your deadline is. That way we can allocate your file accordingly, to allow for both transcription and proofreading as required.
If you would like any additional information about any of our transcription services or would like a quote on an urgent transcript, why not get in touch? We are available 7 days per week and will tailor our transcription services around your needs and requirements. We are also able to offer solutions with regards to sending large files quickly, new apps that make sending files quicker and easier, template design and we also offer virtual assistant services for any other secretarial assistance you may need.
