Digital Storage Options - a Transitional Perspective How Current Storage Technologies Can Facilitate
Longevity and Access

Richard Hess
Vignettes Media

John Spencer
President, BMS/Chace

Jim Wheeler
Media Forward

A continued debate still reigns within the archival community – whether Gold CD-R, HDD, or data storage tapes are the "best" choices for small digitization projects. This session will present the challenges of small archival digitization projects and offer examples of current technologies to provide a transitional approach of cost-effective, robust interim storage solutions. 

Additionally, the concept of a "transitional repository" will be discussed, as there are many parts of a migration project that are not readily available to small archives, such as:

  • Structured metadata databases and templates for technical and descriptive documentation
  • Creation of checksums and data tape writing
  • Workflow consultation
  • Grant proposal review with an emphasis on the resultant digital files
  • Other tools/ hardware/ etc. not available to a small archive

The panel will discuss the current market trends that shape the digital environment, and provide insightful real-world solutions, as well as examples of how small archives have created a digital preservation file and metadata strategy to ensure their longevity as we continue to learn and understand the benefits and risks of digital technology. 

Richard L. Hess
Richard has been involved with tape recording since he bought his first tape recorder in 1963 at the age of eleven. He worked at ABC-TV in New York from 1974-1981 as an audio-video systems engineer. He designed ABC's first 8-track audio sweetening room, among other projects. During that period, he also recorded many concerts and services­as well as recorded or produced about a half dozen record albums­for St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street. Two of these recordings were re-released on Priory Records out of the UK a few years ago.

In 1981, Richard joined McCurdy Radio Industries in Toronto­-they had supplied much of the audio equipment for the last large ABC project he worked on and he thought it would be interesting to move to Canada and to work on the "other side" for a while. McCurdy was sold in 1983 and Richard (and his new bride) went to Glendale, California, to work for 21 years at National TeleConsultants, where he held various titles including vice president and principal consultant. He worked on a wide variety of high-end design projects.In 1999, he had the opportunity to "go public" with the restoration of the 51 oldest tapes in the U.S. and from then on, he returned to his early passion of tape recording. He was able to evaluate this as a second career by working part time at tape restoration while working full time for NTC. Tape restoration continued to excite him. In 2004, Richard and his wife decided it would be good to return to her hometown of Aurora, Ontario, and go into tape restoration full-time. He has been getting great customer feedback and has been involved in researching, along with a host of others, the degradations of recording tape.


John Spencer
John Spencer is President of BMS/Chace LLC. As a member of the NARAS P&E Wing Deliverables Committee, Spencer is a co-author of the Recommendation for Delivery of Recorded Music Projects document (also adopted by AES) and remains an active proponent of bringing transparency to the Master delivery process for record labels. He is also a member of the ARSC Technical Committee, the AMIA Digital Issues Committee, and various AES committees (Digital Libraries and Studio Production and Practices).

Jim Wheeler
Tape Restoration and Archival Services. Education: B.S.E.E., University of California at Berkeley, Graduate work at San Jose State University, 32 years at " U. of Ampex."

Tape Engineer and Expert Witness: -- Internationally recognized authority on tape preservation and tape restoration. --Engineer, tape media and tape recorder design and development, Ampex Corporation (Ampex perfected professional audio and video tape recording). --Presented papers at Conferences in Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Chile, and U.S. --Presented seminars at UCLA, U.C. San Diego, Canadian Maritime Provinces, and Southeast Asia. --Annually, teach two days at the Selznick Film School. --Chaired two international conferences on tape problems and solutions. --Member of special Library of Congress Video Heritage Task Force. --Expert for the U.S. Department of Justice Nixon White House (Watergate) tape case. --Member, Ford Foundation Advisory Committee for preserving historical material in tropical countries --Advisor to FBI, Library of Congress, U.S. National Archives, National Transportation Safety Board, and other organizations. --Consultant for NASA to determine problem with Jupiter Galileo probe tape recorder. --Invented the original instant replay. Co-recipient of an Emmy for subsequent instant replay development.

Professional Affiliations: --Speaker, newsletter contributor and Past-Chairman of the Preservation Committee, AMIA. --Speaker and Journal contributor, Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE). --Tape Standards Committee, Speaker and Journal contributor, Audio Engineering Society (AES). --Preservation Committee & Speaker, International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT). --Tape Standards Commission, American National Standards Institute (ANSI). --Tape Standards Commission, International Standards Organization (ISO)

 


 

©2008. All Rights Reserved.