Ensuring Audio Transcription quality

Audio transcripts using a single microphone

Our client decided to record their event, using a single microphone system. This is not normally an issue – microphones should provide clear recordings. However, the presentations, which were on a medical subject, were made in a room with a great deal of background noise.

Because only one microphone was available, one presenter tried to speak without a microphone for the first ten minutes of his presentation, and during the Q & A session, participants in the discussion did not use microphones either. The presenter was a non-native English speaker, which added to the difficulty.

In this situation, there is only so much a professional transcriber can do: some sections of the audio will be incomprehensible or inaudible. However, what the transcriber can do is go back over the audio, taking time and care, to ensure that absolutely everything that could be captured is captured.

Further, once the transcription had been completed, it can be passed to an experienced editor, who will check through the transcript while listening to the audio, not only correcting mistakes but also filling in a few gaps – it's surprising how much can be added when someone else listens to the audio with the initial transcript on the screen.