Instruction: Where do Automated Systems continue to Lag Behind Human-Aided Transcriptions

Response:
1. Accuracy
Manual transcription services take longer to return, the accuracy that comes with a human-provided transcription of an audio recording or video file can save you considerable time and energy in turning around a customer or client-facing project.
According to a
Microsoft senior scientist, “commercially available (transcription) services”
suffer from double the error rate as the typical human-provided transcription,
leaving you high and dry to correct any mistakes and revisit the file in
question before finalizing the project. That’s a significant expense and a
major waste of time when it comes to resource management.
2. Word Omission
Anyone who’s used an automated transcription service in the past knows the sinking feeling that comes with a “final” project file that contains more uses of the word “unintelligible” than it does what was said on the recording. To ensure the highest quality in automated transcription software, you must do:
- Use a very high-quality recording and file format. For the layman or those who work outside of recording studios, this is difficult to achieve. While the quality of these automated solutions is improving with time, anything containing gaps in recording, coughing, dropped connections, poor microphone etiquette, or other general inconsistencies can have a significant impact on how much of your audio file is interpreted and processed by the software itself.
- Non-native speakers are more difficult to understand. Services like Alexa and Siri are continuing to improve their support for foreign languages and accents, but the truth of the matter is that English continues to be the preferred language for automated transcription software, putting those who speak with an accent or dialect can experience wildly different results from a native English speaker. Again, I hope that things will improve and become easier for everyone to use, but the realities of today’s software are present in this scenario.
- Speed and emphasis can be a factor. These software transcription solutions rely on a specific, almost monotone cadence and method of speaking. Any variations in emphasis or speech speed can have a dramatic impact on the last quality of the automated transcription, making it difficult to process natural conversations like interviews, podcasts, or depositions so common in the transcription business.
3. Editing/Proofreading
Again, we’re seeing improvements in consumer-level transcription and voice recognition software here, but computers are terrible at correcting themselves or changing language-specific details like punctuation, tenses, or homophones. This can make for an infuriating experience for anything public-facing, as small grammatical and spelling mistakes can cast a shadow of unprofessionalism across your entire organization or business with the stroke of a machine’s pen. With native speakers equipped with professional experience in writing and editing, manual and human-aided transcription services make for a much more reliable and professional ultimate product.
4. Price
The transcription industry offers a very wide range of project rates, turnaround times, and accuracy levels. Whether you choose an automated solution or use a professional transcriber, you must do a significant amount of homework before selecting the right partner for your transcription project. Common pricing factors include verbatim type, length of the audio file, and requested turnaround time, but some providers can offer services approaching 99% accuracy in just 24 hours.
5. Consistency
As with any professional service, you’ll want to find someone with incredible attention to detail, significant experience, and a reliable commitment to deadlines and project milestones. Automated transcription software is nowhere near the level of consistency or accuracy easily found in a human-led transcription process, so we can’t wholeheartedly recommend any software-based solution in the immediate future. While technology will improve and may even exceed human-based transcriptions of recorded materials, the short-term outlook is to do your research and find a professional transcription provider to handle your organization’s sensitive projects and audio transcription needs.


Instruction: How does automated transcription work

Context: Learning resources on media production, voice acting and audio-visual translation, dubbing, subtitling and transcriprion

Response:
Transcription is in higher demand than ever. Whether it’s journalists, video editors, lawyers, or medical practitioners, the need to convert audio or video to text will almost undoubtedly enter the workflow of many professionals at some point. And if you’re in one of these careers or industries, you might have even had the dreaded task of transcribing audio or video files yourself.
The simplest way to define transcription is, converting recorded speech into text. If you’ve ever read the words of an actor or the lines of a politician, then you’ve read a transcript. There are lots of different ways transcripts are used; and, thankfully, technology offers the fastest, most affordable way to transcribe than ever.
What different


Instruction: kinds of transcription are out there

Response:
Manual Transcription
The most traditional form of transcription is manual transcription when humans listen to audio or video files and type the words into a word processing document. Manual transcription services are time-consuming but are more accurate than real-time human transcription services, which are difficult to master unless you're an exceptionally swift typist.
Some manual transcribers choose
slowly the playback speed of the audio or video files so they can type at their
own pace. This approach usually produces a more accurate transcript but is
still a time drain on long audio and video files.
With the use of special equipment and a shorthand system, a tiny number of transcribers can type in real-time, although this is a highly specialized skill that takes extensive training and a fast typist–for example, a court reporter. This skill can be used either live or when listening to a recording, although the vast majority of the time it happens live. Accuracy is lower with real-time transcription since there is no time for mistakes to be corrected.
Although manual transcription
has been around the longest, it doesn’t mean it’s the ideal solution. We think
there’s a better way.
Automated
Transcription
Compared to manual transcription, automated transcription is fast. Manual transcription usually requires the source recording to be divided into multiple files; these files are then sent to multiple transcribers, who are paid at an hourly or per-page rate to type them. Automated transcription accomplished all this with a single audio or video file, and in less time, for less money and much more secure.
Examples Of Import And Reliable Transcription Tools
Traditionally,
journalists used a simple recorder and cassettes to record an interview but
today you can make the recordings even with a personal smartphone or tablet.
Here are five useful tools and apps that make recording interviews an easy
task.
Cogi: This is a free app that can be used in both iPhones and Androids. This app lets you capture only those conversations that are crucial. It buffers the recording saying nothing. You can record any important part of the interview by just pressing the button and the app will rewind 15 to 40 seconds to record what was just said. The advantage is that you can focus on what is spoken without taking down notes and also enjoy the shorter recording at the end.
Dictation.io: This software can be opened in your internet browser and it’s free. It works only for Google Chrome. It combines an audio player and a text editor. It can dictate everything you say but does not assure complete accuracy. It also comes in more than a dozen languages differentiated by regions.oTranscribe: This is like Dictation.io, it combines an audio player and a text editor into a single interface. A keyboard can control all activities like rewinding, recording time stamping, from rewinding the audio to putting in timestamps. It eliminates the need to switch apps or take your hands off the keyboard to rewind or to pause.Dragon: This is one of the most used and accepted dictation tools. It will allow you to speak into the device, and your words will appear on the screen. It offers a free mobile app that is not reliable but it saves time and easily transcribes. Various versions and editions of its products are available in many languages.Rev: Rev is a site that becomes helpful if you don’t have the time or energy to type your notes yourself. It is a simple process that allows you to upload your audio and pay the fee to get your transcription by email. These audio recordings are transcribed by skilled transcriptionists and not by machines or software. It also offers a money-back guarantee if the transcriptions are not accurate. The turnaround offered is 24 to 48 hours.


Instruction: There’s no shortage of smart speech recognition services in the market today., Alexa and Siri are rushing to dominate your living room and connected devices, so why are so many journalists still suffering through manual transcriptions of recorded interviews and videos

Response:
Sure, automated transcription tools have existed for years, but the reliability of these automated solutions is spotty. As a Microsoft study shows, even the very best and most sophisticated speech recognition and transcription software still hover around a 6% error rate - an inexcusable metric for today’s media climate.
Importance Of Researching And Testing Several Transcription Tools
So what’s the ideal solution for journalists requiring fast, reliable results from their interview transcriptions? The answer is hybrid, but let’s get into the importance of researching and testing several transcription tools before committing to a long-term partner.
Differing
Speech Patterns and Accents Can Easily Confuse Software
Software-based speech-to-text solutions are improving at an impressive rate, but as we’ve seen with Apple’s FaceID system, automated recognition software is always better at identifying the most common denominator: in this case, white males. In terms of speech, perfect English syntax and grammar is the baseline for these automated speech recognition solutions. As any journalist knows, most interview settings are imperfect. Ambient noise, multiple speakers, and stressed or emotional subjects can throw off even the most professional recordings. And with automated transcription tools struggling to reach 70% accuracy in most cases, adding multiple variables to the recording only exasperates the quality issue.
Pick
Up Minor Details in a Searchable Format
As any talented reporter knows, having a reliable set of notes to analyze after the fact can reveal duplicities, inaccuracies, and potential fallacies that may lead to further inquiries throughout your reporting. Plus, with a complete text readout in digital form, you can easily search and aggregate repeated statements, phrases, or words that can be useful in this era of increased interest in data and metrics.
Ignore
Your Recorder, Improve Your Notes
With a
dedicated recording device and the knowledge that you won’t have to manually
type through every word spoken, you can engage fully with your subject and take
notes only on immediately pertinent or newsworthy items as you conduct your
interview. The speed and relevance of your interview process can improve - and
so can your reporting.
Provide
Insights for Follow-Up Questions
By having
verbatim notes in a searchable format, you can better analyze and rely upon
your notes to re-engage subjects for follow-up questions.
Improve
Reporting Speed
Rather than pouring
over what can sometimes be hours upon hours of recorded interviews and manually
typing every spoken word, you can send your transcription tasks off to a
professional so you can pursue other leads and follow up with other potential
interviewees, saving you valuable time and mental bandwidth.
Increased
Opportunity for Self-Criticism and Self-Improvement
Do you
interrupt too much? Are you too quick to ask follow-up questions when you
should let a bit of silence bring out further details? Are you being professional
enough? Analyzing your own questions and interview techniques on paper can
provide incredible insights for young and experienced journalists alike.
Custom
Turnaround Time
While automated transcription tools offer near-instantaneous transcriptions of spoken words, those working on high-profile and long-form stories know the importance of getting the details exactly right and taking their time with their work. But if you’re hitting consistent deadlines and need a reliable transcription partner, some professional transcription services offer expedited turnaround times to ensure you get the details right before an editor comes breathing down your neck.
Tips to Achieve The Best Quality Transcriptions
No matter what flavor of reporter, journalist, blogger, or writer you may be, you must conduct extensive interviews as part of your research into topics and subjects. But so many journalists are reporters first and rarely have a background in live audio recording. But there are plenty of easy tips to used to ensure your recording is as legible as possible - an essential, timesaving tool for your professional transcriptionist:
Be prepared,
arrive early:
So much of a properly prepared interview has to do with arriving beforehand and taking into account multiple factors that could influence the quality of the recording, whether it’s strictly audio or a video component.
Invest in a good recording device:
Sure, sometimes an iPhone recording of an interview is not only appropriate - it’s the only option you have to gather the information you need. Whether you bump into a subject on the street or are rushing to capture a statement made on the fly, you’ll always be better off with something rather than nothing, but for getting a clear recording that can be quickly and easily transcribed, you’ll want to invest in a decent recording setup that you can slip into your bag and have ready at a moment’s notice. There are dozens of options on the market perfectly suited to the lifestyle of a working journalist, but finding one with a noise-canceling function and external microphone is essential to filtering out any environmental noise and capturing the material you need to ensure a clear, concise recording.
Avoid excess noise - and don’t be
afraid to change the environment:
Should you arrive at an interview site and realize it’s too noisy to appropriately record and capture the audio you need, moving or asking a restaurant/bar/cafe to turn off their music is an enormous factor in getting a clean recording. Because crosstalk, background noise, and environmental sounds can seriously affect the quality of your recording, take these elements into account, and don’t be afraid to change things up., you’re the professional - your subject will follow your lead.
If a loud truck drives by or a plane goes overhead, asking your subject to pause until it passes will ensure you get the entirety of their response on record with no room for confusion should the content of your reporting get called into question? In short: do everything in your power to ensure the recording is as pristine as possible. It’ll help you and your transcriptionist in equal measure.
Crosstalk is killer:
While it's difficult to wrangle multiple interview subjects and keep them from talking over one another, it’s also your job to moderate your subjects and ensure their responses aren’t garbled or incoherent as they reply. Ask them to wait their turn and not only will your recording be cleaner; they may have more time to think about their response and provide you a more thoughtful reply than something off the cuff. Be sure you aren’t interrupting your subjects with your own follow-up questions. This can seriously affect your recording quality and make things more difficult for your transcriptionists later on.
Don’t multitask:
Typing, eating, or taking copious notes can not only affect your performance as an interviewer, but it can make picking up the details of your interview itself difficult - especially if your recording device is prone to catching a lot of room noise or is set on the same table/surface as your hands. Ensuring you concentrate on the subject and the task at hand won’t just improve your listening and ability to provide thoughtful follow-up questions, it can assist your transcriptionist when it comes time to turnaround the contents of your interview itself.
Edit the interview after you’re done:
If you go over
the recording after the interview is complete, you may identify off-the-record
portions, irrelevant responses, and gaps or interruptions that may have
occurred during the interview. While you’ll want to preserve the original file
for record-keeping, having a shorter, more concise version of the interview
will improve the turnaround time and keep your transcription costs lower, as
many professional firms charge by the recorded minute.
The term human translation highlights the fact that our translations are done by human beings instead of computers (a.k.a. machine translation).
As technology evolves more of the translation process is being delegated to software and computers. We agree that technology plays an important role in translation services. However, technology should be used as support to the human translation craft. While free Google translation may help you understand the main ideas contained in a piece of content written in another language, human translation is still a must when you need your content translated for your business or any other purpose requiring accuracy.
Humans in Charge of Context and Accuracy
Translation Context
Only humans can precisely decide what the right context for a text is. Words change meaning depending on the context, and the choice of a translation will rely heavily on the context. Keeping humans in charge of the overall management of the human translations will assure the translated document mirrors the original document
Slang, idiomatic expressions, localism, and technical domains are just a few other challenges to language translation automation. Language has some nuances that computers and artificial intelligence won't be able to handle any time soon
Accuracy in Translation
There isn't a single translation for a specific word. The best choice of which term will better convey the original meaning intended by the author will require a human being to make such a decision. Interesting to note that even professional translators will have different choices for terms and styles. Accuracy is not just technical. It is also an art that cannot be learned without decades of work behind a monitor. Translations to be used in court, business presentations, or any application requiring accuracy should be restricted to human translators to decades, if not centuries, to come.
Machines in Charge of Support and Repetition
Translation Support
Some activities during the translation process will be better accomplished by software instead of a human translator. Some of these translation support activities:
retrieving a glossary during the translation processchecking for spellingsaving the translated document along the wayproviding advanced editing toolsothers
Repetition Savings
One of the most well-known advantages of using translation software is being able to leverage on repetition. It is quite common for segments of text to be repeated within a document or even a set of separate documents. Translation software can keep a 'translation memory ‘of such repetitions and helping the translator by 'pre-translating' something he already translated in the past.
The main advantages coming from this 'translation memory':
no need to translate the same thing multiple timesconsistency since a single translation will be provided for the same termsavings in translation time and costpossibility of multiple human translators working on the same project while keeping consistency in terms of terminology choicedevelopment of a translation asset that can be kept over time independently of the human translators who have worked previously on the translation projects
Frequent Questions about Human Translations


Instruction: 1. Are there pure human translations being provided out there

Response: It is very rare to find a translator who doesn't use some kind of technology when translating documents. Because of the competition in the translation services industry, we would say only amateur translators would work without some level of translation software to help them along the way.


Instruction: 2. What translation software do human translators use during their work

Response:
The main tools used by translators in human translation are:
CAT-Tools: these 'computer-assisted translation tools' focus on keeping a translation memory with the work being done by the translators for future useText Editors: usually already built-in the CAT-ToolsElectronic glossaries: so they can check the best terms for terminology or keep their work consistent with what was done previouslyOthers


Instruction: 3. Will human translators become unnecessary in the future

Response:
Not in our lifetime. We have heard many times that machine translation and would soon make human translators disposable. This prediction has not nearly materialized and we don't believe it will any time soon.
Intelligent communication remains pretty unreachable to computers even the most powerful ones reserved only to large corporations and universities.
CAT-Tools (computer-assisted translation tools) have been evolving over time and becoming more and more necessary for the human translation craft. However, they are still a support-tool instead of a main component during the human translation process.


Instruction: 4. Do I really need a human translation? How can I tell

Response:
Ask yourself if you can afford inaccuracies in your translation. Let's say you just want to read a sales letter from a company abroad. In this case, a Google machine translation could give you a very good idea about the original meaning of the letter. And, if you need a better understanding of some passage, in particular, you can always hire a human translator to handle that specific passage. This would save you money since you wouldn't need to translate the whole document.
On the other hand, if you are providing documents for immigration purposes or if you need your company brochures translated, you wouldn't take the chances of providing less than accurate documents, right? It is all about the accuracy tolerance you are willing to assume.
Less than perfect translations are acceptable for many applications while others will absolutely require accurate translations prepared by seasoned human translators.
Only humans can precisely decide what the right context for a text is. Words change meaning depending on the context, and the choice of a translation will rely heavily on the context. Keeping humans in charge of the overall management of the human translations will assure the translated document mirrors the original document.
Slang, idiomatic expressions, localism, and technical domains are just a few other challenges to language translation automation. Language has some nuances that computers and artificial intelligence won't be able to handle any time soon.
A translation Services little Touches can make a Big Difference
Evaluating a translation service requires differentiating between translation companies which will merely transcribe data verbatim into a new language and those who will make your product shine in a new context.
On the whole, translation services that rely more heavily on humans than automated techniques provide a better experience for you and your customers.


Instruction: What’s The Advantage of Professional Human Translations

Response:
Professional human translation provides the flair that makes for a successful transition of your product to a new market.
Human translators are context-sensitive, culturally aware, capable of translating idioms, and capable of producing prose that is grammatically and semantically correct. Nonetheless, many translation services utilize automated translating methods.
According to an article published on The Verge, although automated translation systems may be approaching the quality of human translation in some contexts, they never reach the same quality as a professional human translator.
This is especially true when translating between highly divergent languages like English to Chinese or vice versa. In these contexts, the advantages of professional human translators are significantly larger than elsewhere.
When translating to or from a challenging language, human translators are more likely to avoid errors that would strike a native speaker as being obvious in comparison to automated translations.
Furthermore, the majority of translation services still have a significant professional human translation capacity, meaning that it’s typically easier to find a translation service if you’re using human translation as a selection criterion.
Finally, if you have specific instructions for your translators, the only thing that will satisfy you is a translation company with human translators. Automated translators tend to be inflexible to customer demands.


Instruction: What’s The Disadvantage of Human Translations

Response:
Despite these advantages, human translations aren’t perfect.
In a report published by Global Market Insights, data show that the machine translation market is growing and will surpass $1.5 billion by 2024. The majority of this growth will be in the defense, electronics, IT, and healthcare sectors.
This means that finding human translators in these fields may be more difficult moving forward. Likewise, it means that the accuracy of translations in these industries is continuing to improve, even if it will take a long time to surpass the accuracy of human translations.
Another issue with human translations is that the turnaround time may be longer. When human translators translate, they don’t merely transcribe the concepts from one language to another.
In fact, according to the Huffington Post, human translators must recreate the intent of the language. This makes them significantly slower in any given translation context.
It does, however, mean that translations performed by humans are more artful in terms of their language. This too can be a problem, however.
Humanized language means that translations can be extremely inconsistent between translators. One translator might come up with one sentence whereas another would come up with an entirely different sentence, portraying the same concept in a different light.
In contrast, machines offer a deterministic translation that is a bit less artful but is highly consistent, even when it’s incorrect.


Instruction: How Can My Company Maximize The Benefits Of Human Translation


Instruction: Given these advantages and disadvantages of human translation and automated translating services, which is the best choice for your company


Instruction: How can your company get the most mileage out of the uniquely human flair that translation services provide without breaking the bank

Response:
Answering these questions is a matter of understanding your needs. If you’re looking for a translation of highly technical material, you may be surprised to find that the importance of a human translator’s touch is more important than with material that is more subjective.
The reason behind this counterintuitive fact is that technical terms are often difficult to translate because they may not be literal.
In a highly subjective passage, like the transcript of an informal discussion between two people, an automated translation service can parse the meaning into a crude translation without much trouble. It may not appear graceful to read, but it would be possible to understand.
In contrast, something like a user manual does not have the same leeway. If an automated translation merely captured the gist of the contents of your user manual, you already know that your users would be clogging your customer service lines with complaints and questions.
When precision matters, a human translator’s touch is necessary to navigate the peculiarities of terms that don’t have literal translations into other languages.


Instruction: What Is The Difference Between Time-stamping, Time coding, And Spotting

Response:
Have you ever wondered how people can note where certain scenes are in a film or a movie, and by knowing I mean from the minute, second and millisecond? Then that is exactly what we will talk about today. We will look at what we call Time-stamping, time-coding, and spotting. These words hold a very important position in audio recordings and video files. They have a very specific role in subtitling, captioning and even dubbing on a larger scale.
More times than not, if you are not a very keen person you might confuse Time stamping to Time coding and I think most times people confuse these two words because of their prefixes. Sporting confused with the two aforementioned terms.
So you might ask yourself.


Instruction: What are these?Who are these?What do they do?How do they make subtitling easier

Response:
We will look at that in this article, and by the end, all of us will be on the same page. For starters, it is good to note that all these three words have similar processes but are critically different in so many ways.
Time-stamping, Time coding, and spotting are processes that involve a certain method in which include timing information on any kind of transcription of a voice-over or any other sound elements in an audio or a video file.
The information added, and the means you add the information makes them different.


Instruction: What Is Time-stamping

Response:
Time-stamping is a process whereby one adds timing stamps or markers on a transcription to identify when a certain event occurred, depending on what exactly one is working on. These markers are what we refer to as timestamps.
There are different ways in which we add timestamps on a transcript, it might be on an interval basis of when specific events happen on a video or audio file.Most times time stamps have minutes and seconds, but they can also have frames or milliseconds depending on the length of a video or audio file. Since it’s easier to understand something when you see it with your eyes, I would advise you to search for an article that shows how we do time stamping and you will have a rough idea on how to do it.In a simpler term, one that is more understandable by many people, we refer to timestamps as event-based to mean that we only place them where there is a specific event happening in a video or audio.A good example to explain event-based time-stamps is that You can find a client requesting for interval time stamps and another asking for time stamps every time one mentions a certain word on a recording or every time there is a song or a poem in an audio or a video. The most common request for time stamps usually happens when a client requests for timestamps every time there is a change in speaker in an audio or video dialogue.Therefore, these timestamps are event-based timestamps because they happen every time there is an event.It is important to note that whether the timestamps are event or interval-based; they are specific in finding and marking specific content in the source footage. For example, on documentaries directors write editing instructions on the time-stamped transcriptions, which editors can then use to find the footage relatively easily. The same thing with court transcriptions of testimony–lawyers can use the time-stamps to find the exact audio and video they want to play for a jury.Remember how when you were little you would use colored markers to mark different Bible verses for easier access that is exactly how timestamps work and in long audios or long videos it is always advisable to use timestamps to locate and navigate through the long content files to find exactly what you deem either important or useful to you.If you are pro in creating time stamps, then good for but timestamps are usually not very accurate they just create easier access for people to find what they need to find. Because of this, time-stamp content, interval length, and format can vary, sometimes substantially.


Instruction: What Is Time-coding

Response:
You should never confuse time code to time stamps, and since we already know what timestamps are, we will now know what time codes are in order for us not to confuse them.
Time coding is the process in which we collect specific timing information and unlike in time stamps, times code has to be very accurate. This only means that they also contain milliseconds or frames and also follow a particular format.
As much as time codes have multiple uses, we mostly use them in creating captions and subtitles. Since they are specific and accurate with the timings, we use them where we need accurate timing information.Have you ever watched a video where the captions or subtitles are not accurate and instead they are completely off? Yes, that is a good example where they did not use time codes correctly, to ensure the accuracy of the subtitles and captions.Another good example where time codes really come in handy is during lip-sync dubbing. This being something that I work on specifically it is usually hard for sound engineers during layering of voice tracks in a different language to an original track when there are no time codes to help the voice-over artist know exactly where a spoken scene starts and where it ends. If the time codes are off the 100% guarantee, all the lip- sync will be totally off. So it is important for a time coder to be someone who is keen and practical when doing time coding.


Instruction: What Is Spotting

Response:
Spotting is the process in which we collect time-codes, to use in an already formatted file.  We do specifically spotting for subtitling and captioning purposes. It's good to note that the time codes must be in the correct format and that the concluded final time-coded file must also be in a specific format.
How spotting works is that there are time codes for when a caption or a subtitle appears on the screen and when they disappear and they always follow a specific rule of segmentation. It breaks down voiceover transcripts into smaller sections and also adds line-breaks, which some are preferable for some languages. Now that we all know the differences in all the three mentioned process, I would go further and slightly mention where the confusion of the three comes in and why they should confuse you.As we have seen, the three processes have a lot in common from how we do them and the mere fact that their functions rotate around creating timing information for audio and video files.We have noticed that spotting and time coding have a correlation. Spotting is just a specific time coding, and we can say that we do time coding with spotting in mind. In fact, we almost always use time-coding and spotting are interchangeably, though spotting is more prevalent in entertainment contexts, while time-coding is more common in online and e-Learning contexts. That said, it’s still crucial to understand the difference, to avoid issues.Also, it's very important to know that different timestamp formats will not work for spotting because spotting only works with a specific format for all its audio and video files. Certain system programs usually import timing lists and applying these time-stamps in spotting would not work. The same applies to PowerPoint users as they can adjust timings in the Animations panel, usually to align each one to an audio voice-over element. The issue with those time-stamps is that they’re not time-codes meaning that they’re not frame-accurate and we can’t really use them for spotting projects.


Instruction: What is A Combined Continuity Spotting List

Response:
A Combined Continuity Spotting List is highly detailed transcript of a feature film or documentary. It is merely a written reflection of everything that was shot on camera and it includes character identification, dialogue, scene description, camera moves, music cues, sound effects, time coding and more.
The only way to ensure that you use the right process according to what you want to achieve in the long run is to:
Work with a professional service provider. There are very many service providers out there who specialize in all the three processes or either of them and by working with them, they will advise you well on which one best suits your needs.Be specific in the final deliverable format that you would want. This only means that you should be able to decide on what you are trying to achieve. Whether you are trying to create captions or subtitles, do you just want time stamps for specific events on the audio? When you decide what exactly it is that you would like to achieve, then it is easier to know which process to use.Finally deciding on how you would want to use the time codes and time stamps will also help in deciding which process to work with and which format would work well with them.
Time-stamping is a process whereby timing stamps or markers are used on a transcription to create a specificity on when a certain scene depending on what exactly on is working on. These markers are what we refer to as timestamps.
Time coding is the process in which specific timing information is collected and unlike in time stamps, times code has to be very accurate. This only means that they also contain milliseconds and also follow a particular format.
Spotting is the process in which time codes are collected and formatted in order for them to be used in an already formatted file. It usually done specifically for subtitling and captioning purposes. It's good to note that the time codes must be in the correct format and that the concluded final time-coded file must also be formatted.


Instruction: What is Synchronization

Response:
Sync sound (synchronized sound recording) refers to sound recorded at the time of the filming of movies. It has been widely used in movies since the birth of sound movies.
Film synchronization of image and sound in a sound film. Synchronization is important in fields such as digital telephony, video and digital audio where streams of sampled data are manipulated. ... In electric power systems, alternator synchronization is required when multiple generators are connected to an electrical grid.Indian films shot using sync sound include the first Indian talkie Alam Ara released in 1931 and art house films such as Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali. The then-popular Mitchell camera, which could be operated silently made it possible to shoot in sync sound.Audio-to-video synchronization refers to the relative timing of audio (sound) and video (image) parts during creation, post-production (mixing), transmission, reception, and play-back processing. AV synchronization can be an issue on television, videoconferencing, or film.Audio-to-video synchronization (also known as lip sync, or by the lack of it: lip-sync error, lip flap) refers to the relative timing of audio (sound) and video (image) parts during creation,  post-production (mixing),  transmission, reception, and play-back processing. AV synchronization can be an issue on television, videoconferencing, or film.In industry terminology, the lip-sync error is expressed as an amount of time the audio departs from perfect synchronization with the video where a positive time number indicates the audio leads the video and a negative number indicates the audio lags the video. This terminology and standardization of the numeric lip-sync error is utilized in the professional broadcast industry as evidenced by the various professional papers, standards such as ITU-R BT.1359-1Digital or analog audio-video streams or video files usually contain some sort of synchronization mechanism, either in the form of interleaved video and audio data or by explicit relative time stamping of data. The processing of data must respect the relative data timing by e.g. stretching between or interpolation of received data. If the processing does not respect the AV-sync error, it will increase whenever data gets lost because of transmission errors or because of missing or mistimed processingSynchronization is the precise coordination of multiple events or mechanical devices. In computing, it refers to the coordination of hardware devices, such that the data they contain or provide is made to be identical. The synchronization is usually done within an acceptably brief period of time.Synchronization is important because it checks for the differences between two data containers in order to avoid the unneeded transfer of data that already resides in both data sources. Therefore, synchronization schemes typically update both data sources by transferring only additions, changes, and deletions.Remember the last time you saw a movie and got excited at a scene with an appropriate soundtrack? Ever wondered if your music could be part of the soundtrack in that blockbuster summer film or that new Netflix series? Yes? Right, let’s talk sync.


Instruction: What is Sync

Response:
Sync (or synchronization) is a process where songs are combined with moving images – film, TV series, adverts, video games, trailers, etc. Sync deals are usually arranged between a music publisher and a prospective client, which is normally a music supervisor or a film producer.
Music supervisors are the people responsible for sourcing music that can be used in a project. So, a music publisher’s job is to pitch your music to the relevant music supervisors and grant them a sync license if they do decide to use your music.The sync license gives someone permission to use your composition in a moving picture, subject to contract regulations.To begin the sync process, music has to be pitched to music supervisors. Bear in mind that music supervisors may not be hired by every single entertainment company; some companies opt to use one of their own employees to head the music team for a project. This is especially true of video game companies, as many employ their own sound designers or composers.It is crucial that only relevant and appropriate music is being pitched to supervisors, as it will give you a higher chance of success. It also contributes to a good working relationship with the music supervisor.There are many types of visual platforms that benefit from sync deals; here’s a shortlist to give you an idea:MoviesTV seriesDocumentariesVideo GamesTrailersAdvertisements


Instruction: Why is Sync Important

Response:
One of the most important reasons why sync is crucial to a composer is income. The digital age has made it relatively difficult for musicians to generate revenue.Remember when Taylor Swift pulled all her songs from Spotify?? Her reason behind her actions was that she believed “valuable things should be paid for”. But realistically speaking her decision would ultimately help boost album sales. It’s no secret that physical CD sales have been declining steadily in the market.That being said, sync deals can often pay more than physical music sales, especially if the song is re-used on multiple platforms. So, every time a song is reproduced in any visual media, the original owner of the music is paid a fee, known as a royalty. For example, every time your song is used as an advertisement jingle, you would be paid each time that advert is reproduced with your music.Getting your music into movies or TV series is one way to help create a greater awareness of new material, especially if you’re a newcomer to the music scene. Think of it as a stepping stone towards gaining widespread recognition and expanding your fan base, locally and internationally. You might not be rewarded instantly, but sync deals aid your prospects just by making your music accessible.
In summary, working with a music publisher will greatly increase your chances of getting your music synced.


Instruction: How do you sync audio and video sources

Response:
Nothing turns off viewers faster than a video with bad audio. If you are recording with a mobile device or lower-end camera, they will most likely have very poor built-in mics that are designed to pick up a wide pattern of sound.Unless you have a higher-end camera that has a built-in shotgun mic, you are going to want to consider recording audio separately from your video. This means that you’ll need to learn how to sync audio files and video clips in your video editing process.You may think you need complex programs like Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro, but it doesn’t need to be that complicated. You need to follow these simple guidelines to succeed in your synchronization.
Step 1: Record Your Audio
Getting quality audio is crucial for your video to be successful. In addition to a good microphone, you’ll need an audio recorder to capture your sound. Your microphone will plug into the audio recorder, and capture at a higher quality than an on-camera microphone. More expensive audio recorders use XLR cables while more affordable brands will use ⅛” jacks (the same as a standard headphone jack), so make sure you have the right cords for your device.
Step 2: Import Audio
Now that you’ve got your audio recorded, you’ll need to import your audio file and your video file into your video editing software and start syncing clips. You can import your audio and video tracks independently. Then, simply drag each clip onto your timeline.
Step 3: Sync audio with video
The most difficult part of syncing audio with video is actually lining up your audio and video tracks in the timeline. We will show you how to do this in Camtasia, which has a zoom function to help you line up your audio and video tracks. You’ll want to make sure that you can scrub through the timeline at frame by frame basis. To do this, zoom all the way in!This is where your clap comes in. This is an old trick that will create a spike in your audio .wav file so that when you later import your audio file into your video editing software, you will be able to see where you started recording. You may have even seen this method used in big Hollywood productions when they use clapboard. The clapboard is used to give editors the visual marker, while the sound produced by the clap (the spike) provides the audio marker.
Step 4: Celebrate!
You did it! You recorded, imported, and synced your audio and video clips on the timeline. Sometimes it’s just a matter of trimming the ends and exporting, other times you have a lot more editing still to do.
Now you’re ready for what’s next, which could be transitioned, adding captions adding b-roll, merging clips, the editing options are endless for you to make your video as polished as you’d like! Now you will listen to your final copy and enjoy the sync process. If you do it correctly, you won’t regret for your finished product. All you need is keenness and attention.
Document accessibility is one of the more common uses for text-to-speech voice-over. Because TTS is a great tool for producing large amounts of voice audio in a short amount of time. But it's also a relatively new tool, one that comes with a unique set of challenges, in particular for multimedia localization projects.
Voice-to-text is a type of speech recognition program that converts spoken to written language. Voice-to-text was originally developed as an assistive technology for the hearing impaired.
It can also be termed as: the faculty or act of expressing or describing thoughts, feelings, or perceptions by the articulation of words.


Instruction: Why are voice-overs used

Response: The voice-over is a film technique that is utilized in virtually every film genre. Filmmakers use voice-overs to provide quick exposition, tell stories, narrate, and provide an intimate look into the mind of a character. This essay will explore how voice-overs are used in the context of several films.


Instruction: Why are voice-overs effective

Response: The power of voice-overs offers an effective way to pique the interest in a certain audience and spread information. The impact of media is heavily affected by voice-overs, as they draw in consumers and deliver important messages.


Instruction: How many hours do voice actors work

Response:
While that would be an awesome rate for a 40 hour work week, voice-acting is freelance, and you only work when they call you. A typical anime session is a 2-hour block and at most 4 hours. Even then, if you do the math, you quickly see that one can't survive on that. Most voice actors rely on multiple means of income.
These TTS systems were first developed to aid the visually impaired by offering a computer-generated spoken voice that would "read" text to the user.By giving voice to one of the greatest minds on earth, TTS proved what it’s capable of! And technology has been developing ever since.


Instruction: What are the conditions in which text-to-speech may be the preferred choice, if not even the best one

Response:
Well, the obvious answer is that we may need text-to-speech when none of the other three options are available for one reason or the other. But there are other, more interesting situations, where text-to-speech not only is acceptable, but it could even be our best option.
When working with presentations that need to be updated often, human voiceovers may be difficult or even impossible to use. By using text-to-speech, updating the voiceover for a presentation is as easy as editing text.When working on multilingual material, we might not have the budget and the logistic possibility to get good speakers in all languages. With Text-to-speech we only need to get our text translated in the target languages, which is a much easier task. We might even adopt a mixed solution (human voiceover for some languages, TTS for other languages).When we need to be able to publish quickly and 24/7, text-to-speech is always available.When we need to publish a large library of presentations, text-to-speech will be able to work faster than real-time, meaning that we can produce several hours of audio in just a few minutes.When we want to use several voice characters in our presentation, the complexity and the budget needed for a voiceover project might get Hollywood proportions. With Text-to-Speech using several voices is as easy as using only one voice.Text-to-speech can also be used to build a prototype of a presentation, testing the script and the way pictures and words go together, before calling in a professional voiceover for the final take.
State of the art text-to-speech has made improvements in the expressivity of the voices, is available in many languages and with several voices available for each language, as you can hear in this sample presentation of English voices.
Technology is moving so fast it can make our heads spin, especially in the world of text-to-speech (TTS). As voice-over actors, we’re certainly aware of TTS – and some of us may even fear the technology is advancing us right out of our careers. But it’s really not. Despite the rapid advances in the field, TTS remains unable to replace the real deal. Keep reading to find out why.
How TTS Has Advanced
Text to speech (TTS) is a system that converts the written word into the spoken word. Simple enough, right? But it gets more complex from there. TTS systems store speech units that can include phones, diaphones, words and entire sentences. It then puts those speech units together in specific combinations to create synthetic speech that says anything – all using the voice that initially recorded those speech units.
While the first talking machine was initially introduced back in 1939, advances in the world of TTS over the past several years have been more rapid and dramatic than over the past 75. Some of these advances include the ability to:
Incorporate a model of the vocal tract and other human voice characteristics to sound more human.Correct synthetic speech mispronunciations, adjust regional pronunciations, add emphasis, and other tricks through Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML).Produce robocalls that stop and ask “Can you hear me?” or wait for a reply, like a human would, before continuing their spiel.Copy lip-movements for dubbing.Fix small errors in voice-over recordings with synthetic edits.Create a model, or “voicebank,” of a real person’s voice for later use as synthetic speech
Once TTS began to converge with machine learning, big data and artificial intelligence (AI), it became smarter, more realistic and, as mentioned earlier, a perceived threat to some in the voice-over industry.
Potential TTS Threats to the VO Industry
There is no doubt the advances of TTS have aroused a number of concerns across the voice over industry, with some of the most common outlined below.
1. Losing Ongoing Royalties


Instruction: The royalty structure keeps giving us a steady flow of money each time our voice is used, regularly paying us even though we’ve already done the work. If we are recording into a voicebank, are we going to get royalties every time our voice is used to create synthetic speech? Probably not. While we can likely expect to be paid a large amount for the initial recording session, we may lose out on royalties each time our voice is used down the line. After all, how can we be paid royalties for a future recording that uses our voice but we didn’t technically record

Response:
2. No Control Where Your Voice is used
Since technology allows for a pre-recorded voice to be used to create any type of message or project down the line, Voice over artists may fear they won’t have a say in the type of work that will be attached to their voice. Some work may be unacceptable, but we may have no control or say over the matter.
3. Being Prohibited from Future Spots
If we offer buyouts on our voicebanks, we could be limiting our careers without realizing it. For instance, let’s say our voice is used for a car company. We would then potentially be prohibited from doing all spots for all other companies in the future – even though we didn’t know we’d be associated with a car company at the time of the buyout.
4. Continuously Declining TTS Rates
Recording sessions for TTS are no longer in the
$50K range. As technology advances, the rates continue to decrease. Methods of capturing and synthesizing voice take far less recording time, which means far less pay for the voice over
Why Voiceover Actors Don’t Need to Fret
While TTS concerns may feel valid for our voiceover artists, we don’t have to lose sleep over them for several reasons. For starters, TTS still harbors many limitations – like the inability to spontaneously generate the infinite human range of emotions and vocal techniques.Being able to create synthetic speech by simply typing in the words you want it to say is also not something that can yet be done. And synthetic speech, no matter how advanced or finely tuned, has still not shown it can match the multiple nuances and components associated with a real human voice.Ongoing payments may still even exist. In addition to a recording fee, there are arrangements for licensing outlined when and where the voices can be used down the line. Turning the TTS fears into the framework for a clear-cut contract can help ensure we have all bases covered, and continue to thrive in the profession.
The Internet has made the world a global village by widening the borders of business and communications. The citizens of every nation are consumers of the global markets, As a result, many industries and organizations establishing their presence in the different geographic regions to make their business globalized in a bid to attract shareholders from different countries and expand their business footprints worldwide. With access to the world now at our fingertips, Communication is the key to a globally expanded business for steady development. The process involved in transcription services is capturing speech content from audio or video files into texts.
No matter if you’re a small scale business owner or Sole proprietor running a large organization, the marketing strategy of your company isn’t complete without a well comprehensive content marketing plan to educate consumers about the products or services you provide. The transcription services make it easy for the audience to consume your business contents and find the information that customers need fast. Transcription services have become essential in today’s competitive business environment. Transcription services pave the simplest ways to pass information to your audience for various end results.
Regardless of the industry, The Companies that are looking to improve their content marketing effectively and reach newer audiences are leveraging transcription. Small businesses are also reaching audiences throughout the world making use of E-commerce. As the business expands their need for transcription services increase. Any business may rely on transcription companies to produce written content that can be used for various purposes of the company. Some of the examples are
Small businesses may need Transcription services for their online marketing purposes


Instruction: As audio/video continues to become an integral part of the marketing mix, it can be rightly said that visual marketing has become an important business marketing module. But have you ever noticed the importance of transcription services for those multimedia formats to extract real value for the efforts you put in

Response:
Combining multimedia formats with transcription is a great way to cover all bases for reaching a wider audience. Most people have their own personal preferences on how they engage with online content so you can serve more people by giving them choices on whether to view, hear or read your information. Here are six key benefits of adding transcriptions to your audio/video formats for gaining an extra advantage over your competitors.
1. Provides Content Variety
The beauty of multimedia is that gives you opportunities to reach people through different senses. Video provides a more personalized visual appeal; while audio allows them to do other things while listening (including relaxing). Add in transcription and you give visitors the opportunity to read your text, which for some people is still a preferred way to absorb knowledge. Transcripts are often easier to share with people than audio on social media, in which many followers don't have time to listen to an entire show.
2. Adds To Your SEO Strategy
If your website only offered podcasts or videos without text it probably would not get high search rankings, regardless of the content. The more valuable information you can feed search engines, the more likely you will achieve visibility. Not only will transcripts be full of keywords that define your niche, you will be providing followers and bots with original content for indexation.
3. Recognizes the Hearing Impaired
Transcripts ensure that the hearing impaired have an opportunity to read the content from your audio. You will be sending out a message to them and their loved ones that you are socially-conscious and care about people who are unable to hear audio. After all, it's really the information you are sharing.
4. Provides a Convenient Reference to Audio
One of the greatest benefits to researchers who have access to your transcribed content is that they will have a reference to follow. Instead of going back and listening to a podcast or watching a video for a half hour to recollect the information, researchers can quickly scan the text to find the points they are looking for. It helps them save time and move on with their projects.
5. Allows You to Add Links to Text
When you include links to your transcript you can open up much more web context for visitors to explore. Your latest recording may touch on topics you've already written about in previous blogs, in which you can provide links that can also be used as cross-promotion for your guests. Deep content is one of the keys to keeping people on your site.
6. Useful for Archiving Content
Once you have built a vast library of audio or video material, complete with transcripts, you can create an index of your work. From there you can reference earlier posts by linking to the transcripts, which can be used as support material for future content. You may also decide to use these archives for other purposes, such as creating eBooks. Another way to utilize your wealth of knowledge is to take excerpts from various transcripts to create completely new blogs.
The healthcare industry needs its critical patient data and medical records transcribed for insights.Lawyers require legal reports or testimonials to be transcribed, etc. Financial organizations may need their AGM’s transcribed for shareholders.In education, Scholars need their lectures transcribed for academic purposes.
Nearly all industries require transcription services from renowned transcription companies, for one reason or the other. As a professional transcriptionist, it is a critical and complex process to create a written work that actually depicts the message that the client wants to pass to their target audiences. Transcription services can be helpful for consumers to interpret your business models and services and schemes effectively and a better understanding of consumers about your business can elevate your company to a whole new level with lots of engagements and business leads.


Instruction: Why have single source of content when you can have dozens

Response:
By turning your audio to text, you will be directly elevating and augmenting your marketing efforts. Audio content is great but has its limitations. For instance, you can’t have illustrations, charts, pictures, or infographics on the content. All these are essential elements that make content more useful and attractive to readers. Elevate your audio content by turning it into text and adding any of these elements as needed.
Transcribing audio content to text is beneficial in various ways. For example, you can distribute text content on multiple channels without having to invest significantly on expensive resources. Transcribed audio can be distributed as online articles, E-Books, Print media articles, white papers, Books, Manuals and Emails, etc.
If you’re utilizing video as a part of a greater marketing strategy, transcribing the content of the videos is a hugely beneficial strategy. Transcripts can be used to explain videos. Since people learn differently, adding a transcript to your video can make the information more digestible for your audience. Adding transcripts on videos can also help you reach non-native speakers that may not be able to follow what is said by the speakers. Depending on your industry, your audience may not be comfortable with watching videos as they are with reading text documents.
Videos can take a lot of internet data bandwidth, which can be expensive for audiences using mobile devices to access them. For these customers, downloading a PDF transcript of the video would make more sense. The leading social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit are heavy build based on text. Your content will get more clicks and impressions on social media sites. If people can see right away what it’s all about, it can gain more business leads and moreover, not many people are always ready with earphones to listen to audio files while on social media.
Transcripts of your business audio and video content can have some significant impact on one’s content marketing and SEO efforts. Customers often use keyword phrases to search for videos online. Since search engine spiders can only crawl text content, accompanying a video with a transcript helps search engines to rank the content higher on search results and put it in front of more viewers. Because the main search engines cannot read or interpret video content, they determine the quality and relevancy of information using text. This includes titles, Meta descriptions, and keywords within the written content to determine how and where these materials will be presented to users searching for specific information.
An interactive transcript outputs words as they are spoken in a video. This text enables viewers to understand the video better since they can hear and read simultaneously. Adding an interactive transcript to your video keeps your viewers engaged. When your videos are ranking well on search engines, they can generate new business for you.
Audio and video are powerful ways to connect with your followers, but adding the power of text comes with its own multiple advantages. Not only can transcripts help your audience on various levels, it can help you organize the information you build over time. Always remember that your audience is composed of individuals who use the internet differently. Reaching people through as many different channels as possible can only help your cause.
Are you someone who would love to be a translator and you are wondering what qualities you must possess and how you should carry yourself? Look no further because in this article we will look exactly into that.  Just like any other profession, there are specific qualities that employees should possess and those are the qualities common across the board regardless of where you work. Some qualities are more obvious than others, but it's good to note that there are specific qualities specific to good translators.
For example, impeccable references and a good reputation are as important as they would be in any other respectable profession. However, there are some personal qualities that might not associable with the translation industry in particular, which are just as indispensable.
1. Language Skills
Can you imagine having to read content that has grammatical errors, shorter sentences or sentences that make little sense? This is usually because of a translator who's not well versed with the languages he or she is working with. That's why it is very important for a translator to have impeccable language skills to avoid such cases.
However, linguistic expertise goes beyond just words on a page. It requires full and comprehensive mastery of both the source and target language. It is no use a translator being a walking, talking dictionary if their grammar and spelling skills are highly unsatisfactory.
2. Accreditation
We have all heard of cases where people lie about their credentials to get a particular job that they are eyeing. The problem with this is that employers end up using people who really have no capacity to carry out the tasks at hand. People will always blow their own horn and say how good they are at something when in reality it's the absolute opposite. Therefore, while a professional reference can be useful, one of the best ways to ensure a translator is of the highest quality is by looking if they have certifications from accreditation schemes or bodies.
For example, in the UK, the Institute of Translation and Interpreting or the Institute of Chartered Linguists are two such organizations, while there are others both in the US and Europe.
3. Experience
This is another important quality for a highly valued professional in any industry. Having a prior engagement with the duties at hand is usually a plus one for employers. No one wants to give a newbie important files to translate if they have no prior experience in translating either the particular languages in question or any other languages completely. Proven experience and quality are two of the first things employees look for. The reason for this is that many people talk the talk, but they don’t always deliver on promises.
Most translation companies usually look for translators with at least five years of proven experience before they can hire you. This is usually to ascertain that the translators are the best ones out there.
4. Timeliness
Having worked in a fast-paced environment for the past 6 years, I can tell you for sure that timeliness is not only a translator's quality but a general professional quality. This is the ability to deliver projects in line with stringent deadlines and still meet targets with no errors.
Just like how your boss wouldn't have it if you are being late on results is the same way translators work. That the translated material is usually for a particular purpose depending on the industry, timeliness is something very important.


Instruction: What would happen if you do not translate files in a hastily

Response:
If it's in a Law set up, chances are a Lawyer might have delays in presenting his or her case if he doesn't have the documents he or she needs on time.Since other companies also run on timeliness, a book might miss its printing run because they presented it to the printers late, they delay an advertising campaign because the copy didn’t come through in time.
More times than not, projects get late because either a translator had taken on more work than they can handle, because of greed for money. Alternatively, maybe a project is too difficult or technical and they didn’t allocate enough time to do their research for it. Whatever the case, if a translator is showing any signs of not respecting deadlines, or has displayed this behavior in the past, alarm bells should be ringing.
5. Integrity
To be good at your job, regardless of the industry you are in it is very important to practice professional integrity. If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
You cannot say one thing then turn around and refute saying that thing because it raises eyebrows and clients seclude you from projects.
If you agree on a certain target, then you should be able to deliver without excuses and to the best of your ability. Having Integrity only means that clients will always respect your word and trust that you will deliver with no scuffles.
6. Time Management Skills
Time management skills go hand in hand with timeliness, and one cannot thrive without the other. Time management though is much deeper and you can describe it as the ability to organize, compartmentalize and keep on top of work and it is vital for a translator.
Late deliveries in any serious professional field are something that's usually frowned upon because we all know you can never recover lost time and time is money. People lose important client deals because of not delivering. This is the bane of all translators. It doesn’t matter if they’re junior translators or university professors with years upon years of experience, it usually leads to late deliveries.
The group of translators that mostly get affected by this is full-time freelance translators. They usually take on more work than they could deliver on without taking into consideration that they should not compromise one piece of work because of any other.
7. Honesty
Honesty goes a long way, and it might be a quality that will get you out of trouble more times than you can think of. Many people make the mistake of lying or not being forward about something, which in the long run usually turns to bite them. One of the biggest challenges of being a translator is that work doesn't go as planned and what most of them do is to not communicate or give a heads up to their employee. What this does is that it gives the employer false hopes that you still can meet targets. It is very important to inform the employer and not try to push it back, get friends to help you out with the translation or wait for the client to call you up and ask where their work is. People have problems, such as falling sick, suffering power cuts or experiencing IT hardware failures, but the client must be told to give them enough time to redistribute the remaining work and execute damage limitation.
8. Thoroughness
Have you worked on a project that you didn't look at prior to you working on it? What this does is that it gets you anxious and completely confused about which way to go about it, and in the long run, you end up not giving it 100% of your capabilities. A translator will always need to assess a project before agreeing to take it on, This ensures that they note the length, subject area, complexity, level of expertise and anything else worth noting. It is only in doing this properly that they can complete a price at a reasonable deadline.
A translator might agree to a certain deadline and price and eventually end up realizing that the files are too many and they could not finish translating them on the agreed deadline. It becomes hard to call a client and ask for an extension or a price renegotiation. One of the most important things is that once you commit to a deadline as a translator, you must stick to it.
Similarly, a job must meet a certain standard. If a translator is consistently making mistakes, cutting corners or under-delivering on your expectations, they may not be the professional you thought they were.
It is very hard to keep up with a translator, but looking out for red flags is something that every client should be keen on. There are so many translators out there who have amazing skills and qualities that deserve opportunities. As a translator, remember honesty, credibility and integrity will take you far in your work.
Have you ever thought to yourself or asked yourself what exactly goes into creating film subtitles, the challenges that subtitlers go through in order for them to create perfect subtitles for our enjoyment? If your answer is yes, then we will be looking at exactly that in this article. Just like in all other professional film processes like time stamping, transcribing and translation, subtitling also has its fair number of challenges that if not keenly looked at one might make a lot of errors. We will first look at what subtitling is and what it entails before we get into the challenges.


Instruction: What is subtitling

Response:
According to Wikipedia Subtitles are text derived from either a transcript or screenplay of the dialog or commentary in films, television programs, video games usually displayed at the bottom of the screen, but can also be at the top of the screen if there is already text at the bottom of the screen.
In lay-mans language, subtitling is adding written texts on a film that usually appear on top or the bottom of the screen. The texts can either be of the same language as the original audio or a different language.
It is also translation localization where instead of translating the audio sound to another language through a process called dubbing, it's only the written texts, synchronized with the original film.


Instruction: Why are subtitles important

Response:
You might wonder why the use of subtitles is important and why a lot of film producers have opted to jump on the bandwagon. We have already established that subtitling is localization. Video subtitling enables your video content to be accessible internationally to all markets and in all native languages. This breaks down language barriers which improve cultural awareness and enhances the manner in which we share information.
Challenges Experienced during subtitling
Apart from dubbing, subtitling is one area where localization used and translators are more active. It can be such a complex process that needs a lot of concentration and professionals to handle it. We use it in mediums such as films, TV and training videos, to healthcare and medical research,
Below we will look at the different challenges subtitlers experience:
Multiple Speakers.This is one of the biggest challenges. If you understand how the subtitling process works, then it's easy to understand why this might a problem. The thing about subtitles is that you have to capture every reaction and word uttered by every character in a film. Regardless of whether the subtitles are being translated, multiple speakers speaking at the same time make it complicated to know who said what and reacted to what at what time. Normal conversations might be hard to keep up with now, just imagine having to keep up with multiple speakers at the same time. Not only do you need to think about screen space and pacing, but you also have to make sure the corresponding text is visible as people are speaking and that readers can finish reading each subtitle before the next appears. Things get even more tricky when you have to deal with fast-paced conversations, arguments, or debates between half a dozen people. This is usually in case of crowd scenes or fight scenes. These are the hardest scenes to make subtitles on, but with a lot of concentration, a professional subtitler might hack it perfectly.Text LengthDid you know that different languages have a different number of characters and words for a statement meaning the same thing? If you didn't know, then I'm letting you know. This becomes a big challenge when subtitling because as much as you have to translate the statements you need to keep in mind that some statements will be super long and you need to find shorter sentences that mean the same thing and have the same context as the original film. Keeping each subtitle short enough to fit on the screen so the viewer can read it easily and quickly is not all that simple. This mostly happens when translating a statement to the English language because English statements more times than not are short and straight to the point. There is a specific set of rules applied when creating subtitles and a good example that usually gets affected by this is the length of a subtitle on the screen at a time. Text length can be a challenge when subtitling because of limited space, as subtitlers must not cut the text off, but adding a lot of texts can take up too much of the screen display.Text Length vs. Dialogue SpeedThe essence of watching a film is to relax, unwind and enjoy the content. When we introduce subtitles in a film, we shouldn't take away from those three particular factors. We use subtitles to localize a film to reach more people so when we compromise the speed and length of the subtitles with then the audience finds it hard to keep up with the film. I have heard people say they don't enjoy using subtitles on films because most times the subtitles are usually not in line with the dialogue speed. When dialogue speed in the footage outpaces the viewers’ reading speed, they rearrange the subtitles. The best solution is to plan and show the subtitles slightly before the speaker so that viewers have enough time to read. This is more of a compromise than a solution because it also makes the subtitles a bit off with a few seconds or so. If doing that is not an option, the subtitlers usually adapt the text in a way that fits the screen and still makes sense. With this challenge, a lot of compromises usually come to play to make the subtitles more realistic and not annoying for the viewers. StyleWhen translating for localization it's always advisable to do a direct word-to-word translation which usually destroys the meaning and context of the original content. A lot of translators usually use translating services like google translate to do the translation between languages, however, frowned upon by film producers. That is the reason we usually do a translation for localization using a group of translators who have a great understanding of the two languages they are working with. This is to make sure that when translating subtitles, we make an extra effort not to include literal translations. Examples include localizing length or weight measurements and time based on the region and language of the intended audience. Translated subtitles should make as much sense if not more and have a natural flow and be easy to read, just like the original content. What this does, is that it ensures that the content remains as enjoyable and interesting to the audience and doesn't take away or downplay the original content.Font SizeHave you ever shied away from reading an e-book or an article because the font used was not as captivating, or it was rather too small for you to bother reading? I usually get disinterested with certain write-ups because of a font. This is the same case with subtitles. Finding a balance between a good font, legible from all devices and can still fit all the words in all screen sizes is a challenge for subtitlers. Font size needs to adapt to the screen dimensions and always remain clear and comprehensible. It is usually good to ensure that you have the texts in bold and have spaces in between the letters. Some texts are usually longer than others and if you end up using certain fonts, it might either make the subtitles not fit the screen might affect the speed and pace in comparison with the original dialogue. It is very important to be keen when choosing a font to use, which is also not an easy thing that comes automatically.They usually say that some of these film production processes, if not all, usually need professionals with extensive experience to handle them. This is because they require a high level of understanding and concentration, and having an amateur deal with them usually proves to be a problem.  However, with the right experience and skill set, we can create and deliver a high-quality product, ensuring a wide audience can enjoy and use the material in the same way as the original.There are a lot of software out there and professional individuals who have specialized specifically in creating film subtitles, but the software I stand by and vouch for the Dubbing King.
Do you know that there are things that you cannot explain without visual representation? Whether you are an expert or just a newbie, subtitles are the last thing you would want to give a go a head-on without sitting down and analyzing them while you listen to the audio. In this article, we could look at different factors to watch out for is ensuring that subtitles are in the best way and what determines whether subtitles end up being perfect or not.
26 Guidelines To Creating The Perfect Subtitles.
The person in charge of creating subtitles must always strive to work with a specific file format, for example, videos or DVDs. This ensures that you get the correct file format and software to used to avoid complications while in making the subtitles. You should always make sure you have a copy of the production file, dialogue list and a glossary of unusual words, names and special references. This will help you avoid making mistakes, for example, translating words not meant for translation or making translations on certain words.  Regardless of what anyone says, it is always the job of a subtitler to make sure that he or she has a good grasp of both the languages being used. By this I mean the original language used on a file and the target language translation. No one will do it for you, Production houses pay for these services so they need a person who is all rounded in order for them to cut down on costs. Having a good understanding of both the languages in question is not enough, one also needs to provide a high quality of translation services while considering the availability of Idiomatic expression and their true meaning in relation to different cultures. If you have done translations before, you would have noticed that some languages have the same expression that has different meanings. So a well-translated subtitle should take this into consideration.It is unnecessary to write long stories and 4 line sentences when creating subtitles. It is advisable to have straightforward sentences that are neither too short nor too long. They must be exact.Certain expressions might be short sentences in a particular language and end up being super long sentences in another. You must be able to provide content results without losing the original meanings if you need to compress a dialogue when creating subtitles.You must distribute subtitle text from line to line and page to page in sensible blocks and/or grammatical units.All subtitles must be able to make perfect sense when reading alone, unless it's a long sentence. It's impossible for the person making subtitles to introduce a pause in a place where there is no pause so they should know what exactly to do when they come across such a problem.There are languages hard to translate into or translate from and that is why translators must be keen when translating subtitles they must ensure that the language being used is appropriate and goes hand in hand with the spoken word.Just because subtitles serve as film entertainment, doesn't mean that there should be grammatical errors. A subtitler should make sure that all subtitles are grammatically correct and follow the rules and guidelines of the particular language the subtitles are in.When creating subtitles, it's good to note all possible written information for translation and translate it. Be it signs or notices one should be able to translate it and incorporate it.Note that not everyone who watches films, or any subtitled material has perfect hearing senses, some viewers are usually hearing impaired and ensure that you subtitle all information even if you think it is not important. Things like names and interjections.Do not forget to subtitle songs when it's needed. The good thing about songs is that most times they won't need subtitling, but it's always important to make sure you ask prior to beginning the process.There are words that must be in subtitles, but there are words that are always repetitive and they are usually common phrases that one can comprehend easily. These kinds of words do not need subtitling.The in-and out-times of subtitles must follow the speech rhythm of the film dialogue, taking cuts and sound bridges into consideration. Language distribution within and over subtitles must consider cuts and sound bridges; the subtitles must underline surprise or suspense and in no way undermine it.Ever looked at certain films and you realize that you can't keep up with the subtitles because either they are too fast or too long? There is a specific duration that all subtitles must adhere to in order for this not to happen. This duration allows the subtitles to appear on the screen long enough for the viewer to read it. Rhythm is very important during spotting. A subtitler must ensure that the subtitles are going hand in hand against the rhythm of a film. You can't have subtle coming before or after their specific scene in a film.No subtitle should appear for less than one second or longer than seven seconds, except for songs.The maximum number of lines on the screen for any subtitle should always be two and no more. You can have a single line if that's how short it is. Wherever you have two lines of unequal length, the upper line should preferably be shorter to keep as much of the image free as possible and in left-justified to reduce unnecessary eye movement.Synchronization is very important when creating subtitles. Anything off when putting side by side with the film will make all the subtitles off. There should always be a correlation between film dialogue and subtitle content and also between the source language and target language.Always make use of exclamation marks correctly, and you can show the emotion on the film using the subtitles. There must always be a certain level of correlation between the two.After every production process, there should always be an editor to edit and revise the subtitles. It's normal to want one person to do everything from creating the subtitles to editing them but, truth be told, another person's eye might see what my eye missed and vice verse. This is to make sure that there are no grammatical and spelling mistakes on the final document. A lot of film production companies usually do this and they always take up all the credit because of more chances than not they outsource subtitling services. It is usually advisable to acknowledge the main subtitle at the end of or the beginning of the film.They should display the year of subtitle production and the copyright for the version at the end of the film.
Technical Aspects To Consider When Creating Subtitles.
We will look at some technical aspects when creating subtitles before we finish.
Subtitles should always be big enough to read with clear lettering with a font easy to see and read. There should be no dramatic fonts like italics or unnecessary calligraphy, and they should be able to have sharp contoured characters stable on the screen.Always remember to have all your subtitles on a single film in a consistent pattern. We can center them for film applications or left-justify or center for TV and Video Applications. (With the globalization of broadcasting, television, and video they often show programs with subtitles not only on domestic channels.  Many broadcasting stations worldwide still transmit their programmes with a logo in the lower left-hand corner, which inevitably covers the first couple of characters of all left-justified subtitles. At video festivals, they usually project video productions on large screens. It is easier to read subtitles on large screens if we center them rather than left-justify them.)Two-person dialogue in one subtitle should be left-justified or left-centered; we should show individual speakers by a dash at the beginning of each line.Normally during video applications, one can enhance the character clarity by using a drop shadow or a semi-transparent or black behind subtitles. In laser subtitling, we achieve sharp contours and removal of the residual emulsion, by precise alignment of laser beam focus and accurate change of power output. In laser subtitling, we must set the baseline accurately for the projection format of the film.Always make sure that the total number of characters in each line is compatible with the subtitling system and visible on any screen.
If you can follow all these guidelines,  your subtitles will end up being as perfect.
Before we could even think of audio and video files, we consumed in the form of print (written form). There were no recording tools or cam coders to record and capture videos together with audios. As we move with time and new ways of disseminating information come up, it is good to note that there are people who would want to consume different information in a text format. Many people more so those who love reading prefer content in written form as compared to those people who love visual presentations and because of that prefer to get information through videos. There is the other category who prefers their content in the form of audio. Different strokes for different folks for sure.
I am in the category of people who love consuming content is in video or audio format. The reason I prefer these two is that my concentration span is up to a bare minimum and having all my senses in use, usually helps me to be more alert unlike when I’m reading and end up dozing off. Someone else might disagree with that and say that reading up content helps them concentrate more and avoid the distractions that might come with watching videos or listening to audio.
The three main ways that businesses used to relay informational content in 2020 are through the three forms that I have mentioned above and that is a podcast (audio), Video and Blogs (text format). We can consume this content can in all these three formats, but not all content is well and perfectly relayed to the public through all the formats. Different content works well if relayed in the form of a blog and others in the form of podcasts or videos.
Video and audio formats usually work well with content that is artsier and includes illustrations for better comprehension, while blog formats are for information that is vast and needs a lot of explaining and attachment of links. When a business puts content out there, I believe it’s not just for the sake of it, but they have a target audience and a target in terms of engagement and achieving a certain aim. The particular content they re-purpose is to reach a wider target audience and be able to generate a passive income for the business. Transcription services are what a lot of businesses uses to repurpose the audio and video content into blog content.
What is Transcription?
Transcription is more so a film production process that involves converting audio and video file formats into scripts or text file formats either using transcription software or just general ways of transcription. A professional transcriptionist can do it, or even normal day-to-day individuals who would love to re-purpose their content in order for them to make a passive income through blogging. In this article, we will answer this one question that many people ask, “Why Transcription?”
Reasons To Re-Purpose Your Audio And Video Through Transcription.
Below are reasons why choose to re-purpose your audio and video content more this new decade:
Many people love listening to podcasts and watch videos in this digital age that we are living in. The reason I get when I ask why they prefer that over reading blogs is that it’s easy to consume this content even when you are busy doing something else and thus making it super convenient. I agree with that. The thing with audio and video content is that it gives a visual representation and feel of the content that you are consuming and thus making it more enjoyable and fun to engage with. While there are those who love these two formats, there is another percentage of individuals who would rather consume their content through reading. Those of us who can have preferences for certain things over others are lucky because there is a group of people who do not have the privilege to choose. There are people who are deaf and others who have a hearing problem which makes it hard for them to consume audio and video content. This is where transcription comes in handy because businesses can cater to all audiences without making others feel left out. It makes all content inclusive. We all know incivility is a core factor in businesses because there is no one getting into entrepreneurship without wanting to offer a solution for a specific problem and later on making a profit out of it.
We are a global village nowadays and someone anywhere in the world can have access to information or content is in a different language to the one they speak. The content might be in an English language or a language that the viewer is more conversant with, but the accents being used are thick or inaudible to comprehend. In such a situation, the viewer would love to get an option of the same content in a format that they will easily consume and comprehend. The simplest and cheapest way to re-purpose that information is through transcription. There are definitely different ways a business can re-purpose their audio and video content and that is through dubbing, but dubbing is a very expensive film process. Transcription would come in handy is such a situation if you translate and transcribe your content into text and post it online as a blog and be able to create a passive income.
As much as I form part of the percentage of people who love consuming content through listening to podcasts or watching videos, sometimes I usually wish that I could have the same content in written form.  When in a busy, noisy public place and would love to get into some content, listening or watching content is usually very annoying and strenuous and those are times when I love having written content for my consumption? Another example would be when in the library and I come across an interesting video that I would love to watch and that time I don’t have earphones; I usually appreciate it when I find a written version of the same content. With this, we can see that transcribed content usually comes in handy in different situations where people cannot consume audio and video files.
When searching for information online, it’s normally easy to get Blog format content on Google than to get audio or video content on YouTube or any other video content sites. Google search engine optimization might get you all the files you are looking for, by merely searching for a word in line with the content you are looking for. Perhaps writing video and audio titles also helps with search engine optimization, but it’s not on the same scale as written text content. With search engine optimization it’s easy if not easier to find content through search engines and rank on the search engine page results like SERPs. This shows that people consume a lot of blogs' content compared to video or audio content formats so transcription services are important for creating these written formats of contents.
Another benefit of transcribing your audio and video content is how easy it becomes for people to search for the particular information you are trying to pass in your content through search engine optimization. Ever wondered why most people love going through written text format when looking for information than sitting through a 50 minutes’ podcast or video content? Well, it is because some readers like myself know that written content easily highlights important information. However much an audio or video file might have subtitles you still have to rewind and forward several times before you reach the point that the information you are looking for is whereas for written format it’s just easy to sift through and get what you are looking for. A transcribed text content will come in handy for people who don’t want to waste time looking for specific information.
To finish it is very important for content creators to strive to create inclusive content for all its consumers. This not only cuts across a large audience, but it also creates a passive income when posted online. We are living in a digital age where you can find anything and everything can by the click of a mouse, so it would be smart if content creators could take advantage of all the tools available to them freely.
In an age where everyone has a YouTube page and putting out video content, it would be very smart if one can transcribe their information in YouTube content into blog posts, which with time, will start generating an income. In 2020 and beyond, repurposing content is the way to go and if you are not with it, then I suggest that you get with it, because 10 years from now you will wish you you knew.