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Broadcasting is indeed proliferating with its multiple screen adaptation, home videos, streaming, OTT and instant content generation. Yet, are the broadcasters preserving and monetizing the extensive and instant content warehouse? The issues related to broadcast archives/content are wide-ranging and include technical obsolescence, media degradation, carrier deterioration, physical and chemical decay and loss to fire and floods. An active digital archiving and preservation strategy adapts content to the requisites of flexibility, scalability and sustainability.
According to UNESCO, “historically audiovisual resources have been recorded on fragile and unstable media, including glass plates, nitrate and acetate-based film negatives and magnetic audio and videotape.” Digitizing archives enable keeping valued image assets preserved for posterity. An equally imperative aspect is renewing the archives for continued monetization across new media and emerging distribution channels.
Let us look at some of the reasons why broadcasters and media organizations must focus on digitization of content.
One key aspect of content loss and deterioration is technical obsolescence. Data and information is fragile in the present times as the technological evolution in ‘carriers and media’ is rapid and transformative. Once a new format is ushered in, the older formats struggle to survive and hence, archiving, preservation and digitization becomes indispensable. The very format that data/information is stored on, is not designed to last into infinity and can quickly degrade. This media can include magnetic tapes, (u-matic tapes, Betacam, Betacam SP, digibeta, 2” quadruple, IMX, 1”, DVCAM, DVCPro, HDCAM, VHS etc.), floppy discs, optical discs and more. Obsolescence also affects the media that digital data is stored on. Organisations, including, museums and cultural heritage, broadcasters, libraries, production studios, governments sectors are increasingly transforming their analogue and digital-born into digital surrogates of the rare, unique and valuable collections.
Catalogue backlogs and insufficient documentation becomes a major stumbling block in the preservation of content. The report, Tracking the reel world, by TAPE, it says “around 40% of respondents report cataloguing backlogs, and on average this concerns a third of their collections. With expansive digitization and digital libraries, “accurate and extensive metadata” is crucial to preservation. Lack of metadata tagging “on content, carrier, size”, hinders long-term preservation and accessibility. With preservation moving to digital and cloud platforms, the lack of metadata, make digital libraries highly vulnerable. Modern Media Asset Management enables integration of the archives and digital content into the production workflow. Many broadcasters are yet to tap it. Digitization allows you to seamlessly navigate your audio-video collection. With the digital library of the content converged with organizational workflows, it facilitates both accessibility and monetization. Once content is a part of a digital library, it improves interaction and digital access. The emergence of a digital library brings its own set of opportunities and challenges. Creating descriptive metadata on item level for digitized objects and their integration into digital collections removes barriers to access and enables discovery of those unique visual resources in the digital environment.
Broadcasters having chock-a-bloc stores with legacy tapes and footage must take that crucial step towards digitization. Whether it is legacy or contemporary, the content held in those analogue tapes or hard drives is not going to be available unhindered. The scratches and blurs, the dark patches and missing frames haunt audiovisual content in every corner of the world. While there is no escaping either technical obsolescence or media degradation, there is a way to restore and preserve the content. The requisites of content sensitivity, privacy, security and copyright alongside the technical steps of tagging, cleaning, digital enhancement, ingestion, storage and quality control, make digitization an intricate and challenging process. Outsourcing digitization ensures the handling of the complex workflows by the experts. There could be three models, suited to disparate organizational capacities. With flexible and customized digitization models, such as On-Site, Off-Site and Managed services, digitization is compatible with diverse organizational requirements and budgetary outlines. While the Off-Site model is best suited for short-term and brief projects, the On-site digitization model is the perfect option, with the management of the project remains in the hands of the organization, whiles the process and the technical workflow lies with the experts. A managed service is compatible with heavy generation and ownership of content – a service contract that outsources operations, infrastructure, equipment and technical support.
Monetization of digital files and library is a crucial aspect of the digitization value chain. From instant retrieval to asset management, digitization renders unusable content into accessible and usable files. In recent times, the value of archives has transformed in the content industry with “the rise of home viewing of videos and DVDs, Internet downloads, streaming video and audio, and the trend towards multicasting”[TAPE]. The evolution of digital platforms, social media, OTT, VOD and advancements in mobile and internet technologies have resulted in an increased demand for content. This translates into a huge opportunity for monetizing the content. The archives aren’t just warehoused, post broadcasting, but the recycle market enables the reuse of the audio-visual assets. Content generators are tapping digital libraries, “where the archive is seamlessly integrated in the production workflow”. [TAPE] Digitization enables broadcasters to capture, pluralize and promote content in ways that facilitate the application of archival assets to support business objectives.
Preservation and digitization have become a crucial part of the broadcasting industry, ensuring long term usability, accessibility and monetization. And yet, audiovisual preservation is not at the forefront of the broadcasting industry. Richard Wright, Research Engineer, BBC says, “there is nothing left of broadcasting unless it is recorded, collected and preserved, and of course accessed.” Broadcast content besides their intrinsic value, is the embodiment of indispensable historical and political value, and also account for historical and research source, 20th century onwards.
MediaGuru is a Global Services Company offering end-to-end solutions in the area of content digitization and preservation, turnkey technology projects and digital media from our offices in UAE, Singapore, South Africa and India.