Transcribe – verb /trænˈskraɪb/… to record thoughts, speech, or data in a written form, or in a different written form from the original

In its simplest form, data transcription is a facsimile copy of data written from one medium to another. In practice, it often transfers information from lower to higher density media such as magnetic tape, to avoid media degradation and minimise storage space for archived material.

With seismic exploration data, many considerations come into play. Simply copying data from one media to another can lead to trouble, particularly with legacy data. Failure to adequately verify data to ensure it meets industry standards means that as well as useful information, errors will also be transcribed verbatim.

In Moveout’s experience, third-party transcribed data is often copied in an unstructured manner, with little or no supporting information on what it is or how it was written. It may suffer from corrupt, missing or duplicated data, and media labels are often inconsistent or misleading. All this creates frustration for the user who wants to get straight to work on their data asset yet is held up waiting for corrective action to be taken so they can access the specific information they require.

At Moveout we recognise how costly this situation can be and have developed our own transcription software called METASEISTM. This means files can be renamed using data encoded in the internal and extended data headers and independently verified with time-stamp comparison between the seismic and navigation data. Data files are then output in a logically named convention, enabling them to be ordered into a simple file structure to facilitate easy access to specific information.

Approaching this from the end user’s perspective, Moveout has developed Transcription+ as its standard,which focusses on improved data accessibility and follows this logical process:

Verify
  • SEG compliance and header consistency is ensured
  • Associated metadata is verified
Condition
  • Duplicates and missing data are identified and flagged
  • Associated metadata is synchronised
Write
  • Data is written to modern media or to the cloud in a logically structured manner with clear, consistent labels and is NDR compliant

Of course, transcription is only a small part of what Moveout does – we have unrivalled expertise in geoscience data audit, manipulation, conditioning and enhancement; all made simple through MetaseisTM and underpinned by our thorough QC processes.

Moveout is committed to adding value by delivering optimised, cost-effective, application-ready data when and where our customers need it; all to fulfil our vision that no geoscience data will be overlooked in furthering our understanding of the planet we live on.