[AV Media Matters] caddo tribe preservation

[tony gardner <anthony.gardner@cec.eu.int>]

Here are some thoughts on an approach to this problems.

I think the sad fact of life is that when it comes to permanent
archiving of anything over tens of years, it is simply not possible
to copy it somehow to some support and then put it in a vault and
forget about it. Tape and current storage technologies do not permit
this level of security and I doubt if anything is coming in the next
20 years that will adequately address the problem - cheaper storage
maybe but thats not the whole problem. (I hope that I am proved
wrong). That's the bottom line. Talk about archive formats addresses
important issues of data formats and supports: the general objective
is to find a stable support which will last a long time and not to
unacceptably compromise your quality by choosing a good method of
recording the material/data onto that support.

This has to be the starting point, and archive preservation becomes
as a consequence not only a technical matter but 50% also a
management strategy, requiring regular and planned intervention, and
anticipating rather than reacting to problems. It must take into
account the need to migrate to new supports regularly, say every 10
years (longer with luck). It must use the most appropriate
technology available now within your budget, and meeting your
quality criteria. Don't wait for tomorrow. It must take into account
the possibility of physical damage by fire, flooding or machine
malfunction. It must also take into account that no single support
can be guaranteed to last indefinitely - accelerated testing and
manufacturers claims apart -, there is the additional danger of
unforeseen modes of deterioration. There must be planned continuous
quality control, on the preservation copies, with appropriate
measurements of error rates or drop outs, so that a good percentage
of the copies are checked every (say) 3 years. (There are books and
methods in management and systems courses to plan this - it need not
be heavy to be effective). Chose good and constant storage
conditions. Keep a thorough database of the content and location of
all material (including work copies). Use separate work copies for
routine access and avoid touching the preservation copies for
routine work. There must be a regular planned assessment of the
technologies being actually used and assessments of the advantages
of any new technologies. If you have got material now, start now,
using the best techniques available now. Don't plan on the
speculation and hopes of others becoming reality.

Part of any preservation strategy must be to hold two preservation
copies, each on a different support, and that these be stored in
separate locations.

Migration in digital is more transparent and technically easier: the
problem with digital is being sure that the players/decoders are
around when you want to migrate. This problem you address in your
management planning.

Make clear as well the distinction between how you encode the audio
and video, and how you then store it. In the IT world, you can
change storage medium without changing the encoding - transparently.

Since you are originating video at 'domestic' quality, I would
suggest that digitising your video using a good quality capture card
in a PC and bit rates of a few Mbps - or buy the systems for
transferring the DV stream from the camera tape direct to disc: this
will preserve essentially the original quality of the video from a
domestic DV camera you seem to be using. Perhaps a higher bit rate
is appropriate for SP and other 'professional' recordings. The
hardware is not too expensive. If you use one of the recognized
subsets of the MPEG2 formats, (see ebu/smpte report on
harmonization) as used in DVB and ATSC, then you should be
reasonably future proofed for a while. This has got your video as
far as a hard disc. Now look to how you are going to store it.

Burning a DVD either as a DVD-Video or DVD-R is one option. I have
my doubts about the longetivity of recordable CDRs, and the JITS2000
archive conference in Paris earlier this year went into a lot of
detail about the problems with it (I have copies if you want). I
imagine DVD will be much the same. This you address in the
management stategy and with that it becomes a good option for one of
the preservation copies. A second copy kept as computer files on
(say) a local server with RAID discs and/or on storage space rented
over the internet seems a good option and reasonably secure. The
details depend on the local market in your part of the world. Having
got this far, additional storage on audio or video tape is a step
backwards, and I do not recommend it. Another problem with this is
that you have to go to the professional video formats which are
expensive machines for the quality of video you are now originating.
The IT solutions suggested are correct for domestic digital cameras.

A similar approach can be used for audio: a CDR (as now) and server
and/or internet storage is also interesting.

An advantage of the IT approach is that your material is already
there on a server if you are planning putting it on the web.

IBM and Sony (amongst others I am sure) also have services for
storing and accessing audio and video via a private or public web
type front end. You are then paying for a service rather than having
to manage the storage technology yourself. I cannot say if this is
more economic.

Concerning the debate about analogue versus digital: I accept that
an analogue machine for audio or video is probably more easily
re-constructed and made-to-work than a digital machine. However - if
you get your management strategy in place, you are addressing the
problem of obsolescence by regularly assessing the state of the
technological market and state of your recordings. It is a
pro-active strategy.

I hope that this is of some help.

Best Wishes
Tony Gardner
European Commission AV Service (Europe)
All opinions are my own.