Reporter’s stenograph collection highlights long history of court reporting
Not many industries depend on individuals to learn a craft that's been around for centuries. While engineering, medicine and law are the most historic and the largest, court reporting is a burgeoning industry that's been around for hundreds of years and requires its workers to go through extensive training – they need to be able to record over 225 words per minute for five minutes with 98 percent accuracy.
The craft has also created a vast history of technological advancement, especially among the machines that court reporters will use to create these deposition transcripts. This may be why Mario Rodriguez, a court reporter based out of Virginia, has created his own personal museum of stenotype machines, according to the Falls Church News-Press, a local paper.
According to the source, Rodriguez was inspired to collect the machines after visiting the National Court Reporters Association's museum and being impressed by its collection. From then on, he started collecting parts with devices going back to 1879.
But, while the machines may have evolved to a point where court reporters can transcribe conversations at a real-time pace, allowing for these individuals to provide captioning services for live television broadcasts and sporting events, many believe that voice recognition software may be taking over.
"People keep saying that voice recognition on computers will take over since I graduated 25 years ago," said Rodriguez to the source. "Let me tell you, a computer doesn't know the difference between sight, site and cite. We do. It's not going to happen anytime soon."
Clearly, using high-quality court reporters that can create deposition transcripts at real-time can be extremely useful in many cases, especially in court. In order to acquire the best transcripts, lawyers may want to partner with Wisconsin court reporters.
August 22nd, 2012 at 9:43 pm
I would definitely want to visit this museum. Although technology has enhanced the offerings, highly-skilled court reporters still possess similar traits.