How to Preserve Audio (and video)

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) Richard Wright BBC

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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 

Videotape 

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Film 

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2”; 1”; U-Matic: no playback equipment Disappearing in post production

Audio formats  

Grams : no playback equipment ¼” no longer accepted in BBC radio production and playout systems

Richard Wright BBC

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Deterioration 

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 

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

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Size of the Problem – in Europe 

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

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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 

Richard Wright BBC

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The “digitisation factory” solution 

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Efficient workflow Staff specialisation Triage

Richard Wright BBC

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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

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Problems with the solution 3: Digital Preservation

Media  Multiple copies  Maintenance  Migration 

Richard Wright BBC

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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 

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

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Multiple copies 

Two copies 

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

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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

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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

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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

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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:  

Disclaimers; due diligence; escrow Creative Commons; Public value; Fair Use; Educational and research use

Richard Wright BBC

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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

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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 

Richard Wright BBC

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