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My Next Challenge: Realtime Scoping

Okay, finally one of my court reporters has decided to tackle realtime scoping with me. She took a seminar on it a few weeks ago, and I've had a couple of opportunities to see it in action this week. She's still trying to get everything set up properly for us. We have a big trial coming up in a few months that will require realtime scoping, so I hope we get our act together before then!

From what I've seen of it so far, it's pretty cool. I get superb audio streaming of what's going on in the courtroom. It's like everyone is right here in my office with me. We are using GoToMyPC to do this with, and I think the biggest thing that I'm going to have to get used to is the 5-second delay that apparently is normal with this system. When I place my cursor on a spot to edit, it takes about 5 seconds for the cursor bar to show up and start blinking. Then it takes about 5 seconds to show the change that I made. Sometimes the change doesn't seem to show up after 5 seconds, so I redo it. Then sometimes it will show up, or sometimes it shows up twice! AUGH. So I'm definitely going to need some time to get that right. It can actually be pretty frustrating!

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to getting it down to a fine art. I'd love to hear from any other scopists or court reporters who are doing this. Maybe we could even start a group?

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Comment by Rolayne Volpe on April 2, 2008 at 14:46: Hi, Linda. This sounds great. Keep me posted on your progress. I'm a reporter in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I'm looking for a scopist. This is exactly what I want -- realtime scoping. We have translators here, so court is very slow. I'm trying to teach myself to scope from my steno writer -- that's how much time you have between the Question, then Spanish Translation, Answer in Spanish, Translation to English. Keep me updated. Definitely interested!

Comment by Linda C. on April 1, 2008 at 21:10: Oh, rats! I understand that there's a way to do it with RTF files, but I've never had the chance to play with it as all my clients are on Eclipse. I've heard that there can be formatting issues with it, too, so I guess I'd have to get CaseCatalyst software. How do you like it?

I just created the Realtime Scoping users group on this site. I can send you an invitation if I add you to My Friends list.

Comment by Jeanette Vissiere on April 1, 2008 at 21:03: Sounds great. I noticed on your webpage, though, you are on Eclipse. I am actually using CaseCatalyst, the latest version. Any chance you scope both Eclipse and CaseCatalyst files?

Comment by Linda C. on April 1, 2008 at 20:55: Hi, Jeanette!
Yes, I'll definitely keep you updated. Do you think we should start a group on this? Oh, what the heck, let's just do it and see what happens! I'll go see if I can figure it out.

Comment by Jeanette Vissiere on April 1, 2008 at 20:19: I'd love to try this myself sometime. I probably took the same class your reporter took, to become a Certified LiveNote Reporter. I'd love to take an expedited or realtime hookup job and have a scopist working on it in realtime. Keep me in the loop on your progress. Maybe we can work together in the future...