Dictation On The Go With Philips SpeechLive

The last few blog posts on SheGeeks were created with the help of Philips’ voice recorder app and SpeechLive cloud service. When Philips approached me about using these tools, I was interested in whether they could speed up my writing process and help me cover one of the biggest phone launches of the year, the Note 8. My experience of using the voice recorder for dictations and the transcription results from SpeechLive were pleasantly surprising.

App Design

Philips Voice Recorder App

During the Note 8 press conference, I used the Philips voice recorder app for Android to capture quotes as Samsung reps revealed the Note 8. The app’s design is dead simple and intuitive to use.

It’s broken up into three tabs: Dictate, Recordings, and Settings. The Dictate tab puts every recording and editing feature at your fingertips. The Recordings tab shows a list of your dictations and their status. The Settings tab lets you set when dictations are purged, change sending preferences, and customize workflow labels.

The app’s design feels conventional and barebones, but packs a lot of power under its simple appearance. Everything is only a tap or two away, including customizable action shortcuts at the bottom of the Dictate tab.

Capturing quotes on from my phone using the app was also easy. I started a new recording from the app, then moved on to take pictures and live tweet the event. Occasionally, I would jump back into the app to pause or resume recording.

Dictate Your Heart Out

Voice Recorder Features
Voice Recorder Editing Features

After the press conference, I went to the library to dictate a rough draft of my article. I was surprised by how many editing features the app provided. From the Dictate tab, I could overwrite, cut and append to the same recording until I was satisfied. I only wish I could’ve worked with a more detailed view of the recording for greater editing precision.

Still, I had a rough draft ready to be transcribed within 30 minutes (10 minutes recording, 20 minutes editing).

SpeechLive Cloud Results

Transcription Options
Transcription Options

There are three ways to transcribe dictations through SpeechLive: a professional transcription service, speech recognition, and using your own transcriptionist or typing it up yourself.

I used SpeechLive’s professional transcription service to transcribe the dictation of the quotes from Samsung reps and the software-based speech recognition service to transcribe my dictation covering the launch. I conveniently received each transcription via email and within the app, attached to their respective dictation.

SpeechLive’s professional transcription service was 100% accurate. To my surprise, the transcriptionist managed to catch each speaker’s name in the dictation and labelled their sections accordingly. I only wish I would’ve marked this dictation’s priority as high to take advantage of SpeechLive’s 5-hour turnaround time instead of the standard 24 hours.

SpeechLive’s speech recognition service returned a transcription for my 5-minute dictation within 30 minutes. Minor mistakes were made throughout the transcription, but it still provided a solid starting point to edit and tweak the rest of my coverage.

Conclusion

Philips Voice Recorder App

Overall, the voice recorder app in combination with SpeechLive cloud services is a great dictation tool. It has all the essentials for dictation and no bloat. My productivity during the press conference was greatly increased and I went from rough draft to full article with two days. The immediate access to dictations and transcriptions within the app and on the SpeechLive website ensured I always had the information I needed no matter where I was.

What more can a writer ask for?

Thank you to Philips for the opportunity to use their services to create content for SheGeeks.net

Corvida Raven

A natural pioneer at grasping the rapidly changing landscape of technology, Corvida Raven talks tech in plain English on SheGeeks.net.