Does voice dictation work on noisy construction sites?
Yes, with conditions. Modern voice transcription handles moderate construction noise reliably: background generators, general plant operation, distant tools. You won't get clean results standing directly beside a concrete saw or jackhammer. Move a few metres from the noise source, speak directly into the phone, and accuracy is workable for daily diary entries.
What level of noise causes problems?
Noise above roughly 85 dB immediately adjacent to the microphone causes significant transcription errors. That covers angle grinders at close range, concrete saws, jackhammers, and loud compressors running nearby.
General site ambience, trucks idling in the background, crews talking, distant plant, sits well within a usable range. The phone's microphone direction makes a difference too. Facing the device toward your mouth rather than holding it out produces better results.
What about wind noise outdoors?
Wind is one of the more common problems on open sites and civil projects. The fix is straightforward: turn your back to the wind so it hits the rear of the device rather than the microphone face. Cupping a hand loosely around the mic or stepping briefly behind a structure works well.
On exposed sites, a short walk to a sheltered position before logging adds five seconds to the entry. Site supervisors who've been doing it for a week stop noticing it. That's still faster than writing it up later. By a long way.
What happens if a word gets transcribed incorrectly?
LARD shows you each entry before the daily report is generated. Corrections happen at review time, not after the PDF goes out. The final report reflects the corrected text. An occasional wrong word is a quick fix, not a reason to abandon voice logging.
Error rates drop fast. After a few days on a project, the transcription engine has seen your site vocabulary — formwork, RFI, PC sum, the names of your subbies — and your own technique tightens up too. By the end of week one, most site supervisors are correcting one or two words per entry, if that.
How does LARD work underground or in poor signal areas?
LARD runs offline. No signal required to record voice entries, capture photos, or generate the report. It syncs when connectivity is restored. Underground sites, remote civil works, and dead-zone areas on large projects are all supported. The app works where the site is, not where the coverage is.