Abstract
This chapter summarises the development of image and sound recording and reproduction technologies, the present situation of the audiovisual heritage, and the methodologies for its long-term safeguarding. It traces the history and nature of image and sound documents and their progressive transition from analogue to digital means of creation and dissemination. The inherent instability and vulnerability of tangible audiovisual carriers, combined with the relentless march of technological change, and hence the compounding obsolescence of formats and replay equipment, present major preservation and accessibility challenges. With preservation in the digital domain seen as the only viable long-term strategy, the principles and practicalities of analogue-to-digital transfer are discussed, with reference to formats, standards and data management as well as storage requirements and costs. The importance of adequate metadata and the dangers of cost-saving solutions such as data reduction (“compression”) are highlighted. In conclusion, the author cautions that digitisation is only the beginning: the preservation of digital files requires ongoing, “eternal” personal and financial engagement to maintain their integrity and ensure their future migration as new systems evolve.
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Notes
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Second UNESCO Consultation of Users and Manufacturers of Technical Equipment for Audio, Film, and Television Archives, 4–7 May 1989.
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This trend also compensates for the loss of haptic carriers, which as commercially produced discs have become collectors’ items in their own right.
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Translations of the fourth edition of IASA-TC 03 are under preparation. Translations of the third edition covering audio preservation alone are, however, still available from the IASA website in French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, German, Russian and Chinese.
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Aesthetic “improvements” became popular in the 1980s with the reissue of 78 rpm or LP recordings on CD (Schüller 1991).
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At present, practices for video range from losslessly compressed M-JPEG 2000 in an MXF wrapper to upcoming lossless FFV1 in wrappers such as Quicktime, AVI or Matroska. The digital film production standard DPX is most frequently used for scanning film.
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Because of the considerable requirement of storage space, television broadcasters generally did not strictly follow academic archival principles and employed “compressed” schemes for production and archiving.
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At a resolution of “4 k” at 10, or upcoming 12 bit depth.
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Appendix: Audiovisual Archives Associations, Standardizing Bodies and Audiovisual Preservation Initiatives
Appendix: Audiovisual Archives Associations, Standardizing Bodies and Audiovisual Preservation Initiatives
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AMIA Association of Moving Image Archivists https://amianet.org/
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ARSC Association of Recorded Sound Collections http://www.arsc-audio.org/index.php
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CCAAA Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations http://www.ccaaa.org/
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FADI The Federal Archive Digital Guidelines Initiative http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/
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FIAF Fédération des Archives du Film http://www.fiafnet.org/
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FIAT/IFTA International Federation of Television Archives http://fiatifta.org/
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IASA International Associations of Sound and Audiovisual Archives https://www.iasa-web.org/
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Indiana University Media Digitization & Preservation Initiative https://mdpi.iu.edu/index.php
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Presto Project Family see Richard Wright [reference list above]
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SAVEFILM.ORG http://www.savefilm.org/
SEAPAVAA South East Asia Pacific Audiovisual Archives Association http://seapavaa.net/
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Schüller, D. (2020). Audiovisual Documents and the Digital Age. In: Edmondson, R., Jordan, L., Prodan, A.C. (eds) The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. Heritage Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18441-4_14
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