Understanding Audio Difficulty and Surcharge is essential to ensuring transparent pricing and managing costs effectively. Learn more about how we measure audio difficulty, the factors that influence difficulty scores, and when additional surcharges are applied.
By understanding the factors that affect a file’s difficulty, such as audio quality, speaker overlap, and background noise, you can better anticipate costs and optimize your recordings for lower difficulty scores. The surcharge applies only to files with higher difficulty ratings, ensuring that pricing reflects the actual effort required for accurate transcription and captioning.
What is a Difficulty Surcharge?
After a file is uploaded, it is assigned a difficulty score based on various factors. Only files scored as "difficult" incur a surcharge. The difficulty surcharge is $60/hr ($1/min), prorated to the exact duration of each file. Files scored as standard, moderate, or challenging are not subject to an additional fee.
Factors Affecting Difficulty:
- Standard Audio: High-quality microphone, scripted speech, and minimal background noise contribute to lower difficulty.
- Moderate Audio: Background noise, moderate speaker overlap, and unscripted speech increase the difficulty.
Example video with moderate audio [00:08:25].
- Challenging Audio: Poor recording quality, distant microphones, and rapid or technical speech raise the difficulty level.
Example video with challenging audio [00:07:30].
- Difficult Audio: Factors like strong accents, loud music, multiple speakers with rapid exchanges, and background noise make a file significantly harder to process.
Example video with difficult audio [00:01:59].
How is Audio Difficulty Measured?
We use cutting-edge automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to generate a draft transcript. Professional editors review and correct the draft, and the difficulty of editing required is used to assign a difficulty score. The ASR model detects when it has difficulty transcribing the audio, and this score is based on how much editing is required. This helps determine the cost of the file accurately based on its difficulty.
How Our Statistical Approach Lowers Price
Unlike other companies, we don’t impose arbitrary surcharges. We charge extra only when the difficulty exceeds a defined threshold. If there are factors such as overlapping speakers or background noise and they meet the criteria for difficult audio, we apply a single, transparent surcharge. Our system shows you the difficulty score for each file, allowing you to track and work to reduce your costs.
How to View the Difficulty Score for a File
1. Select the File
- Navigate to the My Files page.
- Locate the file you wish to review.
- Click on the file’s name to open the file-level actions menu.
2. Click the Edit Details Tab
The difficulty score will be displayed under the Audio Quality section.
Tips and Best Practices
- By understanding the factors that affect difficulty, you can make informed decisions to improve your file quality and manage your costs effectively.
- Delve deeper into the factors that affect audio difficulty.