Calculate the Talk / Listen Ratio of Speakers

This guide will show you how to use AssemblyAI’s API to calculate the talk/listen ratio of speakers in a transcript. The following code uses the Python SDK.

Quickstart

import assemblyai as aai

aai.settings.api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY"

def calculate_talk_listen_ratios(transcript):
    """
    :param transcript: AssemblyAI Transcript object
    :return: Dictionary with talk time, percentage, and talk-listen ratios for each speaker
    """
    # Ensure speaker labels were enabled
    if not transcript.utterances:
        raise ValueError("Speaker labels were not enabled for this transcript.")

    speaker_talk_time = {}
    total_time = 0

    for utterance in transcript.utterances:
        speaker = f"Speaker {utterance.speaker}"
        duration = utterance.end - utterance.start

        speaker_talk_time[speaker] = speaker_talk_time.get(speaker, 0) + duration
        total_time += duration

    # Calculate percentages and ratios
    result = {}
    for speaker, talk_time in speaker_talk_time.items():
        percentage = (talk_time / total_time) * 100
        result[speaker] = {
            "talk_time_ms": talk_time,
            "percentage": round(percentage, 2)
        }

    # Calculate talk-listen ratios for each speaker against all others
    for speaker in result.keys():
        other_speakers_time = sum(talk_time for spk, talk_time in speaker_talk_time.items() if spk != speaker)
        if other_speakers_time > 0:
            ratio = speaker_talk_time[speaker] / other_speakers_time
            result[speaker]["talk_listen_ratio"] = round(ratio, 2)
        else:
            result[speaker]["talk_listen_ratio"] = None  # Handle cases with only one speaker

    return result

transcriber = aai.Transcriber()
audio_url = ("YOUR_AUDIO_URL")
config = aai.TranscriptionConfig(speaker_labels=True)
transcript = transcriber.transcribe(audio_url, config)

talk_listen_stats = calculate_talk_listen_ratios(transcript)
print(talk_listen_stats)

Get started

Before we begin, make sure you have an AssemblyAI account and an API key. You can sign up for an AssemblyAI account and get your API key from your dashboard.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Install the SDK:

pip install assemblyai

Import the assemblyai package and set the API key.

import assemblyai as aai

aai.settings.api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY"

Define a function called calculate_talk_listen_ratios, which will calculate the talk-listen ratios for all speakers from a transcript with speaker labels. Speaker labels must be enabled for the ratios to be calculated.

def calculate_talk_listen_ratios(transcript):
    """
    :param transcript: AssemblyAI Transcript object
    :return: Dictionary with talk time, percentage, and talk-listen ratios for each speaker
    """
    # Ensure speaker labels were enabled
    if not transcript.utterances:
        raise ValueError("Speaker labels were not enabled for this transcript.")

    speaker_talk_time = {}
    total_time = 0

    for utterance in transcript.utterances:
        speaker = f"Speaker {utterance.speaker}"
        duration = utterance.end - utterance.start

        speaker_talk_time[speaker] = speaker_talk_time.get(speaker, 0) + duration
        total_time += duration

    # Calculate percentages and ratios
    result = {}
    for speaker, talk_time in speaker_talk_time.items():
        percentage = (talk_time / total_time) * 100
        result[speaker] = {
            "talk_time_ms": talk_time,
            "percentage": round(percentage, 2)
        }

    # Calculate talk-listen ratios for each speaker against all others
    for speaker in result.keys():
        other_speakers_time = sum(talk_time for spk, talk_time in speaker_talk_time.items() if spk != speaker)
        if other_speakers_time > 0:
            ratio = speaker_talk_time[speaker] / other_speakers_time
            result[speaker]["talk_listen_ratio"] = round(ratio, 2)
        else:
            result[speaker]["talk_listen_ratio"] = None  # Handle cases with only one speaker

    return result

Define a transcriber, an audio_url set to a link to the audio file (replace the example link that is provided with your own), and a TranscriptionConfig with speaker_labels=True. Then create a transcript which will be sent to the function calculate_talk_listen_ratios and print out the results.

transcriber = aai.Transcriber()
audio_url = ("https://api.assemblyai-solutions.com/storage/v1/object/public/dual-channel-phone-data/Fisher_Call_Centre/audio05851.wav")
config = aai.TranscriptionConfig(speaker_labels=True)
transcript = transcriber.transcribe(audio_url, config)

talk_listen_stats = calculate_talk_listen_ratios(transcript)
print(talk_listen_stats)

Example output when using the above sample audio file:

{'Speaker A': {'talk_time_ms': 244196, 'percentage': 42.77, 'talk_listen_ratio': 0.75}, 'Speaker B': {'talk_time_ms': 326766, 'percentage': 57.23, 'talk_listen_ratio': 1.34}}