Time is valuable because life is valuable. In the legal sector also time is precious. Today’s fast paced life has enabled transcription to be done instantly in almost real time. Real time transcription refers to the transcription process done by the court reporters and transcription professionals who use the latest technology called CAT (computer aided transcription) where within a few seconds of a word being uttered in court, it gets recorded as text format on a computer. This technology uses software that allows those involved in the court to instantly take notes or make highlight on these recordings for later reference.
Real time transcription of trials and depositions can be done at a speed of more than 200 words per minute. Some of the advantages of real time transcription include,
Can take and incorporate notes with transcription The attorney need not focus/strain on capturing of any data Easy marking/ annotating/ coding Can be sent over the Internet instantly Instant review of witness response is made possible Can include comments/suggestion Remote participation facilitated
Some of the disadvantages of real time transcription come from the fact that one has to increasingly depend on the skill of the court reporter and the speed with which he is able to convert audio into text without mistakes. Real time transcription is also more expensive in comparison to regular not real time transcription.
Legal transcription work is often done by the professional from any offshore location. Realtime transcription is also used in the broadcasting situation where instantaneous work is important. It is also used for online publications by reporters who have to cover and report on events immediately on the Internet. Another field of application of realtime transcriptionis with the Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART) reporters who have to translate / transcribe the spoken words into text for the hearing impaired.
Speech recognition technology is a fast evloving technology that is not yet perfected and transcripts have to be finally humanly edited so that accuracy is achieved. Even today professional court reporters or scopists who transcribed in realtime by using the stenotype directly from court houses. But in real-time court reporting, the stenotype machine is linked to computers for real-time captioning. As the reporter keys in the symbols, the spoken word instantly appear as text on the screen.But one can expect modern technology to gradually change the way transcription is done.
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