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Dictation
made simple

The facts

The customer
Noel Whittaker, Australia
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Philips partner
Voice Recognition
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The solution
SpeechMike Premium Air Wireless Dictation Microphone
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Noel Whittaker has changed thousands of lives with his revolutionary ideas on managing personal finance. He has penned 22 bestselling books including “Making Money Made Simple”, which was named as one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century.


He is currently an Adjunct Professor with the Queensland University of Technology, as well as a member of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Regional Liaison Committee. He writes for major daily newspapers including the Sydney Morning Herald, and appears regularly on television.

Dictates much quicker

“I just talk now instead of type. I can certainly type but I can dictate much quicker,” explains Noel Whittaker on using the SpeechMike Premium Air. He wrote his first book in 1986 by himself and later relied on stenographers to type as he dictates, as most of his work is text based. However, stenographers proved to be very expensive and sometimes inaccurate. He discovered speech recognition software which helped him to make his dictating process simpler. 

Works seamlessly with speech recognition

Whittaker has been using speech recognition software for almost a decade now. But he has been unable to find a compatible microphone that works with it. He says, “I have tried a recording studio mic but it just doesn’t seem to work with the software. Then I have tried it with Bluetooth microphones and I could never get them to pair. I tried headsets with USB but they’re a nuisance. You got the cord hanging from your ear, and if you want a cup of tea you can’t have it.” SpeechMike Premium Air comes without the constraint of headphones and gives the user perfect mobility. The user can move up to five meters away from the work station while dictating and the wireless microphon transfers the recording without any interruptions. The free-floating microphone is decoupled from the device’s housing, which guarantees that almost no background, touch, click, air or structure-borne noise is recorded. Whittaker adds, “I write better when I can sit back in my chair, let the thoughts come and dictate them.”

I write better when I can sit back in my chair, let the thoughts come and dictate them.

Noel Whittaker

Attractive functionality

Being an author Whittaker must write and then edit until he gets his desired output. He manages his work week travelling back and forth between Brisbane and his beach house in Sunshine Coast. Since he uses multiple computer operating systems, he connects all his work via Dropbox. He explains that while recording he uses the SpeechMike Premium Air to dictate his work coherently while it is fresh in his mind. With speech recognition software his recording gets transcribed and sent back in text format to his computer. He then goes back to it for editing. “So I sit down in the creator state and dictate, then just close up the document. I then go to the computer with the document sitting there and then I move to editing state. It works brilliantly. I couldn’t be without the device. I have got two of them,” tells Whittaker. 

About Voice Recognition Australia 

Voice Recognition Australia - the number one retailer for Dragon products in Australia - has been monumental in steering the use of speech recognition. Now on their 19th year of operations they provide their expertise in mostly the legal and healthcare industries where they focus on reducing costs and improving efficiencies. Russell Bewsell, CEO of Voice Recognition Australia, has been involved in the voice recognition industry for over 20 years. He says, “Voice recognition technology has consistently improved year-on-year over the last few decades. However, in the last few years there have been significant improvements due to deep learning and artificial intelligence. These combined with the rapidly increasing computing processing power, has led to voice recognition becoming viable for anyone who needs to significantly improve their work efficiency. Now that we have advanced high-fidelity wireless audio technology from Philips, even greater efficiencies can be realized. With the ability to walk around your office dictating directly into a word document or an online form, or to simply sit back and relax while gathering your thoughts before dictating, the SpeechMike Air frees the user from the tether of a traditional microphone. I’ve personally used the Philips SpeechMike air for over 12 months and it has certainly improved the voice recognition experience for me. I use speech recognition about six hours a day, I wouldn’t consider using any other audio device.”

Philips SpeechMike Premium Air Wireless Dictation Microphone SMP4000

The solution

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