How to Achieve Productive Meetings Through Automated Transcription

In this day and age, we have come to an almost full submission to the use of the internet. Almost every daily transaction we have in our lives involves its use and the main reason for this is that it has made our tasks more efficiently done. In the professional field, meetings are vital to an organization so as to review its general objectives, reiterate the progress over time, and plan on future projects altogether. There are ways in which a meeting can be productive and will actually meet all the goals that it initially put up, and one of the ways is through Audio Transcription.

Why does audio transcription help? Basically, it helps keep track of the topics from the meeting that a simple note-taking would not be able to cover fully. By this, the people involved in the meeting have a concrete review of the goals in which the meeting pertained to.

What is an Audio Transcription? Audio transcription is the process of translating an audio into text, either by an automated application or it being done manually. The process starts where the audio is being analyzed by the program or the transcriber through speech recognition and is then being written in text. However, what we will be focusing here is the use of Automated Transcription. This type of transcription helps in the productivity of a meeting in the following ways:

Speed – an automated transcription is the best option if you want to review your transcription right away

Spelling – the program will automatically recognize and correct words, avoiding a misunderstanding to those who will read it in the future

Accessibility – there are free applications found in the internet that can be easily operated

Cost-effective – it is also cheaper compared to a manually operated transcription

However, there is no doubt that an automated transcription service may have discrepancies of its own compared to a manual transcription. These discrepancies include difficulty to accurately provide text versions when the speakers have distinct accents or if they talk too fast; background noise that hinders a program from comprehending the spoken words; and technical difficulties such as corruption of files. One major drawback that can be found when using automated transcription tools is the lack of proper punctuations. This may result in another follow-up editing of the transcription manually.

With that in mind, there are 2 methods that you can use for automated transcriptions. First is hiring a translation service provider to do it for you. The second is downloading software that provides live captioning for in-person meetings and adds subtitles to your audios or videos.

When hiring a transcription company

When hiring a transcription company, make sure that the company you are hiring is legitimate. There are numerous companies that provide transcription services that you can find on the internet. However, this does not mean that all of them are all the way reliable. Some of which may provide limited services that most likely will not deliver a desired outcome. If your meetings are confidential, choose a service provider that is trustworthy and protects your data. What you want for a transcription company is one that gives high quality transcription so that the contents of your meeting’s agenda will be transcribed clearly and correctly and delivered to you in a polished format.

Why you may also want to hire a translation company

Speaking of formats, meetings nowadays do not only happen in person. There are communication tools that allow individuals to hold meetings from people all over the world. Yes, even when both parties are at the comfort of their own homes. The trouble comes when you and the other person or people do not speak the same language. For this, it is advisable that you hire a translation company that also offers transcriptions. A translation company can let you have discussions and Webinars with ease despite the language barrier. Additionally, one feature to look for when choosing a communication tool is the ability to record the meeting. This will make it easier for a transcription to be processed since you can just transfer your recorded meeting to the transcription company that you wish to hire.

When utilizing software

To start off, some examples of free closed-captioning or subtitling software are DivXLand Media Subtitler, AHD Subtitles Maker, and Amara.

Before you download and use a close-captioning or subtitling software, make sure that it is secure so that you can avoid data leaks at all costs. YouTube even has a closed-captioning feature. When you upload a video, you can add closed captions with just a few clicks.

For more security, choose paid closed-captioning and subtitling software. However, take note that paid does not always mean accurate or safe, so choose wisely. Some examples in this category include Encoding.com, MacCaption & CaptionMaker, and Better Than Caption Software.

Other recommendations

These options are proved to be effective in delivering high-quality transcription outputs, but there are also other options you may want to try so as to achieve a more productive meeting through automated transcription. Here are a few of those:

Make meetings shorter – with this, you can avoid “information overload” for the attendees, making the discussion more practical and yielding; this will also help in the transcription process since the content would not be as complicated as those meetings with larger and longer agendas

Ask attendees to set-up good quality audio – this will help in the automated transcription process since there won’t be any much background noise, pronunciation will be clear, and speech will be easily recognized by the program

Use specific but inclusive words during the discussion – this will avoid confusion in interpreting the finished transcription afterwards

Rehearse ideas and input beforehand – this enables an individual to be direct to the point in which he/she is trying to convey during the actual meeting, this will also result to a coherent transcription

These are just some recommendations that you may want to observe if you really want to attain a constructive and rich outcome for your meeting that would also be effective in automated transcription. For a discussion to be successful, it really must also come down to how it is being produced and presented, and one of the most important factors one must bring to the table really has to be attitude. What is a meeting without the correct delivery of the topics? What is a conference if its approach is not an interactive one? However, this does not necessarily mean a positive attitude. I am not saying one must be enthusiastic and cheerful to maintain an engaging aura, but what I mean is that you must also have to be a willing participant to the discourse. Following all those previously mentioned, one may not guarantee a perfect outcome, but can rather assure a more improved result.