Legal firms, businesses, as well as education sectors often benefit from audio transcription services, as readable digital copies make files more accessible for these industries. With the advancements in technology, use of voice recognition or speech recognition technology is the common choice now to get transcripts at a low cost within the required turnaround time. Automated transcription software for audio and video files is getting popular amidst concerns regarding accuracy of the transcripts created. This software is designed in such a way that it understands or recognizes human voice and converts the spoken words into text format in a matter of seconds.
Automated transcription provides diverse benefits:
- High speed – Compared to the manual process which takes 2 to 3 days, automated transcription provides results in minutes. This also saves more time as it is capable of a faster turnaround than human transcriptions.
- Cost-effective – Voice transcription is cost effective to organize, and generates text transcripts that can be reviewed many times faster than traditional manual methods, which could be more expensive.
- Save time on spell check – Automatically converting audio or video content to text relieves individuals from having to pay attention to spelling, as the digital device ensures that spelling errors are reduced considerably.
Microsoft OneDrive to Automatically Transcribe Audio and Video Files
Microsoft has announced that later this year, it is adding automated transcription feature to its OneDrive for Business, an app which make it easy for businesses to share and work together on all their files. This software will then be able to generate a transcript of a video or audio file, which is particularly useful if you’re holding meetings or presenting and want to provide a transcript. To power this functionality, Microsoft is making use of the same artificial intelligence available to Microsoft Stream users, a video-sharing service for corporate customers. With this update, videos and audio files stored within this cloud service will be automatically transcribed, making them easily searchable. It offers native desktop, browser and mobile experiences on devices.
Automatic Speech Recognition – Accuracy Concerns
Even though speech recognition software offers diverse benefits to meet today’s business workflow needs, its accuracy rate is of great concern compared to human transcription. Inaccuracy could result from certain challenges such as varying speaker accents and dialects, background noise and rapid speech.
Compared to the manual process, voice recognition software doesn’t understand the complexities of jargon and can have a difficult time handling background noise. At the same time, human transcriptionists have a natural ability to filter through background noise. For a smooth process, it is recommended to present the clearest quality audio file.
While humans can understand varying accents and dialects, speech recognition software struggles if the speaker’s accent varies. Experienced digital transcription agencies also offer high quality transcripts even with varying accents. Professional transcriptionists can identify multiple speakers in a recording just like business meetings, while automated transcription software cannot.
