Transcription System: Transcription & Reviews

This is a series of posts on our human-powered audio transcription system. The following are links to the previous parts: Overview, Workflow, Certification.

The Transcription & Review subsystem is where the bulk of the work gets done. In transcription the file is played back and typed into something called a raw transcript. This is the first pass transcripts where the incomprehensible parts are marked with blanks. In review this raw transcript is checked against the audio mistakes. Timestamps and speaker tracking is also added during review. The output of both these steps produces a fairly accurate textual representation of the audio file.

In our workflow, we first break up the files into smaller parts. Our certified transcribers — the one’s who have successfully cleared the Transcription Test — can then login to their account and select these part files. Another innovation of our system is that we don’t actually assign files to them. Instead they are asked to choose from the files available. They can preview the file and check the quality before choosing. This creates a competition which in turn ensures that files get done quickly.

For performance monitoring we use a five point grading system; A+/Excellent to D/Poor. The files are graded after the review. Another small innovation of our system is the Diff Preview which shows the changes made during the review. It helps the reviewer to assess the quality of the raw transcript and grade accordingly. Based on the grades a Transcriber can be promoted to a Reviewer. There is a disputes and arbitration system in place too to investigate unfair grading.

Another innovative aspect of our system is it ensures a file is worked on by multiple transcribers and reviewers. The average for a 1 hour file is 15-20. More eyes and more ears on the file does wonders for the transcript quality. During Proofreading all the inconsistencies caused by this methodology are corrected. We will talk about more about Proofreading in the next part fo the series.

Till then if you want a high quality transcript of your audio file which has been checked multiple times by different people, then check out our transcription service today.

The next part of the series is available here.