Re: [ARSCLIST] Pancake horror story

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Malcolm:

The mastering engineer advised the parties to consider the shipment a "write-off" because the tapes 
were so mangled as to be unfixable.  He said the tapes were packed in this sloppy manner -- pancakes 
tapes between pieces of cardboard with the edges of the cardboard clamped tight and taped together 
(which causes edge damage from the get-go). The boxes were so violently handled in shipping that the 
cardboard worked loose in transit, spilling tapes from the hub in most cases and mangling edges and 
tape-pack in all cases. Some tapes were packed horizontal, some verticle, none wrapped in a 
protective bubblewrap, all in a large/heavy box that was obviously dropped hard or slammed around en 
route overseas and back. The engineer lays blame squarely on the major copyright holder, saying he 
doubts a box packed that way would make it cross-country intact, much less overseas and back. The 
engineer states that he can't believe someone would ship master tapes without boxes and as 
un-flanged pancakes.

I would theorize that ANY tapes packaged this way in too-bulky/too-heavy a box would suffer the same 
damage just being loaded and unloaded from a ground-shipping truck. I further theorize the major 
damage came either in a shipping depot or when cargo shifted during a rough airplane landing on the 
way to or from overseas. The point is, if you pack something too massive, damage is almost 
inevitable due to simple physics/gravity, which is why I advise clients to keep boxes small to 
medium and weight per box down and wrap everything in bubble wrap. I forgot to mention last night 
that I also advise clients to wrap grooved disks and tapes in a plastic bag during most seasons so 
as to avoid damage if the box is dunked in a puddle or slush in the gutter or left out in the rain. 
The nesting a box within a box can be very helpful if there is a sea of packing material to absorb 
blunt force.

If I didn't know and trust the people who told me this story, and if they weren't directly involved, 
I'd never believe this could have happened with master tapes owned by a major company. These 
companies have been so cored out by "restructuring" and mega-glomeration that they no longer have 
any knowledgable folks minding the store! I agree with the engineer, the ultimate blame in this is 
on the person who chose to pack valuable intellectual property in such a sloppy manner. I would 
suggest the shipper behaved like a typical shipper -- these guys are not in the "careful" business.

My takeaway is never ship pancakes, always have reels in boxes, tape boxes shut and wrap in 
bubble-wrap (none of this taping and wrapping tight enough to squish the reel or tape-pack, by the 
way), pack tapes either horizontally or vertically but not both, use medium-sized boxes and nest the 
box within a larger box in a sea of force-absorbing material. Perhaps also wrap the nested box in 
plastic so it is water-tight. Keep your total weight of tapes vastly under-spec'd to your boxes, so 
simple physics is your ally instead of your enemy. And ship via the fastest way you can afford so 
the tapes do not stay long in transit. And insure to full value which might, just might, catch a 
shipper's attention before they heave your box off a 2-story drop. Oh, and of course communicate 
clearly enough that you know exactly where to send the tapes!

-- Tom Fine


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Malcolm Davidson" <malcolm_davidson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 8:59 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pancake horror story


> Tom,
>
> "Names deleted because this was told to me in confidence. Suffice to say,
> these tapes are valuable
> and not replaceable."
>
> This is the statement that caught my attention!  Surely anyone making such a
> decision to send originals needs educating, and rather quickly. I doubt
> there is anyone on this list who would willingly send original content
> anywhere by shipping company.  It shows that, in this case, the company had
> scant regard for the inherent value of the original analog tapes.  (If they
> must send them go with a courier)
>
> Unfortunately it's the same mind set that many people often have when it
> comes to file back up.  A hard disk crash wipes out files that were never
> backed up, now what?  In the above case, at least we hope there were digital
> copies of the files.
>
> Malcolm Davidson
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 6:37 PM
> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Pancake horror story
>
>
> > Some people swear by the practice of storing reels of tape as un-flanged
> "pancakes" on a hub. There
> > are some well-documented benefits to this practice, from cost-saving to
> possibly avoiding damage if
> > the box is dropped and flange is mangled badly enough to damage the
> tape-pack. Well, let me tell you
> > a tale ...
> >
> > Names deleted because this was told to me in confidence. Suffice to say,
> these tapes are valuable
> > and not replaceable.
> >
> > Tapes were archived on hubs, mistakenly shipped overseas and mangled on
> the way back in transit.
> > Badly mangled. It will be lucky if there are not unrepairable problems in
> parts of tape containing
> > music. This would not have happened if the tapes were on reels, although
> the mangling was bad enough
> > that the reels may have been bent. The owners of the tapes correctly blame
> the shipping company but
> > I would argue that it's a lesson in just how brutal shippers can be,
> especially if a communications
> > problem of lower-level employees gets something sent overseas and back.
> >
> > My take-away was that if one is to ship tapes as boxed-pancakes, one needs
> to take extreme measures
> > to keep the tape-pack rigid and protected. I would even suggest rigging
> something up using a metal
> > film can. Certainly don't use decades-old cardboard boxes, even if they
> are grouped in large box and
> > surrounded by rigid packing material.
> >
> > -- Tom Fine