Transcription Service Details
Overview

  • We transcribe English audio and video files for interviews, documentaries, TV series, commercials, dictations, meetings, podcasts, and conferences
  • Our rates are based on turn-around time, with optional time stamping for a small fee. Additional charges are applied for files with multiple speakers, speakers with heavy accents and/or poor audio quality files, as they take longer to transcribe and more resources to process.
  • We guarantee 99% accuracy on clear audio files.
  • Your files are secure with us. We follow best practices to ensure your information and files are kept in strict confidentiality.

Lamalle Media focuses on accuracy, quality and speed. We understand our clients need for efficiency, so we set up a simple 3-step order process. To place an order for transcription, just upload your files, pay for the order and you can expect to receive your transcripts in MS Word format by email within the turn-around time requested. If there are expected delays, we communicate them well in advance and work with you to ensure that your schedule is not delayed.

We guarantee 99% accuracy on files with clear audio and speakers with neutral American accents. If you receive a transcript that you feel does not meet this level of accuracy, send it back to us and we will have it reviewed again.

We have expertise in interview transcription, documentary transcription, reality series transcription, video transcription, business transcription, academic transcription, lecture transcription, focus group transcription, podcast transcription, religious transcription and general transcription.

Our pricing is calculated per audio minute. Our base turn-around rates apply for files that contain clear, high production quality audio of 1-3 speakers with neutral American English accents. Additional fees are applied for files that have more than 3 speakers, speakers with non-neutral American English accents, and/or poor audio quality. These files require more time and resources from our senior transcribers and reviewers.

Placing an order

New users will need to create an account to place an order on our website. Once you have an account, you will be able to upload your audio or video files, pay for your orders and receive completed transcripts via email. Accounts can have multiple users where individual entitlements and email distribution settings can be set.

Payments

Payments should be completed when placing an order. We accept payments by credit card or PayPal. We also support billing/invoicing for clients that are unable to pay by credit card. A contract must be executed to set up a billing account. You can request to set up a billing account from your Billing Settings page.

Transcript Delivery Policy

When placing an order, there are 3 options for turnaround time: 3-5 business days, 2 business days, or 1 business day. The current business day will be counted for orders placed before 12pm Eastern Time. Rush turn-around is subject to availability, depending on the number of hours to be transcribed and capacity of our team. For rush orders of more than 4 hours, please contact us in advance with your scheduling needs and approximate number of audio hours to ensure that we can meet your deadline. For bulk orders, a daily delivery limit of 4 hours per day or 20 hours per week may be applied.

To avoid any delays when placing an order, please indicate if files have more than 3 speakers, speakers with thick accents or poor audio quality. We check each file for difficulty before it is assigned to a transcriber. If these conditions are not selected at the time of the order and any of them apply to files in your order, the files with additional charges will be placed on hold and we will notify you by email. You will then need to approve the additional charges or cancel the request for each file. We will send a refund for any cancelled files within 3 business days. Once additional charges are approved, we will proceed with the request and one business day is added to the turn-around time. If you generally don’t have time to go through the files before sending them and you want to avoid any possible delays in delivery due to files being put on hold until additional charges are approved, in your account settings, you can select an option to automatically approve additional charges should they occur. We recommend selecting this option for rush orders to avoid delays on urgent requests.

Transcript Quality

Our process ensures that we deliver high quality transcripts. We start with recruiting and retaining top tier transcribers that genuinely care about the quality of their work. Our transcribers do research and learn about the topics and speakers they transcribe so they have context to accurately fill in proper nouns and technical terms. Once the initial transcript is complete, it is sent over to a qualified reviewer who reads through the transcript word for word while listening to the audio. The reviewer makes corrections to improve on accuracy. After the transcript has been completely reviewed, it is sent for quality control where it will be QA’d to ensure it meets our standard of quality. Transcripts that don’t meet our quality standard are sent back for additional review until they pass QA.

We aim to deliver transcripts that are 99% accurate. We are able to consistently meet this level of accuracy on clear audio files with speakers that do not have heavy accents or speak over each other. Accuracy may fall below 99% for files that are more difficult due to poor audio quality, multiple speakers that talk over each other or files that contain speakers with heavy accents or speech impediments. We train our team to take context into account so we can fill in the ‘blanks’ on words that are difficult to discern. When we can’t fill in the blank, we input [indiscernible] to replace the word that is incomprehensible. We reserve the right to turn down files with dialog that is mostly incomprehensible, as well as files that are too difficult to complete with in our standard of quality. We will issue a full refund for any cancelled files.

Refund Policy

If a file or order needs to be cancelled, we offer a full refund provided that we have not started transcribing the file/order yet. If we have already started working on a file/order that needs to be cancelled, we will issue a partial refund and deduct a portion to cover our costs incurred. Refunds are sent back via the payment method which was used to place the order.

We do not offer refunds for transcripts that have been delivered.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality of our clients’ media and transcription files is one of our top priorities. File access is restricted on a need to know basis to our employees and contractors. All our transcribers, employees and contractors are legally bound by confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements. Media files are automatically deleted from our servers 10 days after the order is completed. As an additional measure of security for extra sensitive material, at your request, we can cut files into smaller sections upon receipt in order to limit access to complete audio files within our team.

Shared Accounts

Additional users can be added to your account from your Manage Users page. Each user will have their individual login credentials. Each user will have the ability to place an order from the shared account using one of the saved payment options on the shared account. Each user will have access to the complete history of all orders placed from every user on the shared account. A user’s entitlements to manage billing and users can be adjusted by the parent account user or any other user that is entitled to manage users. Individual users can adjust their email distribution settings if they prefer to not receive transcript or billing related emails.

If there are individuals who do not need access to a shared account but who need to be copied on transcript distribution emails, you can add their email to CC Emails in your Order Preferences section from your Settings page. They will be copied on all order confirmation and transcript distribution emails from orders placed by the user.

Transcription Process

We follow a 4-step transcription process. Our team screens new files for difficulty. We look for accents, number of speakers and audio quality. We then assign files to transcribers based on the difficulty of the file. Difficult files are assigned to more experienced transcribers. Longer files might be split up, depending on the turn-around time requested. Once the initial transcript is complete, it is sent to a reviewer who completes a thorough review and makes corrections to the transcript while listening to the audio. The reviewer will also combine sections of files that have been split up. After a file has been thoroughly reviewed, our quality control team does a final check to ensure the file meets our standard of quality. Files will be sent back for additional review until they pass quality control. The transcript is delivered once it passes quality control.

Standard Transcript Format (sample transcript)

We follow a standard transcription format. All transcripts are delivered in Microsoft Word format. The text of the transcript is broken into paragraphs and each speaker's dialogue is transcribed on a new paragraph.

Timestamps: Timestamps are placed above paragraphs. We input timestamps at the start of each new speaker and roughly every minute thereafter. For interview files when an off-camera production person is asking the questions, we only include time stamps for the interviewee’s dialogue.

Speaker tags: We include speaker names for speakers that are identified. Unidentified speaker’s will normally be labeled as Male or Female. Off-camera production crew are labeled as Interviewer or Crew. All speaker tags are in bold.

Clean verbatim: By default, we transcribe clean verbatim. We omit excessive fillers (uh, um, like, you know, right, so), false starts, utterances, and interjections. We can transcribe strict verbatim at client’s request and at an additional cost.

Omission of production related dialogue: For film shoots, we normally omit or paraphrase production related dialogue. This is dialogue from the production crew related to setting up the shoot and is irrelevant to the interview or scene being shot. In our experience, our film production clients do not need this dialogue to be transcribed. Omitting dialogue that is not needed helps us keep our costs down and ultimately pass that savings on to you. If the production dialogue is needed, please let us know and we will include it.

Indiscernible words: We input [indiscernible] to replace words or phrases that are indiscernible.

Custom Transcript Format

Custom formatting may be provided on request at extra charge depending on the requirements. The charge depends on the complexity of the requirements and the variance from the standard format. Please contact us with your requirements for an exact quote.

Timestamps

Timestamps are an optional addon for a transcription order. They cost $0.25/ min. Timestamps are added above paragraphs and sync to dialogue with +/- 1 second of accuracy. For interview files where a production crew member is asking questions, only the interviewee(s) dialogue is timestamped. Every response to a question is timestamped and additional timestamps are added roughly every minute for long responses. For files where all speakers’ dialogue is time stamped, timestamps are input above paragraphs every 30 to 60 seconds throughout.

We can use running time, embedded/ source timecode/ alternate starting timecode, or burnt-in time code for time stamps.

Running time: Running time refers to the actual running time of the audio or video. The running time for a file always starts at 0:00:00.0.

Embedded / source timecode / alternate starting timecode: Embedded or source timecode refers to timecode that has been embedded within the meta data of an audio file. If the timecode is stored in the meta data of the audio file, our system will automatically extract the embedded timecode and automatically fill in the timecode on the upload page. If the audio file does not have the starting timecode embedded within it, you will need to manually input the starting timecode next to each file on the upload page. If you’re sending a large number of files in one order (>20) and inputting a timecode for each file is too time consuming, you can select running time as the timestamp type and email us a sound report in Excel format with the starting time code for each file. Please ensure the file names in the sound report match the file names of the files uploaded.

Burnt-In Time Code: Burnt-in timecode refers to time code that is visible on-screen in video files. Files with burnt-in timecode where the time skips around too often might be charged an additional fee or we might revert to running time.

Speaker Tracking

Speaker tracking is included by default. Speaker tracking refers to the process of adding speaker tags at the start of each paragraph. We add the speaker’s actual name if is indicated within the audio. We input generic speaker tags, such as Male 1, Male 2, Female 1, Female 2, Interviewer, Crew for speakers that are not identified. After you complete your order, there is an option to provide names of the speakers from the files uploaded.

Speaker tracking might not be feasible with certain audio files if there are numerous speakers or if the speakers sound similar. In these cases, more general speaker tags such as Male or Female might be used.

Additional Charges

Our rates and turnaround times are applicable only for files with clear audio quality and up to three neutral American English speakers. An additional charge of $0.50/minute to $2.00/minute and a delay in turn around may apply for files with any of the following three issues.

  1. Multiple speakers: File with more than three speakers.
  2. Heavy accents: Speakers with non-neutral American English accents (Australian, British, Indian, South African, Irish, Ebonics, or English as a second language)
  3. Poor Audio:
    • Audio breaks
    • Ambient noise (static, background sounds)
    • Distant speakers (faint, distant voices)
    • Diction (slurring, rapid speaking, unnatural pronunciation)
    • Echo (reverberation)
    • Muffled (hidden or obstructed microphone, vintage tapes)
    • Noisy environment (street, bar, restaurant)
    • Quality (low sampling/bit rate, bad conference line)
    • Unclear speakers (muttering, volume variation, frequent overlaps)

When uploading files, please select each of the three issues above that apply for each file. If the selection is not made at the time an order is placed, our team that screens incoming files for difficulty will modify the order. You will be notified by email of any price changes and you can either accept the additional charges or cancel the files with additional charges. You will receive a full refund on the amount already paid for cancelled files within 3 business days. Files are placed on hold until additional charges are approved and once approved, one business day is added to turn around processing time. To avoid delay, please apply the selections to the files when placing an order. Another way to avoid delay, especially with urgent rush orders, is you may select to pre-approve price changes from your settings page.

It is our experience that files with one or more of the above listed issues require 2 to 4 times the amount of time and effort to complete. We assign these files to more experienced transcribers and reviewers, as well as compensate them at higher salary rates for the additional skill, effort and time required for delivering accurate transcripts.