20 l July 2013
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SOUNDBITES
London’s Absolute Radio has recently added a PreSonus StudioLive 16.0.2 digital console to its mobile setup. “We needed a solution that was compact, portable, fully featured, and that could multitask as a FOH unit, as well as take care of our recording for broadcast. The StudioLive appealed straight away,” said Dean Woodcock, Absolute’s head of broadcast technology and IT.
www.presonus.com
Japanese public broadcaster NHK has installed a file-based loudness management system for its tapeless production chain. The EmotionSystems eFF (Emotion File Finish) program is used to make NHK’s archive of programmes on P2 cards compliant with loudness regulations.
www.emotion-systems.com
Finland’s national broadcaster YLE and the National Library’s Centre for Preservation and Digitisation, both long-time users of NOA Audio Solutionarchiving systems, have recently upgraded to NOA’s JobDB 3.0 to take advantage of its increased workflow and productivity benefits. YLE has also installed a CD Lector system to accelerate the archiving of content on CD.
www.noa-audio.com
TheUniversity of York ’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television is launching a BSc in Interactive Media, combining theory and practice in audio and video production, computer programming, graphic design and storytelling, alongside an understanding of the cultural, social and historical impact of interactive media. The degree programme will admit its first students in autumn 2014.
www.york.ac.uk
Miranda Technologies has been awarded a patent for a new process to reduce audio delay on its range of NVISION 8500 series hybrid routers. The company claims this “significantly reduces” latency on the disembedder, TDM crosspoint and embedder used in the systems.
www.miranda.com
broadcast VERDI opens up archives
BELGIUM Flemish public
broadcaster VRT has begun the digitalisation of its audiovisual archives, notes Marc Maes
LAUNCHED IN January 2012, VERDI (VRT Erfgoed DIgitaal – VRT Digital Heritage) is the first project in which a public broadcaster has resolutely opted for the large-scale digitalisation of its archives. Transfer of a larger volume of material enabled Belgian broadcaster VRT to get a more competivitive price from specialised archiving companies. “We preferred to concentrate
on two carriers ‘to the finish’ rather than to work on different levels with smaller quantities,” explains Jan Vanregemorter, head of archives and documentation at VRT in Brussels. In July 2012, the VRT opened
a public tender bid for the digitalisation of 54,000 hours of DAT tapes and 7,000 hours of compact cassettes. The VRT was among the leading European broadcasters using DAT tape but sound engineers were concerned about the loss of digital information and the maintenance and operation of the DAT players. “It may be contradictory but
one of the most threatened audio carriers is the DAT – if you engrave a ‘1’ and ‘0’ in a stone table, this lasts for 10,000 years, but content on a DAT doesn’t last forever. DAT machines are hard to find and costly on the second-hand market and the capacity to repair DAT players is diminishing every day,” Vanregemorter says.
appointed Sonim. The AV company has a long experience in archiving of files for clients including the EC. “We’re looking at some 7,000 hours of audio tape,” comments Gérard Chapelle, managing director of Sonim. “Our engineers develop specific software for each project, and we did that for VRT. Throughout the process, we also measure the exact size
Over 100,000 hours of analogue ¼-inch tape are currently being transferred 5,000
hours of audio content being converted to WAV per month
of each file and compile the A/B sides of each tape semi-automatically.” “For the digitalisation of
The Memnon ‘DAT-wall’ used for transferring archives The compact audio cassettes
were never officially introduced as recording media with the public broadcaster, but reporters very often decided to swap their heavyweight Nagra for a quality cassette recorder: in some on-air studios, programmes were monitored or stored on tape, resulting in some 6,000 compact cassettes altogether. Memnon Archiving Services
won the tender for the digitalisation of 29,000 DAT- tapes. Before the end of the year,
Memnon will have stored all of the content on digital files. “We started the migration
project in December 2012. Our organisational framework – including a ‘DAT-wall’ used for clients such as Danish Radio and the RTBF’s Sonuma – allows the conversion to stereo, 48kHz WAV format of almost 5,000 hours of audio content per month,” says Gregory Verdonck, PR and marketing manager with Memnon. For the digitalisation of the compact cassettes, VRT
over 100,000 hours of analogue ¼-inch tape we are currently negotiating with the new VIAA (Flemish Institute for Audiovisual Archives),” continues Vanregemorter. “The VIAA’s main objective will be the disclosure of this immense treasure of material for public use in schools, libraries and for educational purposes. The challenge here is to carefully administer the author’s rights. VIAA and VRT are currently negotiating the terms for the further opening of the VRT archives. By September, these discussions must lead to an agreement,” says Vanregemorter. “Because of a [general] lack
of digital archives, valuable content is not used. But we can see the impact of digitalisation: when we add a new batch of digital audio content, we witness a boost in use.”n
www.vrt.be
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