Transcriptions is a feature available on paid plans that automatically transcribes recordings done on Zencastr in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
In this article:
What Are Transcriptions And Why Use Them?
For recordings in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish (determined by a room’s language), a transcription of the entire conversation is automatically generated after you finish recording and all participants’ files upload to the recording page.
The resulting transcript is available in CSV and TXT file formats and you can also copy it to your computer’s clipboard. It is organized by hour, minute, second, millisecond timestamps (hh:mm:ss.ms) with the names of each individual speaker noted.
Automated transcriptions offer significant time and effort savings compared to manual transcription. Additionally, for podcasting, transcripts can:
Be used as an SEO tool that helps with audience growth
Enhance the accessibility of your podcast
Assist you in your overall editing process
Running Transcriptions For New Episodes
Transcriptions are automatically generated after a recording, provided the language selected when creating the room is English, French, German, Portuguese, or Spanish.
When the host stops a recording a transcription track displays on the Recording Page with a ‘Processing’ status. Each participant should keep the page open until their files finish uploading. After all files upload, the host and guests can close the page. The transcript will continue to process in the background. When it completes, CSV, TXT and COPY buttons will appear on the track.
Running Transcriptions For Past Episodes
To run a transcription for a recording done before October 7, 2021 (for English) or before January 17, 2024 (for French, German, Portuguese and Spanish):
From your Dashboard, Rooms tab, click the Room name.
On the Recording Page, locate the transcription track, and click the Transcribe Recording button.
Result: The Transcribe Recording button will change to ‘Processing’. When the transcript is ready, solid grey CSV, TXT, and COPY buttons will appear on the track.
Downloading Transcription Files
To download transcripts:
Log into your Zencastr account.
From your Dashboard, Rooms tab, click the Room name.
Locate the Transcription track on the Recording Page.
Click the CSV button or TXT button and the transcription file downloads to your computer.
Related Questions
Do I need to stay on the Recording Page for my transcript to finish processing?
For the transcript to finish processing, the host and each guest need to keep the Recording Page open until their files finish uploading. Once a participant's files have uploaded, they can close their page. After all participants' files are uploaded, the host can also close the page, and the transcript will continue processing in the background.
My transcription isn't completing. What can I do?
What languages are supported for transcripts?
At this time, transcripts are automatically generated for recordings done on Zencastr in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. We hope to offer support for additional languages in the future.
What is the transcription word error rate/accuracy?
Zencastr Transcriptions are produced by our own language modeling AI and proprietary machine learning tools. The Word Error Rate (WER) of our technology is currently comparable to that of transcription industry leaders such as Google, Descript, and Otter.ai. And we only expect the WER to improve in the future!
Why does my CSV file open in Excel? Can I open it elsewhere?
On many computers, the CSV file type is set to open in Excel by default. However, CSV is a flexible file format that you can also open in text-editing programs such as Word, Notepad, or TextEditor. See these instructions for opening your CSV file in another program or correcting the format in Excel. Alternatively, you can download the TXT file.