Online video transcripts are all the rage!

Actually, they aren’t, not yet. You may notice you rarely see a transcript with a video, whether you find it on a blog, on YouTube, a social site, or get a link through Twitter or email. I know it usually stops me in my tracks, because I don’t want to make a lot of noise in the office. I’d rather read a transcript to get the idea.

But I just don’t see enough of them. I’ve written about the reasons that businesses should use online transcripts to go with their marketing and training videos. Despite this, a lot of online videos still go without.

So what’s stopping people? For one thing, it’s time-consuming to write the script if the video has already been shot. I find that a prepared script helps me get through a video, but for a more impromptu video, I don’t always have the wherewithal to create one later on. Plus, it can be challenging to add a transcript within the limited description field on YouTube.

Wouldn’t it be nice if only somebody who uses transcripts on a regular basis could talk about why, and provide an overview of how they do it?

Yes, it would. That’s why next week I’ll be hosting a webinar, “Best Practices for Accessible, Searchable Enterprise Video” where I’ll talk with two people who do just that:

How Dynamic Therapy Solutions Uses Video for Speech and Language Assistance

Alisha Magilei co-founded Dynamic Therapy Solutions and is the firm’s Assistive Technology Specialist. As part of this California firm’s speech-language therapy and training programs, DTS uses video to help people of all ages overcome speech-language disorders. Magilei is responsible for creating and managing their videos, and plans to grow the number of videos they use into a complete library.

Interestingly, I know something about DTS’ mission, being the parent of a young child with a speech and language disorder. The help provided by people like Magilei and her co-founder Lisa Sandoval are essential to helping people of all ages learn to communicate using spoken language as well as alternative communication, including assistive technology like the iPad (yes, there’s an app for that) and other specialized devices.

This means that every day, families and patients visit DTS specialists in their office, at school and at home to receive therapy to help them communicate. Magilei will talk about how she uses video to enhance these programs as well as present DTS’ services to new clients.

How Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise uses Video for their Business Communications Strategy

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is a business communications provider that uses video presentations to create product demos, expert briefings and thought leadership pieces. One of their excellent videos features President Tom Burns talking about the organization’s vision, “Change The Conversation”. He talks about how convergent communications tools can help an enterprise client drive the discussion with their own customers.

Ed Youngblood is the Director of Content Strategy for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, which means he is responsible for making these videos happen. In the example above, the transcript is positioned right in the middle of the page, and it’s an ‘active transcript’ that follows along while Burns talks. The reader can click on any one of the words and instantly jump to that section of the video.

Ed’s process for creating the transcripts depends on the nature of the discussion. A scripted talk can obviously be uploaded beforehand, and will work as long as the speaker doesn’t stray too far off-book. A technical overview given by an internal expert is unscripted, and will have to be typed up and synchronized with the video.

3Play Media Makes Transcripts Happen

That’s where a company called 3Play Media comes in. They provide captioning and transcription services for companies like Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise and Dynamic Therapy Solutions. The magic that goes into an active transcript happens because of these folks, and they will talk about the benefits of using transcripts, as well as how they do it.

This is right in their wheelhouse. The daunting task of creating a transcript for an existing video, or making an existing transcript active and synchronized with video, is put into the hands of 3Play Media.

So When Can You Learn More?

Without further gilding the lily and with no more ado, I give you “Best Practices for Accessible, Searchable Enterprise Video”.

You will hear from Alisha Magilei, Ed Youngblood, and a technical expert from 3Play Media on Tuesday, August 21 at 1PM (Eastern). To be fair, I’ll probably do some talking as well, but I’ll mainly be moderating the discussion.

Join us, and hear more about why transcripts are soon to be all the rage.