Transcription services have been around since the early days of recorded audio, but have only recently begun to change. Where professionals once had to physically deliver recorded audio to a transcription company, internet transcription makes it easy for a professional agency to locate and utilize this service from anywhere.

The biggest barrier for many businesses was their location. If a transcription company wasn't readily available nearby, the audio files had to be mailed in a physical format. This created quite a delay in getting the audio transcribed. Transcription services via the web eliminate those barriers for virtually every business dealing in digital audio formats.

Digital Audio Accepted by Transcription Providers Online

If the audio that needs to be transcribed is in one of numerous accepted formats, most well-equipped internet transcription companies can handle transcribing the material. Those accepted formats usually include:

• WAV

• MP3

• WMA

• AAC

• OGG

• AVI

• MOV

• MPG

• WMV

• FLV

If you're familiar with file formats, you can see from that list that some are video file formats. Internet transcription can be utilized to transcribe the audio from video files as well.

Security Issues

Many businesses and professionals believed that standard services - with files being shipped directly or dropped off at a transcription company - were the safest option because it limited the number of people accessing the data.

Truth be told, when physical media is shipped it is handled by multiple people during the mailing process. In addition, it can suffer damage or become lost. Internet transcription offers the most secure method of transfer, as there is no physical interaction with the media. The owner securely uploads the files to the service, the audio is transcribed, and the finished files are returned using the same method.

Transferred files are typically sent via 128 or 256-bit SSL encryption, and are stored on an encrypted drive. There is no master to transfer and very little concern over the corruption or loss of data. Likewise, you never have to worry about making multiple copies in order to maintain a master copy.

Industries Serviced through Internet Transcription

Internet transcription is utilized by the same industries that once utilized physical deliveries of audio formats in order to transcribe audio.

Legal Transcription - Law offices and law enforcement commonly utilize internet transcription for forensic interviews, 911 calls, parole hearings, suspect interrogations, depositions and more. Where audio is recorded for legal purposes, it can be digitally transferred online, transcribed, and quickly returned complete with certification and notarization.

General Transcription - A number of professions rely on transcription to get written copies of audio recordings. This includes focus groups, meetings, training videos and webinars, podcasts, sermons, interviews, employee evaluations and more.

Academic Transcription - Schools, professionals and educational administrations rely on internet transcription for the rapid return of content based on a variety of audio recordings including lectures, seminars, speeches, oral examinations for dissertations and theses, documentaries and more.

Medical Transcription - Even with the growth of electronic medical records that utilize voice recognition, there are still barriers in adequately capturing the words electronically. Internet transcription is still one of the fastest and most accurate ways for physicians to obtain written documentation on dictation, patient notes, meetings, healthcare conferences, etc.

Like services that provide physical documents, internet transcription with a reputable agency also comes with complete certification of the electronic media. These certifications and verifications ensure that transcripts are from an original source and have not been forged or tampered with once the documents have been finalized.