How to Preserve Audio
(and video)
Richard Wright
BBC Information & Archives
www.prestospace.eu
Overview
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The audiovisual preservation problem
The “digitisation factory” solution
Problems with the solution
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Digitisation
Factory approach
Digital Preservation
Funding, equipment, training …
Rights
Richard Wright BBC
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The Problem: Analogue
Media
Decaying
Obsolete
Fragile
Presto Survey, 2001
5 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
Richard Wright BBC
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Obsolescence
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Videotape
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Film
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2”; 1”; U-Matic: no playback equipment
Disappearing in post production
Audio formats
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Grams : no playback equipment
¼” no longer accepted in BBC radio
production and playout systems
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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Deterioration
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Videotape – decay of adhesive
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Audio – decay of adhesive
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¼” tape (depends upon brand)
Magnetic sound tracks
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2”; 1”; U-Matic (30% read failures at BBC)
Vinegar syndrome
Other Acetate – other sources of acetic acid
Decay of film splices
General decay of polymer materials
Richard Wright BBC
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Fragile Media
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Vinyl
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Film
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and shellac
10 plays per print (videotape: 50)
Video or audiotape can easily be
physically damaged or affected be
magnetic fields
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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Size of the Problem – in
Europe
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Presto: found 5 million hours 2001
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Prestospace: found 10 million hours
2004
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Broadcast and large national collections
TAPE: found additional 20 million
hours
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Mainly broadcast archives
In collections not covered previously
UNESCO estimate: 200 million hours
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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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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Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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The “digitisation factory”
solution
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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
Richard Wright BBC
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Problems with the solution
2: Factory approach
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Works on homogeneous collections
Of good quality material – and lots of it
Which is well documented.
Also requires excellent staff and
facilities
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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Problems with the solution
3: Digital Preservation
Media
 Multiple copies
 Maintenance
 Migration
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Datatape is cheaper that hard drives
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But needs an expensive tape drive
And has reliability issues
Optical is cheapest of all
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But isn’t really mass storage (DVD=4.7 GB)
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New DVD format(s) promise 20 to 100 GB
And has reliability issues
Hard drives prices have dropped sharply
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Media
Easiest to automate management
And has reliability issues
More information from PrestoSpace:
prestospace.eu (“digitisation & storage”)
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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Multiple copies
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Two copies
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Two technologies
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But fastest recovery is by mirroring
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In two places
Which means identical technologies
Big arguments about RAID vs simpler
options vs more complex options
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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Maintenance
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Life cycle management
Should be every archive’s
built-in process
Begins with blank media
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Then the writing
Then the initial checking
Then the periodic checking and ‘aerobics’
Ends with migration to the next format
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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Migration
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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
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
17
Problems with the solution 4:
Funding, equipment, training …
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TAPE – Training for Audiovisual
Preservation in Europe
IASA TC04: Guidelines on the Production
and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects
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ARSC
PrestoSpace “Guide to Audiovisual
Preservation”
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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Problems with the solution
5: Rights
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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:
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Disclaimers; due diligence; escrow
Creative Commons; Public value; Fair
Use; Educational and research use
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
19
PrestoSpace Recommends
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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
Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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How to get help:
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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
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Richard Wright BBC
FP6-IST-507336 PrestoSpace SAM Work Area
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