FAQs

Which Formats Do You Work From?

Practically anything! But we prefer QuickTimes with BITC. Failing that, WAVs or MP3s straight from your sound recordist work just as well. We do need to be able to download files to work from them effectively. We can work from original camera files, such as uncompressed MXFs, but do keep in mind that it can add a time and cost due to the extra download times involved, or the need to use couriers.

How Do You Deliver Transcripts?

By email as Word documents, unless you want something else.

How Fast is Your Turnaround?

Generally the answer is, however quickly you need it! Our standard turnaround is usually within 24 hours. We also have a rush turnaround service, meaning same-day or overnight if it’s after 4pm. We’re often called upon to do large amounts of work in miraculously short lengths of time!

Can You Do Night Work?

Yes, subject to availability. Our late night rate kicks in at 9pm. Obviously these jobs are easier to say yes to if we have a bit of notice, but we can usually help out whatever the time of day (or night!)

Do You Work Weekends and Public Holidays?

Yes!

Can You Send Someone to Work from Our Office?

Yes, we’ve done this from time to time. There are usually better and cheaper ways of doing things, so we’re likely to recommend other alternatives first. But we’re happy to help if that’s what you really need. Usually this happens if a job is of such confidentiality that material for transcription cannot leave the building. (Though we were once asked by a news organisation to work on a royal wedding, in situ. That was fun!)

Do You Offer Discounts?

Of course! Generally we start from the position of having low prices rather than a large amount of room to come down, but we can and frequently do discount for larger jobs. We also have annual ‘preferred supplier’ arrangements with a few companies, meaning we do all of their transcripts in a year in return for the most preferential rates.

How Many Transcribers Do You Have?

Our core team is usually about 25, day-to-day, but we have upwards of 80 tried and tested transcribers on our books who we can call on. All of our transcribers are freelance professionals, working from home. Some of them also work in production, so often your transcripts will be done by someone already ‘in the business.’

What About Confidentiality?

We take that very seriously. All of our transcribers sign NDAs before they start working with us. We also happy for productions to send us their own NDAs for additional peace of mind.

Audio-visual material is kept by transcribers only for as long as necessary to create the transcripts.

All of our transcribers are required to use good, commercially-available virus software on their work computers. Our approach is ‘trust and verify.’ We only work with people we trust, but we undertake regular reviews with them to ensure that proper security measures are being maintained.

We also have additional procedures we put in place for times when the material we’re working on is of the most extreme sensitivity.

While it’s important to remain vigilant, we think that the fact we’ve never had a security leak since we were founded in 2005 speaks for the success of our approach.

Can I Work For You?

We’re always on the lookout for fast, accurate, reliable transcribers  – particularly those with a background in television. If you’re interested, start by sending your CV and cover letter to elves@sospeedy.co.uk. Please note that due to the very high volume of emails we receive, we may only be able to reply to those who we’d like to try out.