What Is the Difference Between Steno Machine Categories?

[Joshua Anon]

In looking at different stenotypes, I noticed that products were often categorized by intended use with little to no apparent difference in the product itself. In some cases the only thing on the official website which differentiated them was the name.

CART
Captioning
Court Reporting

Those were the three classifications of steno machine (ignoring the student/proffessional dichotomy) which correspond to expected use cases.

But what does that mean for the machine itself? What makes a CART machine so different from a comparable Captioning or Court Reporting machine from the same company? Or a Captioning machine so different from a CART or Court Reporting one? Or a Court Reporting one from a CART or Captioning one?

Apologies that this is not really related to plover, but this seemed more active than any steno group I could find and I would only be using it with Plover anyway.

Thanks for any insights you may have; this seems to be a void in the information of the internet.

Sincerely,

Joshua

PS: Dear computer, do we capitalize "world"? Do we capitalize "sun"? Do we capitalize "nation" or "school" or "google" (when used as a verb (well, probably, but we shouldn't))? Then don't make me capitalize "internet", computer! It's not a proper noun anymore and I don't care what your programmers told you that their English teachers told them!

[Achim Siebert]

I think the distinction of CART machines came up when they lost their paper tray (starting with the Cybra and similar machines). Court reporters still need the printout for legal reasons in some (most?) cases, I think. So CART and captioning machines come with internal memory and/or SD cards only or are even dependent on a connected computer to save the strokes to. The difference between student and professional versions is sometimes simply more memory in the professional one - e.g. 2MB instead of 256k, which costs "only" a few thousand dollars more ... go figure).

Regarding Internet vs. internet: switch off automatic spell checking (if available in the app or OS you use) and change your dictionary entry to the version you prefer. Spell checking is not necessary when typing steno. YOU make the computer do things, not vice versa.

[Ian Dawson]

As steno machines get more expensive, you generally get more and more features.  You will want more or less of these features depending on what you use steno for.  So captioners don't need internal memory or a screen as everything goes through the captioning software, and a basic keyboard would do.  CART writers have a use for memory if they produce transcripts of the sessions, Bluetooth is useful for portability and an optional screen might be preferred.  Court Reporters need bigger memory, more backups, a better screen and audio recording.  They sometimes work without a laptop, and as it's a legal proceeding they need to be able to produce the transcript even if the laptop goes bang.

 

The order of features below is not complete, and different vendors have different orders.  But essentially, as you go down the list adding more and more features the machine gets more and more expensive:

 

Electronic steno keyboard           <-- captioners can stop here

Memory                                              <-- CART writers can stop here

Screen (strokes only)

Bluetooth                                            <-- useful for CART

Screen (translate steno into English)

More memory & backups

Audio Recording                               <-- court reporters stop here

 

Often it is exactly the same machine with additional features added for different users.  So Stenograph has the Wave for students, captioners and CARTers, but the Diamante/Luminex for court reporters (with the Wave and Diamante being basically the same machine but with different features).  Infinity have Student > Captioner > CART > Court reporter (i.e. a more customisable set of features).

 

In a legal setting you need the extra backups, bigger memory, on-board audio recording etc., because the output is the transcript.  In captioning and CART the output is the realtime steno, so you don't need these features.

 

That said, in the UK many use the Palantype system in legal settings, and these are just keyboards.  Other countries are the same.  American's seem to be more concerned about backups, so the machine you use can also depend on the standards for where you're working.

 

Ian

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[Mirabai Knight]

This is all true. Other considerations might be battery (some
broadcast captioners don't use machines with batteries because they
always stay plugged in) or optical sensors and customizable stroke
depth or feedback force, as opposed to cheaper electronic sensors that
might be prone to splitting or stacking at high speeds and can't be
individually customized.

--
Mirabai Knight, CCP, RDR
StenoKnight CART Services
917 576 4989
m...@stenoknight.com
http://stenoknight.com

[Joshua Taylor]

Thank you both for the clarifications; this is highly elucidating. Right now I'm in the look-at-as-many-different-options-as-you-can stage and this information should help me make sense of all the information.

Thanks,

Joshua

PS -- And I did add "internet" to my computer's dictionary, but after I start using plover I'll have to begin the process of adding things which I consider words all over again. (such as words borrowed from other languages which are used every other sentence in a very specific English context) (Sente, Gote, Aji, Joseki, Fuseki, and more are all Japanese words which are used so often in the context of Go (board game) that us go players don't even think of them as foreign words anymore)

[Achim Siebert]

Adding your Go words should only be a matter of minutes using the Add Translation window of Plover as soon as you have a basic understanding of the logic behind steno.

Sente: SENT/AOE; Aji (Gesundheit!) works already without new dictionary entry: A/SKWREU, you might want to add it with a capital A though etc. …

[Joshua Taylor]

Sounds like fun. :) Can't wait to find myself needing to do that. :)

-- Joshua