If you are producing any sort of media, closed caption transcribing services allow you to convert the spoken portion of your program into text. Today, closed captioning is increasingly popular among not only the hearing impaired, but also among those who view programming in noisy areas, like airports and restaurants. Non-native English speakers also rely on closed captioning to better follow conversation and hone language skills. Hiring closed caption transcription services allows, therefore, can help you reach a broader audience.

The Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 gives the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) power over closed captioning. The Act requires most televisions on the market to have closed captioning capabilities. Hiring media transcribers to provide closed captioning for your program is the best way to ensure your media program is transcribed accurately and correctly. When hiring media transcription professionals, consider:

1. Hiring video media transcribers to add closed captioning to your video messages.

2. Selecting multimedia closed caption transcribers for events, online projects and audio messages.

3. Finding media transcriber online services and software for cost-effective solutions.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Select video media transcription services to add closed captioning to your video messages

Video media transcription services are the most common type of service requested, since companies want to ensure their closed captioning complies with laws and regulations. Closed caption transcribers provide text that can be developed into closed captioning and some companies even offer closed captioning formatting services in tandem with transcription. A media transcription company can generally help you create text in English or in other languages that can appear as roll-up captions (two, three or four lines) or pop-ons.

I recommend: Caption House transcribes every type of video media for television, films, documentaries, music videos, commercials, educational videos and corporate training programs. CPC is an award-winning video and media transcription company that offers transcription services for digital video files, BetaSP, DigiBeta, DV, DVCPro and other formats.

Seek multimedia closed caption transcribing services to add captions to your multimedia events

Many media transcription companies realize that closed captioning is no longer only for videos and offer caption transcription of audio files, Internet media files, live presentations and broadcasts, webcasts, events and much more. With this sort of multimedia closed caption transcription, you can make all your messages, events and products more accessible.

I recommend: Caption Reporters, Inc. provides television broadcast captioning, radio broadcast captioning, webcast captioning, event Captioning and instant transcripts. Flatworld Solutions provides closed caption transcription services for a large selection of audio, video, event, Internet and multimedia formats.

Choose media transcriber software or online services for frequent projects

While most media transcriber services take days or weeks to complete a transcription job, online closed caption transcribing services and transcription software can do the job more quickly and economically. In many cases, online services and software can complete your media transcription job in just a few hours, and you can see substantial savings if you require a lot of transcribing. Most of these services and programs require that you have files already in computer-ready formats.

I recommend: Start-Stop PowerPlay allows you to easily transcribe videos, MP3, WMA, music and voice from your company computer. SyncNow is an automated web-based service that lets you transcribe and create closed captions for a variety of media.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Look for a closed caption transcribing service that offers transcription in more than just English. As of January 1, 2010, the FCC requires every TV programming distributor in the US to provide closed captioning for Spanish language video programming. Closed captioning in multiple languages also allow you to reach a broader audience.