Re: [ARSCLIST] Archiving to hard drive

[John Spencer <johnsp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

For my company, the main difference between DLT, LTO, and AIT is who owns
the technology.

DLT and AIT are single-vendor, LTO multi-vendor (Seagate, IBM, HP)

There are differences physically and technically (obviously) as well.

John Spencer
Bridge Media Solutions

> From: Pip Laurenson <Pip.Laurenson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx>
> Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 11:09:36 +0000
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Archiving to hard drive
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts regarding the pros and cons of the
> different data tape formats? AIT, DLT, LTO?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joel Bresler [mailto:joel.br@xxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 05 March 2003 03:19
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Archiving to hard drive
>
>
> Sue wrote:
>
>> You're likely to have to migrate off the cd's or server at some point
>> in the near future...
>
> Thanks for the helpful post. Once the music is on a server (presumably
> on a hard disk) why would it necessarily need to be migrated? SCSI
> drives have built in error correction, and the data could be mirrored on
> another hard disk for security. Isn't this the most likely long-term
> data storage solution, bar none?
>
> Best,
>
> Joel
>
> At 02:47 PM 3/4/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>>  Responding to Claire Michelle Viola's request for information:
>>
>> <While we have been transferring here and there to CD-R, mainly in
>> order to provide service copies, the audio engineers here at Eastman
>> are now seriously considering the option of transferring directly to
>> hard drive, with several servers to provide for back-up.>
>>
>>
>> The Naropa Audio Archive Project is in a one-year pilot (NEA
>> funded)project to test the migration of analog audio cassette from 30
>> years of lectures, performances and panel discussions onto various
>> digital formats, including hard drive, for preservation and for access.
>
>> We've been moving over audio since October.
>>
>> Both considerations - preservation, and access - have specific
>> requirements that need to be addressed before any material is migrated,
>
>> or you run the risk of having to redigitize it.
>>
>> For preservation - neither cd-rs or hard drive are 'approved'
>> preservation mediums for audio at this time. That means your DAT is
>> your oficial preservation copy.  Any format you migrate to is
>> provisional and needs to be as pristine a copy as you can afford
>> (uncompressed file, high sampling rate, professional equipment).
>> You're likely to have to migrate off the cd's or server at some point
>> in the near future, so budgeting for multiple (continual) migration is
>> a consideration. As is the format and encoding you intend to employ in
>> creating your digital copy of the audio.
>>
>> For access, how are you going to catalog the transferred files, how do
>> you want access to be handled from the server, what kind of
>> permissions, copyright, or releases are necessary, how are you going to
>
>> log material as it's transferred for which cataloging format...gotta
>> work all that out first.
>>
>> We have a small audio lab equipped with a professional grade (nakamichi
>> dragon) cassette playback, (for your project this would be replaced by
>> DAT playback machine). After converting analog to digital the signal is
>
>> transferred in realtime into a digital audio workstation (computer with
>
>> audio programming - ours is a SADiE). We're sampling at the highest
>> rate we can afford to store on - 44/24. We want a high-quality
>> preservation master, because the cassettes are going to be unplayable
>> soon - even if we are calling it our 'preservation' copy. Is it worth
>> it to go even higher? Everyone we talk to disagrees.
>>
>> Once the file is in the computer, we create:
>> -one CD-DA (audio)for reference - this is a flat, unaltered transfer
>> -two CD-Rs in BWAV format - also the unaltered file (BWAV is the most
>> open format we could find - we want the files to be able to be read in
>> 20 or 200 years). We burn copies of the audio files on two different
>> manufacturers' CDs because there seems to be almost 10% bad cd stock on
>
>> a random basis. We're using Mitsui gold and Taiyo Uden, although I
>> don't think TU is making gold alloy anymore. Anyone know another
>> supplier? This is a preservation issue - gold alloy being most stable.
>
>> We may move over to DVD's as standards emerge. -one back up BWAV file
>> on AIT data storage tape in case the CDs reach some as-yet-unknown end
>> of lifespan
>>
>> As we transfer into the computer, we log the material for all fields
>> required in Dublin Core cataloging. We'll test capturing info
>> sufficient for Marc/Ead records next month - then we'll make
>> test-catalog records for both to see what level of cataloging we can
>> accomodate on a moving-forward basis.  We want the public and
>> researchers to know the material's available, so cataloging for digital
>
>> web-based access is very important to us. We're also logging the
>> content so as to better describe the files. We're not creating
>> transcripts at this time.
>>
>> All copies made to this point go to a temperature and humidity
>> controlled storage facility as the preservation copies. We intend to
>> check the cds and AIT tape annually for loss of data and migrate as
>> needed.
>>
>> -For access, we take the original file that's still in the SADiE, and
>> put it through noise and hiss reduction programs. We edit out the
>> intermissions, smoking breaks, and other dead air. We create an access
>> protection/dubmaster CD-DA (audio copy) and a listening copy.
>>
>> This is at a 3-1 ratio - three hours of real time to process one hour
>> of original audio. It takes up a lot of CDs. At 44/24 every hour of
>> original uses up 3 cds for each BWAV copy. Our librarian does not want
>> to store and handle the 15000 or so access cds we expect to make. So
>> we're developing plan to test server for digital access to collection.
>>
>> We will still create CD-rs and AIT tape for preservation. There's too
>> much fragility to count on keeping preservation copy on hard drive, at
>> least for us. We're in a flood plain. Too much memory for us to afford
>> uncompressed hard drive copies of the entire collection. We'll rig up
>> output from SADiE into server to move compressed access files over.
>> Server will have RAID array as well as a tape back up system. We're
>> working on the front-end internet design now. We figure 2.5 tb to store
>
>> 3000 hours of compressed audio.
>>
>> The compressed MPEG files will go out to folks over the internet after
>> the internet user registers online and signs use agreement. We are
>> planning to offer streaming audio as opposed to downloadable audio, but
>
>> we'll have to see what's most useful to people.  What we are worried
>> about is how many people might use it at once - I have no idea how to
>> budget for bandwidth until we're up; still looking at what to do if too
>
>> many simultaneous users attempt to listen. We should be so successful.
>>
>> Hope this is helpful.  If you'd like more specifics, budget info,etc,
>> don't hesitate to give me a call. I were you, I'd call Seubert and
>> Seadle to advise on the project design. They have been very helpful to
>> our project.
>>
>> Sue Salinger
>> Administrative Director
>> Naropa Audio Archive
>> 2130 Arapahoe
>> Boulder, CO 80302
>> (303)546-3573
>> archive@xxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
> Joel Bresler
> 250 E. Emerson Rd.
> Lexington, MA 02420
> USA
>
> 781-862-4104 (Telephone & FAX)
> joel.br@xxxxxxxxxxx