TIPS PAGE 1 • TIPS PAGE 2 This page describes various information Type-thing Services has compiled about dictation, transcription, and related Internet, Web, and technology topics. We want you to know what we know about creating better recordings and other information that will help you produce the transcripts you need for your efforts. • Is off-shore transcription worth it? • About digital audio files • Which digital audio files should I use? • About audio files from video • About "tapeless," digital," and "phone-in" dictation • About audio tape sizes and formats • About quantity of dictation per tape These are tips primarily for those dictating or recording audio. We also have Tips for Correct Transcription. Information on this page is the opinion of Type-thing Services and is not certified in any way to be accurate, free from error, or applicable for your particular use. If you have other questions or suggestions for other material, please let us know.

It's not a secret that, as with many industries, off-shore competition has moved in to challenge providers of transcription services in the United States. Is it worth it to you? While this answer is something you'll have to decide for your situation, make sure you're looking at savings in the bottom line cost of your transcription solution. The following information may be of use in considering this option. First of all, do you even know when your transcription is being sent off-shore? Many of these companies have purchased domestic companies, ".com" web sites, or established offices in the U.S., but still send the work abroad. You may interact with a U.S. citizen and call a U.S. phone number, yet your dictation is sent outside of the United States. Make sure to ask where your work will be done, and in general by whom. Total cost for your transcription is likely related to these four items. Some items may be more important to you than others depending on your business needs. 1. Raw cost to transcribe ($/line, $/page, etc.) 2. Risk - Privacy of information sent outside the United States 3. Spoken versus edited text 4. Quality of the transcript or product (ability to use the product) 5. Customer service, responsiveness and flexibility to your needs 6. Specific off-shore issues (turn-around, privacy, security, export-control regulations) Here is a bit more information on each of these items. Note that with the exception of the fourth item, the act of sending work abroad IS NOT the inherent problem--it is the quality of service you receive. You may be able to find a quality off- shore provider that lowers your total cost; however, our experience has shown that this is not often the case. 1. Raw cost to transcribe Because raw cost to transcribe is the initial attractive feature of off-shore services, your initial raw cost should be less. You should understand that raw cost is not your total cost. Consider the total cost in your decision. Total cost may be affected by the following three items. 2. Risk - Privacy of information sent outside the United States The basic fact that your work is sent off-shore may be an issue you've not considered. One positive issue is that if you require quick turn-around, those working on the opposite side of the globe can transcribe while you sleep, so your work may be ready the next morning, in less than 24 hours. There are a number of potential negative issues o When you send your audio and resulting transcripts outside of the United States (with or without your knowledge), you are sending it to locations not covered by United States law. If your information is private or covered by a number of laws to which you are held accountable, can you be sure you've performed due diligence in protecting that information? If that information is disclosed, can you obtain damages from a company in a remote country, one you may not even be able to identify? o Is the process to send the work abroad such that it meets your security and privacy needs? Company proprietary information or health information (HIPAA) could be compromised. It is not just the transmission of your audio that should be secure, but there should also be assurance that the companies and individuals abroad can maintain privacy and security. Their networks, computers, and facilities should be as secure as domestic providers. A number of instances in the press have shown that security abroad is an issue. Even if they have excellent computer and information security, the people working there are under foreign government influence and different rules. If something does go wrong, how are you going to take action against an off- shore company? o A critical problem to consider is export-control regulation. This appears to apply mostly to technical data, not necessarily personal medical information. Export Administration Regulations ("EAR") and International Traffic In Arms Regulations ("ITAR") control the export of commodities, software, technical data and other information to foreign countries. If you send information abroad in audio files which is covered by these regulations without the proper export licenses, you can be fined and go to jail. If non-U.S.-citizens within the U.S. access this information, it is also considered an export. Check with your company or institution to see if your transcription contains export-controlled information. 3. Spoken versus edited text In many off-shore transcription services, you are charged for every word that you speak because your transcript is a literal copy, often inaccurately, of what you say. With Type-thing Services, you are not billed for your redundant words and comments to our transcribers. We usually reduce the size of the transcription product you receive because we edit it as we transcribe! In addition, you or your staff must now spend time editing the transcript from spoken to written English. So, you pay less because there are less words and lines and you have a higher quality edited product. This is double the value! 4. Quality of the transcript or product The most common complaint we've heard from clients that have tried off-shore services is that the innate language barriers cause inaccurate transcripts, grammar is poor, and there are spelling problems. If the pool of transcriptionists is large and transitory, your quality may be variable. This is worsened by U.S. clients that tend to talk fast, mumble, or of have a strong local U.S. accent. If you don't mind a poor-quality product, this may not influence your decision. Just remember that a poor quality product may influence your total costs now because you have to fix the product yourself, or it may influence your future costs should you call upon the transcription in the future and find it useless. If the transcript is a form of insurance or mandated record, you may be found negligent for accepting a poor quality transcript. If a faulty transcript is used in the future, it may cause erroneous actions that will increase your costs. Note that you can get poor quality from domestic sources too, so this is not just an off-shore issue. Off-shore sources may be able to produce high-quality product if they have the right staff; however, they are having an increasingly difficult time finding qualified staff. 5. Customer service, responsiveness, flexibility If the off-shore services and their domestic front offices cannot provide you with the customized and responsive services that make your work efficient, then that adds to your total costs. If this doesn't matter to you because you need little customer service, then off-shore services may be more attractive. Common complaints we've heard from clients include problems redressing quality issues, following up with updates, and corrections. Because many off- shore services save money by having large-scale operations, they may also have some trouble at customizing their process to fit your business needs. In addition to the above four items, you might also consider the following: How does Type-thing Services know? We receive clients who have not been satisfied by their experience with off-shore transcription services for many of the reasons noted above. We have been contacted by numerous off-shore companies that have wanted Type-thing Services to front their services to U.S. customers. We have seen transcripts produced by off-shore transcription companies when clients were not happy with the results. We have called to understand the utility of using such services ourselves. Does Type-thing Services use off-shore transcription services? No. All our work is performed in the U.S.A by U.S. Citizens. Most all of our work is performed nearby our location so that we know and can interact personally with our transcriptionist. Quality is an essential element of the product Type-thing Services provides. Is off-shore labor plentiful? Not necessarily. Plentiful qualified labor is the entire premise for off-shore transcription companies ability to maintain low rates and quality. Recent news articles show that as the global economy evolves, off-shore markets are experiencing difficultly in obtaining enough qualified labor for many technical tasks and service tasks that require training. Their qualified staff must be paid more or they move to higher-paying jobs. To maintain lower rates, they must use less-qualified labor. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the ocean.

Video may refer to video tape or electronic video files. Digital audio can usually be extracted from digital video files and transcribed as noted above. Video tape transcription requires making an intermediate audio tape that can be more easily transcribed. Type-thing Services has the ability to transcribe the following formats. Other formats and standards (such as PAL) can be converted with a slightly longer lead time.

With establishment of multimedia computers (audio, video, etc.) as the norm, more material is being generated in the form of digital computer files. Digital hand held dictation devices are now available that record to a memory card and can generate audio files you can place on disk or send over the Internet. Type- thing Services has the ability to convert and transcribe such files that come in a variety of formats. We can also generate these files for use on your web site from your audio or video tape. We'll work with you to understand what you need for your application. Part of our service is understanding these formats and knowing which work well on the web and Internet. We use multiple methods to make the smallest possible audio file for your purpose so that the file can be downloaded or transmitted most efficiently. See our Web and Internet Services page for more detail. These are some of the existing common open formats for digital audio files:

AMR (speech) Windows WMV Windows PCM (WAV) Microsoft ADPCM (WAV) MPEG3 FhG (MP3)* MP4, M4A CCITT mu-Law and A-Law (WAV)

IMA/DVI ADPCM (WAV) MPEG audio (layers I and II) Microsoft ADPCM (WAV) CD and DVD Audio Disks Video formats (AVI, MOV, WMV etc.)

* Note that when creating MP3 files for transcription, you should use the Constant Bit Rate (CBR) method of storing sound in the file. Use of the Variable Bit Rate (VBR) will cause fits for transcriptionists because time is compressed in unpredictable ways that will cause their foot pedal backspace feature to jump randomly in the file while transcribing. If you don't know what this means, don't worry, Type-thing Services can convert CBR to VBR files for you. These are some file formats that are proprietary, particularly used for hand held digital recorders:

Sony Memory Stick Voice (MSV) Sony Digital Voice File (DVF)

Sony IC Recorder Sound (ICS) Olympus (DSS, DS2)

These are multi-track proprietary file formats. They are typically for courtroom or law-enforcement use, but have other applications for multi-channel recording as well.

FTR Gold by For The Record (ftrgold.com) (FTR)

Liberty Court Recorder/Player by High Criteria, Inc. (highcriteria.com) (DCR)

These are single track or stereo files, but usually more obscure file formats. What you consider "obscure" probably has to do with what applications you work with, so some may think these are common.

8-bit signed raw format (SAM) ACM waveform (WAV) CCITT mu-Law and A-Law (WAV) Dialogic ADPCM (VOX) IMA/DVI ADPCM (WAV) Real Audio (RA, RAM, RMM, RM, etc.)

MPEG audio (layers I and II) Next/Sun CCITT mu-Law, A-Law and PCM (AU) Apple Quicktime Raw PCM Data SampleVision format (SMP) Sound Blaster voice file (VOC) TrueSpeech (WAV) DiamondWare Digitized (DWD) Apple AIFF (PCM encoded data only) (AIF)

We are also able to transcribe audio from any source on the Internet or World Wide Web given that we can access it with a standard browser or program. See our Web and Internet Services page for more information. Each audio file can have various options that may be important to dictation and transcription. Typical options are as follows: • Tracks: Mono, Stereo, Multi-track o The more tracks you have, the more file size is required. Stereo or multi-track is not typically useful for transcription unless each track represents a separate microphone in a different location. In that case, all the tracks can be combined for transcription or transcribed separately. Courtroom recordings often have four separate tracks (judge, witness box, defense/defendant, prosecutor/plaintiff). • Sample rate o Sample rates tell you how many times each second the audio is recorded. Faster rates have better quality but take more file size. Slower rates have less quality but produce smaller files. o Typical sample rates are resumed in samples per second and are typically 6000, 8000, 11025, 22050, 32000, 44100, 48000, 64000, 88200, 9600, and 176400. CD-quality audio is 44100 samples per second. o The frequency of audio you can reproduce in a digital file is at most half the sample rate. So, at 44100 samples per second, a CD audio can reproduce at most 22 kilohertz frequencies. o We recommend that for voice transcription you have a sample rate at least 22050 samples per second. We can transcribe lower sample rates, but the audio quality decreases with lower sample rates. • Compression o Some formats of audio permit various degrees of compression, which makes the file smaller at the expense of audio quality. Most of the time audio quality is not impaired, but at extreme compression it may be affected. These file formats are known as "lossy" in that they can loose audio quality. An example format like this is MP3. o Compression is a trade off of file size to audio quality. For dictation, select one that does not significantly impair audio quality. MP3 files can compress more with the Variable Bit Rate (VBR) format, but don't use that because transcriptionists cannot use that directly. Instead, use the Constant Bit Rate (CBR) format. • Sample size (bits) o Each sample taken typically has a fixed size, measured in bits. The larger this size, the more accurately the audio can be reproduced and the larger the resulting file. The smaller this size, the less accurate the audio, but smaller the resulting file size. o Typical sample sizes are 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit. The most popular and size we suggest for transcription is 16-bit. New formats are coming out all the time!

Which files are the best to use? It depends on your situation and use of the digital audio file. If your equipment uses a particular audio file format, you have limited options. Which type work on the Web and Internet? The web and Internet use of audio is evolving. For transcription, current influence is created by MP3 players, Apple's I-Pod, and digital dictation machines. MP3 and WMA file types seem to be popular at this time. Original sound files included the Next/Sun (AU extension) files and the also, due to Windows' popularity, the WAV files. Later formats like Quicktime and Real Audio showed promise in reducing the file sizes and added ability to stream the audio. Streaming means the audio is played over your computer's speakers pretty much it arrives. Before that, the entire audio file had to be downloaded before it was played, which was inconvenient for large files or those that were transmitted in real time. Now MPEG3 files are popular for music files and are very good at compressing audio as are WAV type TrueSpeech files. The answer to the question really depends on what you are trying to do and what resources you have to provide the audio files to the user. Some issues include: • How are you going to provide audio files to the users? • Will the users be able to work with the audio files you provide? • What bandwidth Internet connection do the users have? • Are the files going to be downloaded or streamed? How do you make the smallest audio files? This is a fairly technical issue that trades off sound quality with file size. • Newer audio file technologies typically make smaller files. • Some file formats (or options within a format) can reduce size. This is compression. • As the number of samples per second is decreased, so is the file size (usually). • As the number of bits of resolution (dynamic range) per sample decrease, so does the file size (usually). The process of decreasing the file size can be fairly complicated, and if not done properly can result in distorted or noisy audio files. What things should be done to generate good audio files? The most important thing is to start with good quality audio -- either digitally recorded or recorded on magnetic audio or video tape. Just like the guidance provided above about transcription, good quality recordings are essential at reducing cost and increasing the quality of your audio file. Fortunately digital audio files can be edited and enhanced more easily to produce a better recording from What can be done with Audio files to edit the recording? Digital audio files can be easily edited to produce a good quality finished product. For this discussion, editing is the simple rearrangement of audio segments that is analogous to cutting and splicing audio tape. Some examples are: • Audio can be easily deleted. • Audio can be easily moved, copied, or spliced. • Silence can be added or removed. • Audio from other sources can be spliced into the recording. • Multiple tracks can be converted into one track. At Type-thing Services we clean up the beginning and end of audio for customers in our standard fee for generating audio files. Additional editing is charged on an hourly basis. What can be done with Audio files to enhance the recording? Digital audio files can be enhanced either to improve poor-quality sound or by adding various special effects. • Uneven speaker volumes can be adjusted so low volume speakers can be heard. • One speaker can be increased or decreased in volume to generate a sense of distance or depth. • Many constant background noises (hum, buzz, noise, etc.) can be reduced or eliminated without distorting the speech. This often depends on type and pitch of the noise. • A large number of recording studio special effects can be added to all or parts of the recording. Such services are typically charged at an hourly rate. Contact Type-thing Services if you have questions!

VIDEO TAPE (NTSC) VHS SVHS (Super VHS) Digital Video Cassette 8mm (normal) Hi8 (8mm) Digital 8 Beta 1/4-inch

DIGITAL VIDEO WMV MPG, MPEG, MP4 Quicktime files (MOV) AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) files (Microsoft) DVD (Digital Video Disk) RealVideo Other Digital Files: Just about any Internet source

How much content can fit on a tape? With use of digital files, a good question is also how much dictation fits in a minute or hour of dictation. See the "About Cost to Transcribe" section above for more detail. For tapes, it depends on how fast the person or group talks, and how much quiet time is on the tape, the tape capacity (length). We have seen 3000-12000 words per tape, 5-50 pages per tape (various length tapes). Another way to think about this is to consider that a rough average of one page per minute for single-speaker dictation. A 60-minute tape might have 60 standard pages. Multiple speakers or fast speakers will increase this page count. Again, see the "About Cost to Transcribe" section above for more detail.

These approaches to dictation and transcription have become the norm in the industry. "Tapeless" and "Digital Tapeless" are becoming archaic terms for Digital refer to dictation without audio tape. This could be a hand-held recorder that stores your dictation in memory modules, or it could be a phone-in dictation system. These types of devices have essentially replaced hand held tape recorders. First-generation digital dictation units (popular types by Sony, Olympus, etc.) typically produce audio in proprietary formats that are difficult to convert without their own proprietary software. Newer devices coming out after 2009 started to create files in standard file formats such as MP3, MP4, and WMA. Type-thing Services prefers you consider phone-in dictation because of the numerous advantages it offers. See the "Phone- in Dictation" page on this Web site. We have the capability to download audio files for transcription and have also transcribed from voicemail and other digital transcription services and devices.

With the advent of digital dictation devices, audio tape is now rarely used for dictation and transcription, yet they continue to be used in various forums and applications. There are three primary sizes of tapes all of which Type- thing Services can transcribe. In approximate order of past popularity they appear to be: 1. Micro cassette, 2. Regular cassette, and 3. Executive cassette. These can be directly transcribed because transcription machines are available in these sizes. Other size tapes, including videotape (VHS, BETA, etc.), can also be transcribed by Type-thing Services . We first make copies to one of the three above types. Note that micro and executive are very close in size but do not fit in each other's machines. When using regular cassette tapes for transcription, avoid any longer than T-60 (30 minutes on a side). Longer tapes tend to jam more easily in the transcription machines which often start and stop the tape. Micro and Executive tapes are designed for transcription and therefore rarely jam. Shown above are the regular cassette (top), executive (left), and micro (right) with approximate sizes for each tape. Micro and Executive cannot be used in the other's machines. Executive tape dictation systems are more expensive but provide superior clarity of dictation. Formats Most popular recorders use a single track of mono or stereo audio. Some of them have two speeds that you can record your audio. Recording on the fastest speed produces higher quality dictation, but provides less recording time on the tape. Multiple-track recorders are typically used in settings that require very accurate transcriptions and have multiple persons that might speak simultaneously. For instance, courtroom transcripts are often taken by a four-track recorder with each person wearing a separate microphone and recording on a different track of the tape: judge, two lawyers, witness. Multiple-track recorders are rare outside of the courtroom setting. However, they provide superior transcripts because the transcriber allows one to listen to each track individually or all tracks at once. Again, digital dictation systems have primarily replaced tape-based recording.