Finding a provider who can give you a good closed captioning service will require you to do some careful reviewing and planning. You need to make sure that you think about everything, from accuracy rates to cost and even turnaround time. You also need to ask yourself the following questions if you can, so you can get the best result out of your service overall.
Turnaround times can vary depending on which captioning service you decide to go through. Sometimes you might be left waiting for a week, other times you might be left waiting a few hours. If you need your captions sooner, then a lot of services will charge you a rush fee for this. This can range from $3 to $6 per minute of audio you have. If you want to get the best result out of your service, then you need to make sure that you don’t go with someone who does this. Instead, choose a flat-fee service as they can often give you the service you need.
If you have ever used the YouTube closed captioning service, then you will know that sometimes the accuracy can be somewhat hit and miss. If you want to ensure the captions you are getting are accurate then you need to make sure that you go through a service who offers a guarantee. The captioning software from Verbit is very good and you are always guaranteed a high level of accuracy so keep that in mind if you can.
Advertised prices are very different to the price you end up paying. A company may give you a caption rate at around $0.80 per minute and this sounds great, but when you add on all of the extra fees, you will soon find that you end up paying way more than this. Some companies will also charge you more if you want to have a set level of accuracy.
It’s vital to know that your files are protected at all times. You may have sensitive data which you want to have transcribed and this is understandable, but if your service does not offer you any kind of protection then this will undermine your security. You need to find a caption provider who can give you a maximum level of protection and you also need to find someone who can help you with the general security of your videos too.
Sometimes the files that you receive will be uploaded to a server. Other times, they will be delivered to your email address. Either way, you need to make sure that you are happy with the delivery method as this could determine how you receive the files and whether or not it is a secure way of doing it. If you want some help, then contact your company to see if they can fill you in on the details.
