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Using I-DEP for your Legal Video Conferencing Needs

November 24, 2009 – 1:33 pm

Video conferencing is an exciting technology that has made it much easier for attorneys to get legal depositions from witnesses in other cities or states. At Huseby, we have many years of experience using I-DEP to provide the deposition services you need over web video.

How Does Video Conferencing Help You?

When one of your witnesses lives hundreds of miles away, depositions are a challenge. Do you depend on a deposition taken without your direct involvement? Or do you expect the witness to travel to your office so you can attend the deposition in person? Neither option is ideal.

Huseby’s video conferencing services make it easy for you, the witness, the opposing attorney and one of our certified court reporters all to attend the deposition even if each of you is in a different location. This allows witnesses to give statements without traveling and permits attorneys to attend all legal depositions no matter where the deponent is located.

Standard video conferencing solutions are used in legal depositions more and more frequently, but they don’t have the features needed for the best final product. At Huseby we use I-DEP, a dedicated legal video conferencing application, to give the full deposition experience over the web.

Why Use I-DEP Video Conferencing?

Legal video conferencing products offer features that cannot be found in standard video chat products. In addition to streaming video and text chat capabilities, Huseby’s services offer features needed for an accurate and complete deposition.

The transcript being generated by our court reporters during video conferencing is displayed on the screen in real time, allowing any observer or participant to consult it as needed. Security features ensure only authorized participants are able to monitor the video feed. Text messages can be sent either publically to all participants or privately for off-the-record whispers.

When the deposition is completed, we provide a DVD that contains the audio, video and a copy of the transcript. The transcript is keyed to the video so it displays in real time as the deposition is reviewed later.

Take Advantage of Our Video Experience

The I-DEP video conferencing software has been designed to be easy to install and use. Even non-technical users can get the application running in no time, but we recommend you let us handle your I-DEP needs. Accurate video depositions require more than turning on the camera.

The Huseby court reporting agency has been using I-DEP software for many years and we know how to set it up quickly, use it efficiently, and create better video depositions than an inexperienced user can manage. We have on-site video conferencing locations throughout the world, meaning that your witnesses are never far from one of our cameras. Our real-time reporters have experience providing legal transcription services for video transcripts.

The explosive growth of fast internet connections means video conferencing is quickly becoming a necessity rather than an option. Huseby can provide all your legal video needs as well as traditional transcription services.

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Huseby’s Court Reporting Services Offers Accessibility Solutions

November 20, 2009 – 11:51 am

Years ago, Maryland court reporters did their jobs only in the state’s courtrooms. While that is still a common venue, court reporting in Baltimore and other cities has expanded out of the realm of legal depositions. At Huseby we are proud of how our services have improved accessibility in local businesses for people with disabilities.

Helping the Hearing Impaired

It is common to hire a sign language interpreter at conferences for any attendees who might be hearing impaired. However not all hearing impaired people know sign language. A number of auditory disorders may not substantially interfere with normal conversation but could make it impossible for someone to understand a speaker at a conference.

Many companies use Huseby’s court reporting services as an alternative or a supplement to a sign language interpreter. Our reporters create transcripts in real time, which can be displayed on a screen exactly as close captioning is used for live television broadcasts such as the news. Some of our clients have the captions displayed on a screen visible to the entire audience while others have them fed to individual screens for hearing impaired employees.

Communicating with Remote Employees

Telecommuting is a growing employment option used by today’s businesses. Most telecommuters choose the arrangement so they can care for their families, and in this case coming into the office for a meeting is inconvenient. For others, they work remotely because of disabilities. There are any number of medical conditions that may force a worker to be homebound, making attending company functions not just inconvenient but impossible.

We can send our court reporting transcripts over the web to the telecommuting worker. This allows remote employees to be included into the meeting, an important element of retaining a team atmosphere when not all workers are in the same location. Huseby also offers video conferencing services so remote workers can observe company events over streaming video.

Huseby’s Other Court Reporting Services

While improving accessibility is a valuable service in its own right, our court reporting services offer much more. Many organizations want written records of proceedings and may use a company secretary to make notes on the meeting. The problem with these documents is they carry little weight. If anyone challenges what is written, it can quickly become a problem as everyone remembers events differently.

Huseby court reporters are more than simply transcriptionists; they are professional witnesses. Our experience is in producing transcripts designed to stand up in court. While you may not need this service for a meeting about this month’s company birthday cake, there are a number of encounters that will benefit from an unbiased accounting of what occurred.

Huseby offers court reporting in Baltimore and many other cities nationwide. While we are deeply involved in our nation’s legal system, we are also an essential part of many corporate gatherings as well.

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Tips for Finding Court Reporting Jobs

October 27, 2009 – 2:48 pm

Court reporters who complete their training may be at a loss to find their first court stenography positions. Even those experienced in court reporting sometimes struggle to find that next assignment. There are a number of resources available to aid reporters in their job searches.

Work Your Contacts

In any field, networking is an important element of a job-hunting strategy. The first place to check is with your school. They will have a list of companies hiring for court stenography positions and can provide valuable information on the state of the local job market. Certain employers may have hired many of their graduating in the past. Your teachers are valuable sources of job advice and professional recommendations. Fellow students can pool their information to give everyone a better chance of finding a position.

Court reporting associations are another good source of career guidance. Join the NCRA for their certification programs and networking opportunities and join your state court reporters’ association for regional job listings. The association and the members can put new reporters on the path to local court stenography positions.

Internet Job Searches

Online resources are great if you are looking for court stenography positions outside your local area. You may be planning to move to a new city or be open to positions anywhere in the country. Even if you are looking for local positions, most companies advertise their positions online rather than using other media.

Online job searching should involve more than posting a resume and waiting for a phone call. Check job listings daily and apply for new positions immediately. Tailor every resume to the specific job and research the hiring company so you can customize your application to their organization. A resume written to fit a specific opening stands a much better chance of landing an interview than a generic resume sent to every employer in the city.

Let the Huseby Court Reporting Agency Find the Jobs for You

It’s tough to face the job market alone. Instead of going solo, join the Huseby team and let us work to find you regular court stenography assignments. We have many established clients and a steady flow of work so we are always looking for talented professionals to add to our team.

However don’t let your career aspirations stop with the courtroom. Although most students think of court stenography when they imagine their careers, there is a vast array of positions available to court reporters. Many businesses use court reporters to provide unbiased documentations of meetings, conferences and negotiations. There is a huge demand for close captioning of television, movies and live web broadcasts.

When you work for Huseby, you let us handle the details that get in the way of court reporting. We handle tasks like finding clients and billing for services so you have more time for yourself. You can focus on the work, trusting Huseby to take care of the rest.

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Philadelphia Court Reporters Improve Their Skills with Speed Contests

October 22, 2009 – 2:41 pm

The NCRA Annual Convention & Exposition is a wonderful opportunity for those in the court reporting profession to meet other reporters and learn about how the profession is changing. One popular event is the speed competition held at every convention.

A Hundred Years of Competition

In 1909, court stenographers used pen and paper to transcribe testimony using either the Pitman or Gregg methods of shorthand. In this year, a national speed competition was started to allow court reporters to test their abilities against one another. Unfortunately, both the Pitman and Gregg companies used results of the competition to misrepresent their systems. This plus the rise of the professional competitor led to the annual contests being discontinued in 1927.

During these early speed contests, stenotype machines were allowed only in the 1914 competition and then banned after that. When the contest was revived in 1952, all participants used stenotype machines. Contest results reflected the changing nature of the profession. For many years, men took home the contest titles because most reporters were men. As more women entered the profession, the first one won in 1965 and women started winning regularly in the late 1970s.

Speed Contests Make Better Reporters

In many cases, the goal of competition is to motivate people to strive for better performance. Court reporters training for speed contest improve their abilities and can perform their jobs better. The winners inspire even those who don’t participate in the contests.

Speed contests also show how fast a reporter cannot be. One important motivator for the original contests started in 1909 was to provide a sanity check to the profession. Court reporters were claiming to be capable of speeds of 400 to 600 words per minute, a claim that was difficult to disprove. Now that the best court stenographers were performing at speeds below 300 wpm in competition, it showed these claims to be untrue.

How Do Reporters Get Ready For Competition?

We at Huseby have some advice for Philadelphia court reporters, or reporters from anywhere else, who want to enter the next NCRA speed contest. Your experience on the job will not prepare you fully for competition speeds. The only way to get fast enough to win a speed competition is by practicing as much as possible.

Competitors must transcribe three five-minute recordings at 95% accuracy. The Literary part must be performed at 220 wpm, the Legal Opinion statement at 230 wpm and the Testimony portion at an astounding 280 wpm. Maintaining these speeds for five minutes is not something easily done and court reporters will need to train to develop the endurance necessary.

Court reporters planning to enter the next competition to be held August 2010 in Chicago should start training now. It will not only increase their chances of winning the competition but will improve their capabilities on the job.

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Huseby Provides Legal Transcription Services to Corporate Clients

September 28, 2009 – 3:58 pm

Our clients assume that Huseby’s legal transcription services are offered only to legal agencies. Although courtrooms and attorneys’ offices are a common venue for our court reporters, you might be surprised how many private businesses and government agencies use our services as well.

Ensuring Everyone Hears the Same Words

Human hearing and memory are fallible. Each person in a meeting remembers things differently. It’s not a matter of dishonesty. Each person genuinely hears something different. Huseby legal transcription services provide an impartial record of the actual words spoken.

Court reporters got their start documenting court proceedings. With an unbiased record, people could examine the case after the fact and see events recorded in an impartial fashion. Deposition services allow attorneys to read a witness’s statement and ensure each side in a case hears the same testimony.

This commitment to accuracy and neutrality later attracted other clients. Anyone who needed an impartial observer, a professional listener, could use our reporters to provide documentation. It might be an event as highly charged as strike negotiations or as mundane as the CEO’s annual speech to employees. Either way, an accurate record can be created.

The Problem with Audio Recordings

So you agree you need a record of an event. Digital recorders are cheaper than certified court reporters. Isn’t an audio recording as good as legal transcription services? In a word, no.

Audio is a complicated field and setting up microphones to pick up important statements while not recording every creaking seat and crinkling candy wrapper is difficult. Technicians spend years learning how to record audio properly. Even then, words can be blocked out if someone isn’t speaking clearly or another participant coughs at the wrong time.

When Huseby provides legal transcription services to your organizations, we send court reporters whose only job is to produce an accurate transcript. Everyone else in the room is distracted by what is being said. Our professionals are focused on creating the record. If words are drowned out or mumbled, a digital recorder isn’t going to ask people to repeat themselves.

Why Should You Use Huseby As Your Court Reporting Agency?

Do you need legal transcription services? Can’t you bring in someone who knows shorthand or can type fast? Again, no. Court reporters do more than produce a transcript. They produce a transcript that will stand up in court. The scribbled minutes of a meeting don’t have the same weight as a Huseby transcript.

Huseby reporters hold certifications given out only to those who have demonstrated exceptional ability. Most of our reporters hold the Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) and some have gone beyond this to get advanced certifications such as the RMR and RDR.

We can provide references to other clients who can vouch for the quality of our legal transcription services. Our reporters all have extensive education and experience in the field. In short, you won’t find a better agency for your transcript needs than Huseby.

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Speed and Accuracy Pointers for Court Reporters

September 22, 2009 – 3:52 pm

These simple tips from the Maryland Court Reporters Association will help deposition reporters strengthen their skills no matter how much or how little experience they have.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Court reporting practice drills are not our idea of a fun evening but they are a necessary part of developing our skills. Huseby court reporters have many ways to keep their professional abilities sharp, but nothing works like sitting at the machine taking a statement.

Realize that when it comes to court reporting practice, more is not necessarily better. The quality of your practice is more important than the time spent. Court reporters who regularly spend even just a few minutes doing intense speed or accuracy drills will improve their skills more than other reporters who may practice longer but don’t pay attention to the work. Put all distractions out of your mind and focus on getting the best transcript you can. Practice sessions should be more intense than a typical deposition since you are pushing yourself to develop new skills.

But Practice is Boring!

One of the leading reasons court reporters say they avoid practice is drills are monotonous. To avoid this, find ways to make changes to your sessions so the work doesn’t become quite so dreary.

Try alternating speed drills with practice drills rather than trying to push both at the same time. Remember the hallmark of a good reporter is accuracy rather than speed. Ideally of course we want both, but don’t be so focused on getting your speed up you let your keying become sloppy.

Every time you hear a word you don’t know how to write, make note of it. Many reporters carry notebooks around for that purpose. It doesn’t have to be a word you hear in a deposition. You might hear it on TV or in casual conversation. Create a keystroke for that word and include it in your practice sessions.

Try Keying Realtime

We understand that some court reporters don’t want to make the jump to realtime and that’s fine. There is plenty of demand for court stenographers in non-realtime positions. However, even if you don’t want to take realtime assignments, consider trying it during your practice sessions.

Court reporters who make the jump to realtime are often surprised how much their speed and accuracy increase. Even though we think we are pushing ourselves as hard as we can, realtime reporting forces us to go further. You will discover new reserves of energy and new levels of concentration once you are forced to produce a realtime transcript.

These tips are of course not limited to just Maryland court reporters. The advice we’ve presented here will help any of our reporters improve their skills. As your speed and accuracy improve, you may become eligible for more prestigious and lucrative assignments.

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How Georgia Court Reporters Are Converting to Real Time Services

September 8, 2009 – 4:17 pm

Many of Huseby’s court reporters in Georgia and other states ask our advice about career development.  One of the most common questions is whether to go realtime.  It’s a challenging specialty, but is it worth the effort?  We can answer that question with a definitive “yes”.

Nothing Replaces Realtime Court Reporters

We don’t have to tell our Georgia court reporters that we are more than human tape recorders.  Efforts to replace reporters with digital recording devices typically lead to problems, yet educating people about these shortcomings is an uphill battle.  The instant transcripts produced by realtime reporting are a strong argument against eliminating reporters because they are not something a machine can create alone.

Not everyone speaks clearly and a recording device merely preserves the indistinct words, creating an imperfect record.  A certified court reporter is a trained listener, hearing the words beneath the mumble.  This accurate document is an invaluable part of a legal proceeding.  The benefit is made even clearer with realtime reporting.  Transcripts created by court reporters can be consulted by judges or attorneys during the testimony if they have not understood what was just said.  This saves time, improves clarity and prevents witnesses from having to repeat themselves.

Turn the Job into a Game

An occupational hazard common to deposition reporters is boredom.  Your thousandth deposition sounds very much like the first you ever did.  It’s easy to get complacent and not worry too much about making a perfect record.  After all, you can fix it during editing, right?

Our Georgia court reporters who have started doing realtime have said it makes the job fun again.  It challenges them to produce perfect or nearly-perfect transcripts.  There is no “later” for editing a live transcript.  It must be done right the first time and it becomes a personal challenge to produce as few errors as possible.  The job becomes fun again and many reporters find they have a renewed enthusiasm toward the profession.

Improve Your Earnings as Realtime Court Reporters

We may love our profession but we all have families to support and mortgages to pay.  You want to make the top income you can from court reporting, and realtime is the best way to do that.  Our clients are demanding realtime reporters more than ever and are willing to pay higher fees for their specialized skills.

Realtime court reporting helps you make more money even when not doing realtime.  The higher standards demanded by realtime mean our court reporters produce transcripts with fewer errors even when taking traditional depositions.  Fewer errors means less time editing and less time spent on each contract.  Reporters spend less time making the same income.

Realtime court reporting can seem daunting, but after you get past your first few transcripts you’ll find it comes naturally.  With the benefits it provides to you as a professional, it’s a great choice for any of our reporters.

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Why Should Huseby Do Your Video Conferencing?

September 2, 2009 – 4:15 pm

Improvements in internet speed and conferencing software have made video conferencing more popular than ever. However despite what software vendors would have you believe, the process is complicated. Our court reporting agency has extensive experience with the technologies involved and can provide a better conferencing solution than a do-it-yourself option.

Get Reliable Video Feeds

Trying to conduct video conferencing over standard internet connections creates problems. Information transmitted over the internet doesn’t flow smoothly. It is transmitted in bursts and often the speed of transmission varies wildly. You may not notice these fluctuations when downloading a file or reading your email, but the start-and-stop nature of internet communication becomes painfully obvious when using video.

The specialized video conferencing centers set up at the Huseby court reporting agency and our affiliates provide reliable data feeds that produce smooth video. The stuttering video and garbled audio of inexpensive internet technologies is not only distracting to participants but can lead to the loss of vital data. It’s hard to conduct a meeting when everyone has to keep repeating themselves to be sure information is correctly transmitted.

Huseby Uses Professional Audio/Video Equipment

Inexpensive video conferencing solutions are built around internet technology designed for consumer rather than business use. This technology is fine for video chats with your son who’s away at college, but it doesn’t create a professional image in a business setting. Not only do they appear amateur, they may interfere with clear presentation of information. You need a high quality solution for your video needs.

Huseby’s video conferencing services exhibit the same level of accuracy and professionalism we deliver in all of our court reporting services. Video feeds are clear and sharp with no artifacts or interference. Audio is set up to filter out background noise and deliver crisp sound so every word spoken can be made out easily. You could buy similar equipment yourself, but it would cost your business tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We Provide Technical Support

Let’s say that your business is willing to invest the huge amount of money needed to set up a professional video conferencing system. Who is going to run it? You will need a team of audio-video professionals to operate and maintain the equipment, which just adds to the expense.

Huseby’s video specialists have years of experience in professional video production. They know not just how to operate the equipment but also video production techniques such as the best camera and microphone placement. If a technical problem occurs, they can troubleshoot and fix it in a fraction of the time it would take an inexperienced camera operator.

The power of video conferencing is unlike any other form of communication technology. It is too important to be left to inferior applications. Let Huseby bring our court reporting expertise to your business video needs.

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Huseby Offers an Alternative For Tennessee Court Reporters

August 7, 2009 – 2:16 pm

The freedom of freelancing is attractive to many Tennessee court reporters, but the reality of the current economy is making this a difficult career choice. However the drudgery of an 8-to-5 job at a courthouse might not be appealing either. The Huseby court reporting agency offers an alternative to reporters who want to keep their flexibility but want some added security.

Benefit from Our Good Name

It’s tough to get work when you first start out. Clients don’t know your capabilities and you have to struggle to build a reputation. Even established court reporters may find it difficult to attract a steady stream of clients. It is an ongoing challenge to make your voice heard among the many other talented reporters out there.

When you join our court reporting agency, you aren’t just a court reporter anymore. You are a Huseby reporter and you benefit from the reputation our court reporters have been building for years. You have the opportunity to get assignments from a wide range of clients looking for our highly respected court reporting services.

Moving? You don’t have to start over in your new home since Huseby has offices all over the country.

The Benefit of Regular Work

If you’ve worked freelance, you probably know the frustration of an unsteady workload. Court reporters might go long periods without assignments, getting panicked as savings dwindle. When a few assignments come it’s a relief at first, but then you get overloaded. You don’t want to turn away work, but soon you have more than you can do. Yet this isn’t a permanent state of affairs, and before you know it you are back to having no work until the next deluge.

We employ many court reporters and spread out the assignments, making sure no one is overloaded. Since we have clients across many industries, not just the legal field, we experience fewer of the sharp changes in workflow. We have numerous large, established clients providing Huseby with a steady demand for court reporters.

Let Us Handle the Details

Another problem with being out on your own is you are not only the reporter but also marketing, accounting, human resources, administration, IT and every other department in the company. Duties such as billing clients or promotional activities not only take you away from your reporting duties but don’t pay you anything.

Huseby takes over many of the tedious duties that make freelancing so hard to profit from. Since our staff focuses on these tasks, they do a better job than most reporters can. Our marketers just do marketing. Our accountants just do accounting. Our court reporters just do reporting. You have more time available and can either take on more clients or spend time doing things outside the job.

There are a growing number of Tennessee court reporters who find Huseby offers the balance of flexibility and security they need to be successful reporters.

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How Huseby’s Video Conferencing Solutions Save You Money

August 3, 2009 – 2:11 pm

Advances in technology have moved video conferencing out of the boardrooms of multinational corporations and into the conference rooms of even the smallest organizations. Huseby offers video conferencing services which allow you to meet “face to face” with people all over the world.

Video Conferencing is Inexpensive

Conference calls allow people in different locations to discuss matters, but there is no option for visual displays. There is a psychological advantage to seeing the speaker and people tend to retain information better when they have both visual and auditory input. Prior to inexpensive video conferencing, the only solution was travel.

Today even small businesses may have distant contacts, and the expense of traveling to these remote locations can be prohibitive. Video conferencing is far cheaper than air fare, car rental, hotel expenses and per diem rates. No matter how far apart people are, people can meet together and discuss important business matters.

Video conferencing saves more than just travel expenses. Time is money, and the lost production from travel is often a greater expense than the travel itself. Without the wasted time of travel, employees are more productive.

Don’t Be Tempted to Do It Yourself

Yes, there are video conferencing solutions you can buy, most of them internet based, which claim they are easy to operate. However there is more to producing effective video than pointing a camera. Without a comprehensive understanding of the technical details of video production, an amateurish video conference can put your company in a bad light.

Huseby’s experienced videographers have the skills needed to produce a professional video feed. Our understanding of proper lighting, microphone placement, shot framing and more will result in a final product well beyond what an inexperienced video crew could create. We use only the best video and audio equipment, better quality than the inexpensive equipment you can buy for yourself.

Huseby Court Reporters Add More to Your Video

Now that you’ve decided video conferencing is the solution for you, why should you use a court reporting agency for your production? It’s not the first place people would look for video professionals. The capabilities of a certified legal videographer add value to the final product. We can offer more than organizations specializing in other kinds of video.

Our company is all about creating accurate and comprehensive records of the spoken word. Our videographers can provide you with a recording of the conference that contains all information with no omissions. Huseby court reporters can create a transcript of the proceeding as additional documentation. If you have hearing impaired viewers, we can provide a realtime transcript of the proceeding as part of the video feed.

With video so easily available, there is no reason for an organization not to integrate this powerful communication medium as part of their ability to reach clients and business partners.

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