What is transcription? Transcription is the conversion of audio into text. The audio maybe recorded either as audio directly or maybe extracted from a video.

Who requires transcription services? Just about anyone who has audio or video content which they need converted to text utilizes transcription services. This then opens up the entire world as a customer database. People from all walks of life, be it personal or professional, make use of transcription services.

Transcription service providers - Who does the transcription - man or machine? It is people who have been doing transcription since ancient times. Yes, even in ancient days transcription was being performed even though it might not have been called as such. Think of the times when people would dictate face to face and a person would write down everything with ink and quill on parchment! Today, it is still people doing the majority of the transcription. Machines, namely computers, have now crept into this arena. There is what is called as voice recognition software which does the transcription. However, the content so transcribed still needs to be checked out by humans for accuracy.

Where can you find transcription service providers: People who do transcription either work from home or from an office environment. This is a highly flexible job in terms of location. All a person needs to do transcription is a computer, the required software and hardware as well as an internet connection to perform this task. There are numerous transcription service companies too with trained people to do this. The web is a wonderful tool to find transcription service providers.

Skills needed for transcription: Transcribing audio into text requires skill. The transcriber needs to have the ability to multitask, i.e., hear, understand and type out what is being said at the same time accurately.

Types of transcription service providers: Transcription is simply the conversion of audio to text. However, transcription service has numerous names based on the type of audio or video that needs to be transcribed. For example: audio transcription, video transcription, general transcription, interview transcription, academic transcription, medical transcription, legal transcription, podcast transcription, business transcription, focus group transcription, etc. The list is endless. Basically, they all offer transcription services. The nomenclature is used to denote the subject matter of the audio or video for transcription. As it is not possible for a single person to be conversant with all the topics under the sun, transcribers generally tend to specialize in one type of transcription. The major types of transcription services are medical transcription, legal transcription, business transcription and whatever does not fall under the above three categories comes under general transcription. Just think how big the purview of the general transcription industry is.