How to Preserve Audio(and video)

Richard Wright

BBC Information & Archives

www.prestospace.eu

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Overview The audiovisual preservation problem The “digitisation factory” solution Problems with the solution

Digitisation Factory approach Digital Preservation Funding, equipment, training … Rights

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The Problem: Analogue Media

DecayingObsoleteFragile

Presto Survey, 20015 million hours of holdings(10 European broadcasters)

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Decaying Obsolete Fragile

Obsolescence: at least 2/3 of the material Deterioration: approximately 1/3 of the

material Fragile media: roughly 1/4 of the material

Overall: 70% of holdings have problems

The Solution: digitisation

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Obsolescence Videotape

2”; 1”; U-Matic: no playback equipment Film

Disappearing in post production Audio formats

Grams : no playback equipment ¼” no longer accepted in BBC radio

production and playout systems

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Deterioration Videotape – decay of adhesive

2”; 1”; U-Matic (30% read failures at BBC) Audio – decay of adhesive

¼” tape (depends upon brand) Magnetic sound tracks

Vinegar syndrome Other Acetate – other sources of acetic acid Decay of film splices General decay of polymer materials

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Fragile Media Vinyl

and shellac Film

10 plays per print (videotape: 50) Video or audiotape can easily be

physically damaged or affected be magnetic fields

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Size of the Problem – in Europe

Presto: found 5 million hours 2001 Mainly broadcast archives

Prestospace: found 10 million hours 2004 Broadcast and large national collections

TAPE: found additional 20 million hours In collections not covered previously

UNESCO estimate: 200 million hours worldwide (100 million in Europe)

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Where is the material? Broadcast archives 30% (roughly) National collections 15% Other major collections 15% Small and specialist collections 40%

NB: all these figures refer to archived material ONLY

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The “digitisation factory” solution

Efficient workflow Staff specialisation Triage

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Problems with the solution 1: Digitisation

“You’re not preserving anything; you’re only making more proxies and adding to the problem.”

Not accepted as a solution for film Not easy to implement for video (in full

quality) But – very much accepted for audio

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Problems with the solution 2: Factory approach

Works on homogeneous collections Of good quality material – and lots of it Which is well documented. Also requires excellent staff and

facilities

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Problems with the solution 3: Digital Preservation

Media

Multiple copies

Maintenance

Migration

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Media Datatape is cheaper that hard drives But needs an expensive tape drive And has reliability issues

Optical is cheapest of all But isn’t really mass storage (DVD=4.7 GB)

New DVD format(s) promise 20 to 100 GB And has reliability issues

Hard drives prices have dropped sharply Easiest to automate management And has reliability issues

More information from PrestoSpace:prestospace.eu (“digitisation & storage”)

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Multiple copies

Two copies Two technologies

In two places

But fastest recovery is by mirroring Which means identical technologies

Big arguments about RAID vs simpler options vs more complex options

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Maintenance

Life cycle management Should be every archive’s

built-in process Begins with blank media

Then the writing Then the initial checking Then the periodic checking and ‘aerobics’

Ends with migration to the next format

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Migration

A fact of life Every five years Can involve a lot of manual handling (of

datatapes or optical media) Or can be nearly transparant (disc

upgrades) – but: every three years! Needs lossless file formats

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Problems with the solution 4: Funding, equipment, training …

TAPE – Training for Audiovisual Preservation in Europe

IASA TC04: Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects

ARSC PrestoSpace “Guide to Audiovisual

Preservation”

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Problems with the solution 5: Rights

Huge pressure for greater access Access is the key to funding (for

cultural / heritage collections) Web technology solves the technical

issues Rights limitations can be overcome:

Disclaimers; due diligence; escrow Creative Commons; Public value; Fair

Use; Educational and research use

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PrestoSpace Recommends Set up your own factory if you can OR: use somebody else’s

PrestoSpace working with the ‘facilities industry’ to convince them to give a high quality service at an affordable price

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How to get help: PrestoSpace: technology and support for

audiovisual preservation: information on the PrestoSpace websites, from TAPE training, and from the Preservation Guide wiki: www.prestospace.eu prestospace-sam.ssl.co.uk www.knaw.nl/ecpa/tape/ www.bbcarchive.org.uk