[ARSCLIST] formats: Racal Wordsafe, RSC Tracker

[Brandon Burke <burke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My institution is about to receive 4,000 recordings, of which nearly
half are in one proprietary media i know to be long out of production
(Racal Wordsafe) while the other is at least created by company that
is still in business (RCS Tracker).

I am writing in hopes that someone on the List has some experience
either or both of these formats. If so, please feel welcome to  
contact me
off-list if you prefer.

What i know so far:

* Racal Wordsafe is a VHS-based multi-track technology that requires
a proprietary Racal Wordsafe recorder in order to play back a recording.
I know of at least one company that sells refurbished models...
[http://www.simko-usa.com/Racal/Wordsafe/index.html]
...otherwise this technology seems to be nearly unaccounted for.

* The windows-based RCS Tracker system commits recordings either to
MPEG-2 or WMA, but the DOS-based version creates purely proprietary
files. This i gleaned from talking to one of their support techs on  
the phone.
Here's the URL for their product: http://www.rcsworks.com/products/ 
tracker/

I am visiting the donor next month to look over their hardware,  
specs, etc
but i wanted to know if anyone had experience archiving such files  
before
i leave to try and answer some questions first-hand.

Of particular interest to me is any information about the Racal  
Wordsafe system,
as i'm unclear whether or not the donor will even have any of their  
old manuals.
(We are getting two machines with the tapes; however one is a  
condition unfit for
professional-level playback and the other was cannibalized to feed  
the first.)

thanks,
Brandon Burke.



____________________________________
Brandon Burke
Archivist for Audio Collections
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6010
vox: 650.724.9711
fax: 650.725.3445
email: burke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx