How to Adjust Amplification and Pitch in the ITC Explained

Summary

The InfraWare Telephone Dictation System (TDS) records audio from the public telephone network at the volume delivered by the telephone company.  Sometimes, that volume is lower than MTs prefer.  Other sources of dictation have similar audio volume limitations.  For those reasons, InfraWare allows MTs to adjust amplification levels in the ITC for audio playback.   In addition, to help with improving the understandability of certain authors with strong accents, pitch can also be adjusted in these audio playback controls.

Solution

You can adjust both amplification and pitch level for playback in the ITC.  User Settings can be established for starting points, and both settings can also be adjusted in the ITC Editor while typing a job. 

Amplification:  Amplification is slightly different than volume, although it adds volume.  In general, the volume of audio playback can be turned up to 100% without distorting the fidelity of the recording.  When more volume is needed (greater than 100%) amplification is the solution.  Amplification should be used sparingly because distortion is involved.  Similar to how enlarging a picture will make it more blurry as it gets larger, audio can become distorted as it is amplified.  For that reason, amplification should only be used to add volume when the Windows volume and the ITC volume are already set to their max setting and addition volume is needed.  The ITC supports an amplification setting of up to 200.

Pitch:   Adjust the pitch of a dictation to change how the playback sounds.  Pitch can be adjusted either positive or negative (-25 to +25) to flatten or sharpen an author's accent.  This is especially helpful with ESL (English second language) doctors to improve clarity.

Tasks

To set the default amplification and pitch in your ITC User Settings:

• Login to the ITC with your username and password
• Click Settings --> User Settings --> Edit User Settings

• On the General tab, under the Playback Section, adjust the Pitch and Amplification level that you would like to be your default.
• Click Save.

To Adjust the Pitch and Amplification while transcribing in the ITC Editor:

• Select F2 or click the Audio Controls Tab
• Adjust the Pitch and Amplification to the level that increases the quality of the audio file.