We are honoured to count an NGO as one of the clients to whom we often offer our translation as well as transcription services.
Each project we manage for this client concerns a convention, a summit or a gathering for which our services are demanded several times a year.
Let us take a closer look at transcription projects for conferences with multinational participants. These two to three-day conventions are recorded throughout. There are interpreters present commissioned by the client. First, the client edits the files, making it easier for us to work on the bilingual audio (French-English) only.
These hours-long audio tapes in both French and English are transcribed entirely, based on a precise charter by identifying each new speech, in French or English, crosschecking the starting and the ending of the timecodes.
These transcripts are very important because they serve as a starting point for the drafting of summaries of each convention carried out by the client personally.
This type of services requires loads of work. The cost can also easily escalate. As so, we had to find a solution to provide a high-quality service, while considering the client’s budget.
Ideally, we would reach out to professional interpreters to ensure the transcription, as they have excellent oral skills in both languages and are able to switch easily between both, but this would be over budget. Another solution would be to make a native speaker for each language, but this would also exceed the overall budget. Resorting to machine transcription is not the best solution either, as it is not yet advanced enough to handle neither the bilingual aspect of these projects, nor the sound quality…
We had to look for better profiles and finally found the right partner. We entrusted these projects to a French professional translator living in London (Great Britain). She has excellent oral skills in both languages and is able to identify the different nuances in the speakers accents, without wasting time replaying the audio tapes.
With this solution, a cost-effective, quality service was ensured.