Wednesday, June 12th, 2019

Who Needs Transcription Services?

The role of a transcription service is to provide clients with a text format version of documents transcribed from audio and/or video files.

Here at McGowan, we have been in the business for over 20 years; we’ve seen how the demand for our services has grown, as well as the ever-varying industries which our clients work in.

Advances in technology and the explosion of the World Wide Web have seen the industry evolve into what it is today – enabling us to work with more clients, across more industries!

Wednesday, June 12th, 2019

6 reasons why it’s best to buy British transcription services

There are many advantages to hiring a UK-based transcription company to handle your audio transcriptions. First of all, if you choose the right agency, you can be sure that English is the mother tongue of its transcribers and the work is not outsourced to third parties abroad. Hiring a local transcriptionist also ensures that the project is completed promptly and securely. Here are some tips on choosing the best transcription services in the UK:

Wednesday, June 12th, 2019

Six (Actionable) Ways To Improve Your Meetings

When utilised properly, meetings are a great way to unite the focus of a team and keep everyone updated on important information. On top of that, they can also improve morale and efficiency throughout the staff. However, when meetings are poorly handled or even too frequent, people start to see them as a waste of time. We can’t blame them. In fact, research shows they’re not in the minority…

So, we decided to put together these actionable pointers that should help you get the most value out of your meetings. Hopefully, these can convert even the most anti-meeting people out there.

Monday, June 3rd, 2019

Download our FREE Ebook

We encounter a variety of recordings in the course of our day – some are audio files, some are videos, some are recorded indoors, some outside or in large public spaces. We have interviews that are recorded as one-to-one, face-to-face conversations and also tele-depths where researchers converse with respondents located in remote parts of the world. We receive recordings of large meetings where everyone talks at once and presentations and webinars with Q&A sessions. The subject matter or our transcriptions is wide-ranging, from market research to private memoirs and we also delve into the worlds of medicine and law.

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019

A Meeting of Minds – and not a ‘Minute’ too soon

Meetings have become an integral – and often unavoidable – part of our professional lives, irrespective of the sector in which we operate. Whether conducted over video conference or face-to-face in the archetypal boardroom, most of us will spend at least some of our working week attending them. Business meetings can be occasional or, in the case of large corporations, monthly as the board of directors convenes to discuss company direction of travel, financial objectives and to review the previous month’s targets. Problems affecting the day-to-day operation of the business will be raised and discussed, and projected future threats potentially identified before they occur. In short, they are vital to the smooth execution of business process.

Friday, February 1st, 2019

The Virtual Workspace: How Tech Has Changed Our Working Lives

With the benefits of modern technology, the traditional 9 -5 work day could soon become a thing of the past. Employers are increasingly embracing alternative working schedules such as flexitime and remote working. This is because employees can often complete their work just as effectively from home: a variety of cloud collaboration applications give us the ability to manage projects, hold meetings, share files, and track performance from the comfort of our sofas.

Saturday, December 1st, 2018

Writers of Instagram – Gone But Not Forgotten?

The best novels, poems, and plays continue to captivate readers for long after the author passes away. From the famed tragedies and comedies of William Shakespeare, to the vast fantasy worlds of J.R.R Tolkien, and the clever witticisms of Oscar Wilde, certain authors truly stand the test of time, engaging readers for generations. Edgar Allan Poe has had such an impact, the mysterious Poe Toaster visited Poe’s grave on his birthday every year for seven decades!

Tuesday, November 20th, 2018

How to Conduct Effective Focus Groups for Market Research

Market research  is a valuable exercise that is vital to most business owners and entrepreneurs when they are in the initial stages of creating a product, service or business. Market research is the process of researching and collecting data to support whether or not your product or service will be successful on the market once launched.

Understanding what your consumers and customers want is vital in achieving success with your business, which is why market research is key in helping you get the results you desire. Not only does market research allow you to avoid potential mistakes or failures, it can also save you a lot of money.

Thursday, July 19th, 2018

What Does Your Accent Say About You?

Have you ever noticed how many regional accents you come across in the UK? Compared to other countries, we have a huge variety of accents, with wildly different variants springing up in towns often just a few miles apart. Take London – in the capital alone, you’ll find Cockney accents, Estuary English, and Received Pronunciation all widely spoken.

In fact, the UK has an unusually high number of regional accents. The UK has been estimated to have around 56 distinct accents, whilst the USA has just 42 (despite being 40 times bigger in total area). Meanwhile, Canada has just 7!

Thursday, May 17th, 2018

Audio Recording Through the Ages (Infographic)

For many thousands of years of human history, we had absolutely no way of recording voices and sound for posterity. In fact, we didn’t even start writing things down until 3200BC, when people in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) created the earliest writing system– the cuneiform script. We can only guess just how much of history has been lost to time!

For this reason, the progress that’s been made in audio recording in the past 160 years alone is truly astonishing; technology has advanced in leaps and bounds. Starting with the invention off the somewhat rudimentary phonautograph (which could record sound but not play it back),we’ve progressed to advanced digital recording in less than two centuries. With more storage and digital files, we can carry our entire music libraries around on our smartphones, and even record sound on the go as and when we please.