Audio & video archives are becoming digital - migration scenarios from both a commercial and technical point of view

The digital revolution has just begun knocking on the doors of analogue film- and tape archives still hiding in the basements of all major public and private broadcasting services. The reason why the long anticipated significant breakthrough of the latest technologies in this sector is still overdue may also derive from the enormous amount of information which has to be migrated from old storage media to advanced data storage systems. For example, the video contributions alone add up to millions of hours or thousands of terabytes.

Another delay of the technology transposition and as a consequence thereof the significant capital expenditures in combination with an automatic backup of all present stock footage would be critical. Simply, because already at this point in time, the available budgets hardly ever cannot facilitate a complete backup of all stored data. And as a result of a continuous programme expansion accompanied by the trend to even store raw feeds or partially edited material demands quick action.

Users are aware of the situation and they generate concepts to introduce the new technologies and the involved workflows. Within this context, a series of operational and technical questions are gaining relevance: