A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Anyone do video captioning work? - New @ KS

Posted: Aug 18, 2012

How did you get started? What software did you use? It seems like the pay is good but there are a lot of qualifications & it's more geared to court reporters (like, requiring a court reporting certificate, etc.).

I did find this - New @ KS

[ In Reply To ..]
http://www.mncdhh.org/captioningessentials/index.html

It's a free course. Seems like just a general overview, but it might be a good jumping off point to find further things to research. (It would be really awesome if there was a quick online class to get you qualified for the job, as opposed to getting an entire degree in court reporting when I just wanna do this one thing for some extra $$).

OK, here's an online class - New @ KS

[ In Reply To ..]
http://www.realtimefitnessonline.com/subpages/Captioning.asp

It says "must be proficient in CAT (Computer Assisted Transcription) software." Which is incredibly expensive; the cheapest I found was a lease for $699/year: http://www.gsclion.com/Prod/sc32/prod_sc32.htm

Still cheaper than going back to school. I think you can make pretty good money doing captioning. Just pretty sick of medical transcription for various reasons and seeing what my other options are.

CAT - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Just read your post about CAT. With that software, you hook your steno machine up to your computer. As you type on the steno machine in the "shorthand," the CAT software translates it into English on the computer screen to allow for viewing and editing.

video captioning - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Closed captioning on TV is done by using a court reporting steno machine. It's like a shorthand keyboard. I've only heard of people who have been through court reporting school doing this since it is impossible to teach yourself how to type on the steno. It's a unique shorthand, almost like a different language.

I tried court reporting courses, and we couldn't graduate until we could type 250 wpm on the machine. It was tough and took A LOT of practice. Some people flew through it and reached that speed in 6 months. Another student had finished all his courses aside from reaching the required speed. He was still trying to pass the speed test after 2 years.

Captioning is done "real time." You type on the steno machine and it transcribes on the TV screen. No time for editing or going back to correct mistakes. It takes a very high degree of accuracy and speed. You have to keep up and cannot fall behind.

I didn't look at the link you posted, but unless there is a different way to do captioning from years ago, I can't see anyone getting into this unless they've been through a court reporting course. The steno machines are expensive too. Ten years ago when I was in the program, a good one was well over 1000 dollars.

I've heard of some courses that are geared only for captioning, so I guess you can learn to be proficient on the steno machine without having to take the legal classwork related to court reporting which would probably make the cirriculum shorter. I'm not really sure.

Thanks - New @ KS

[ In Reply To ..]
Yeah, further Googling on the subject confirmed what you said, that you need court reporting training and CAT software and a steno machine (I mean, I was looking it up anyway, not doubting you). ;o) Doesn't really make sense unless you're already a court reporter. I saw one ad that said they pay $75 an hour. I bet I *could* do the work, but looks like I'd need to jump through a lot of hoops first.

My sister is a court reporter so I sent her a link about it.

Also - New @ KS

[ In Reply To ..]
The online classes I found/linked to were more kind of "brush up your skills" classes for people already doing this work, not "this course is all you need to land a captioning job." :o( Oh well.

question re video captioning sm - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Does anyone know..are these steno machines for court report based on the Gregg Shorthand method? If so, this could be right up my alley since I have experience as a legal assistant/paralegal plus proficiency in Gregg Shorthand.

An acquaintance who is a former court reporter told me court reporting started going to VR several years ago. Whether or not this is correct, I don't know. It sounds risky to me.

Thanks.

Some courts are going to audio recording, not VR... - but - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
the court reporters are fighting it like crazy. There will always be work for court reporters outside of the courtroom, but that market, too, is flooded just like ours :(

interesting - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
That's really interesting. I haven't kept tabs on the court reporting industry for years but wondered recently if VR would edge them out too.

Court reporting is a very skilled profession, much like MT. I bet they are fighting it like crazy, same boat as us apparently. They used to make great pay, working in the courtroom or working for an agency that sent you on assignments such as depositions. Years ago, it was considered a well-paying, very secure profession...that sounds familiar, huh?

To the poster whose sister is a court reporter, I'd be interested to know what she says about the industry at the present time. Just curious, not being nosy.

my sister said (sm) - New @ KS

[ In Reply To ..]
She replied to my e-mail about the captioning job and said someone she worked with used to do that but came back to regular court reporting because "the captioning people were getting cheap, but then so is everyone else."

I'm really starting to like general transcription and was considering doing that full time (for a couple different companies so I wasn't always worried about running out of work).

reply - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for sharing that.

I haven't taken the plunge into general transcription. Trying to ride out MT until the boat sinks I guess. I'm glad you are liking it. It's great to hear good news about any MT who finds a way to branch out. Wish you the best.

I never thought (sm) - New @ KS

[ In Reply To ..]
Yeah, I really never thought I'd say "full time freelance work, what a great idea!" MT is just not what it used to be and more and more I'm thinking "what's keeping me here?" There are tons of general transcription companies out there.

gregg shorthand - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
It's not based on Gregg Shorthand. If you are proficient in Gregg Shorthand, you might have a leg-up on studying court reporting as you understand the theory behind shorthand, not spelling out letter by letter. The shorthand on a steno machine is not typing letter by letter as on a regular keyboard. It is more learning multiple key combinations for prefixes, suffixes, letter combinations and some phoenetic spelling. In a way, you are "typing" syllables and not paying attention to individual letters. It was tough to switch my mind over to it as the "home keys" are nothing like a regular keyboard. You press many keys at the same time, could be 2 keys, 4 keys or maybe 7 keys all at once. Some of the combos were very awkward to master, like your fingers couldn't possibly flex in so many directions to cover them all. Some students bristled when they discovered they would have to shorten their long fingernails to do it.

Used to wonder if I should have stuck with it and completed it. It is starting to sound risky though seeing what's going on with MT.

My Little Story - Weary MT

[ In Reply To ..]
Funny. When I was changing careers from a secretary to something more interesting, I was bouncing around between court reporting and medical transcription. When I was researching this, there was a sort of Internet, but the best way to research was still the good ol' library with good ol' books. I think the name of the book was the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Anyway, I chose MT over court reporting, because the prediction back then (late 1990's) was that court reporting would get lost to technology before medical transcription would.

If I had a crystal ball, I would have chosen the court reporting.

If I was not academically lazy LOL - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I would definitely go into court reporting. Like MT, there are so many more areas court reporters are used than in the actual court. The courts are heading the direction of audio recording (which opens it up for us transcriptionists, by the way...) There are tens of thousands of attorneys - and those attorneys schedule depos and interviews, which require a court reporter a majority of the time. You can work all over the country. My neighbor does this here in Vegas and also in California where her boyfriend is. Makes a boat-load of money doing so - and works when she wants, where she wants.

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