This page will teach you the process of transcribing content to make it accessible to team members in the future. Lander transcribes internal company meetings, city council sessions, podcasts, and more. The transcription process involves transcribing video and or audio from such content, taking notes/ writing agenda items from the content, offering analysis, and suggesting useful next steps and action items from such videos.

The main platform used to transcribe is Descript

Descript | Create podcasts, videos, and transcripts

Descript allows you to import video and or audio and will automatically transcribe them for you.

Here's how you do it:

1. Receive notification that a meeting or session has finished and transcription is needed for such event

   • This will mostly look like a text from someone involved in the meeting or that has prior knowledge of a relevant event that needs to be transcribed
   • Most likely they will also inform you of where the recording lives so that you can go grab it but if not look to step two to find it

2. Find the recording

   • The recordings will live in one of three places

     1. On Facebook (these are the city council meetings). They should be uploaded soon after they are finished. See step three to download them.

        Colorado Springs City Council

     2. Zoom (most meetings will live here)

        • Once added to Lander Zoom account you will need to log into your account, navigate to Admin on the left sidebar > account management > recording management. Here you will find all the recorded meetings in order from most recent.

        Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

     3. Dropbox (If someone has already downloaded to dropbox)

        • If the recording is here you will most likely be sent a link to where it lives and if so you can skip to step 4
        • If not sent a link, navigate to Files>Lander> Lander Media, and search for the relevant date the meeting occurred.
          • for example: if the meeting occurred June 22, 2020 search for "2020-06-22"

        Login - Dropbox

3. Download the recording and Upload to Dropbox (if not already in Dropbox)

   • If not already in Dropbox, download the files (simply the "shared screen with speaker view" and "audio only" files will be sufficient)

     • Note: If the video is from facebook use this site to download the video

     Facebook Video Downloader

   • Navigate to Dropbox and go to Files > Lander > Lander Media and create a new folder with this format ("Date Description")

     • Example title: "2020-06-22 City Council Session"

   • then simply import the files you have downloaded into that folder

4. Import into Descript and Transcribe

   • In Descript, make a new project with the same title scheme as the files ("2020-06-22 City Council Session")

   • In that project drag and drop the audio only file (these files load a lot faster than the actual videos) and it should begin to transcribe.

   • In the bottom lefthand corner of your screen a green prompt will open up which says "detect multiple speakers?". Check that box and hit transcribe

     

   • Then a prompt in the bottom right will appear to identify speakers. Click the blue and follow the prompts to identify those speaking

     

     • If you can't tell who is speaking, try watching the video you downloaded to see who's voice is who (usually people will identify themselves in the beginning of the call)
     • If Descript cannot tell two people apart simple put both names as the speakers ex: ("Steve or Braden") - Descript likes to think were the same person a lot of the time

   • IF YOU ARE TRANSCRIBING A CITY COUNCIL MEETING, IDENTIFYING SPEAKERS IS NOT AS IMPORTANT: Many different people speak during a city council meeting so still make sure the transcription detects multiple speakers, but don't bother identifying them

5. Export to Word Document

   • Once Descript is done transcribing, right click on the screen >filler words> delete all. (this removes a lot of redundant filler words to shorten the transcription)
   • Then, at the top right Click Share > Export > Text
     • If the transcription is of a city council meeting make sure the "120 second intervals" and "paragraph breaks" boxes are checked
     • If a normal meeting with speaker labels, make sure only the "speaker labels" box is checked
   • It will prompt you to name the export which will follow the same process ("2020-06-22 City Council Meeting" for example) and export the document

6. Enter everything into Notion

   • In Notion, navigate to Team HQ > Notes & Meetings and click the blue "New" drop down and select "Note or Meeting"
   • Here you will title it the same manner but without the date ("City Council Meeting" for example)
   • Fill out all the top fields as best you can and make sure the page has a unique icon on the top by the name
   • go to dropbox where the video is and click the share> create link> copy link
   • Paste that link somewhere where you can edit it and change the last four characters from "dl=0" into "raw=1" (this lets you embed the video)
   • Then paste the link in the replay portion and click "embed video" when prompted
   • next, click into the "Searchable Transcript" and click the three dots in the very top right hand corner
   • Then Import > Word and choose the word document you exported from Descript

7. Fill out Agenda and Next Steps

   • Then watch the replay (would suggest dropbox so you can watch it at 2x speed), or read through the transcript and write out an agenda for the call
   • Make sure to time stamp the agenda. For example if we discussed increasing membership at 5 minutes in you would write "5:00 - Increasing membership"
   • Write down action items that you think are useful from the call

8. Let someone know it's finished

   • Lastly, text whoever told you about the meeting in the first place and let them know its done.

   How to Automate

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   While you cannot fully automate this task, delegation of this is fairly easy. To make it easier on whoever transcribes, we could also be sending them the dropbox links so they don't have to download or upload any of the videos to Dropbox.