Subtitling and transcription

Recordings as evidence

Family courts, employment tribunals, immigration appeals and criminal defence work increasingly turn on WhatsApp voice notes, phone recordings, CCTV with sound, police interviews and video statements in Turkish. The court needs a written record it can rely on: a transcript of the Turkish, an English translation, and a certificate saying who produced them and how. We provide all three as one document laid out in two columns, time-stamped, with speakers identified as far as the recording allows and inaudible or overlapping passages marked rather than guessed. The translator’s certificate follows the same form as our certified translations and can be supported by a signed statement for filing. Where the other side has produced its own transcript, we can review it and set out the points of difference. Dialect, slang, code-switching between Turkish and English, and Kurdish or Arabic passages are noted; for Kurmanji or Sorani content see Kurdish translation.

Subtitles for video

• Corporate and training video, product demonstrations, webinars and e-learning into Turkish for staff and customers in Türkiye, or into English for UK audiences.
• Marketing and social video with short, readable subtitles cut to the platform’s conventions.
• Documentary, interview and broadcast material, including Turkish television content for UK use.
• Cut-scenes and trailers for games, alongside game localisation.

We deliver SRT, VTT, SBV or timed spreadsheet files, or burned-in subtitles in your video file. Reading speed, line length and shot changes are respected; Turkish runs longer than English, so a subtitle file is condensed rather than translated word for word, and we keep a note of what was condensed for legal or compliance material where completeness matters.

Transcription without translation

Turkish-only transcripts for researchers, journalists, HR investigations and podcast producers, verbatim or clean-read as you prefer, and English-only transcripts of UK recordings needed by Turkish lawyers or courts. Timestamps at intervals or per speaker turn.

How it works

1. Send the file by a secure link (we accept most audio and video formats) with the purpose, the deadline and, for evidence, the names of speakers if known and any passages of particular importance.
2. We check audio quality and quote per minute of recording. Poor audio, many speakers or heavy dialect are quoted at a higher rate, and we say so up front rather than deliver a transcript full of “[inaudible]”.
3. Transcription by a native Turkish or English transcriber, translation by a second linguist, and a review of the translation against the audio, not just the transcript.
4. Delivery as a certified PDF for evidence, or as subtitle files and video for media.

What it costs

Quoted per project on the length of the recording and its difficulty. Transcription, translation and subtitling are separate lines so you can see what each costs, and certification is included where needed. Burned-in subtitles and video re-encoding are priced per file. No UK VAT is charged. For very long recordings where only certain passages matter, we can transcribe and translate the passages you identify, marked clearly as extracts, at a lower total cost.

Turnaround

Clear recordings of up to 30 minutes typically 2–3 working days for transcript and certified translation; subtitle files for a 10-minute corporate video about 3 working days including timing. Urgent hearing deadlines are handled on the express tier where the audio allows.

Confidentiality

Recordings are often the most sensitive material we handle. Files are transferred by encrypted link, kept on access-controlled systems, worked on by transcribers under confidentiality undertakings and deleted after the retention period in our data protection policy. We do not use automatic speech recognition services that retain data.