Standards, Guidelines, and Recommended Practices

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Standards, Guidelines, and Recommended Practices
• IASA-TC 04
• Guidelines on the Production and Preservation
• of Digital Audio Objects

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Editor Kevin Bradley
• Contributors Kevin Bradley, George
  Brock-Nannestad, Mathew Davis, Lars Gaustad, Ian
  Gilmour, Michael Risnyovsky, Albrecht Häfner,
  Dietrich Schüller, Lloyd Stickells, Jim Wheeler
• Reviewed by the IASA Technical Committee

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Practical complement to
• IASA-TC 03
• The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage
• Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy
• Version 1 1997
• Version 2 2001

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Background
• Key Digital Principles and Standards
• Metadata
• Unique and Persistent Identifiers
• Signal Extraction from Originals
• Preservation Target Formats and Systems
• Bibliography
• Index

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Key Digital Principles and Standards
• Stand alone A/D converter
• - minimum specifications
• Linear PCM
• Minimum 48 kHz 24 bit
• .wav BWF
• No data reduction (compression)
• for analogue or linear digital originals

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Signal Extraction from Originals
• Optimise signal extraction
• Determines signal quality for the rest of
  documents life
• Transfer may be a once-and-only process because
  of carrier degradation and financial constraints
• Still keep originals for later consultation

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Historical formats Selection of best copy
• Vinyls Cleaning, restoration
• Analogue magnetic tapes Replay equipment
• Digital magnetic carriers Speed
• Optical disk media Replay equalisation
• Correction misaligned eqmt
• Removal storage artefacts
• Time factor

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Replay Equipment
• Use latest equipment adapted to historical
  formats
• Overview of tape track formats and widths
• Speed
• Correct in the analogue domain
• Replay equalisations
• Historical tape equalisations

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Time factor relation documents duration vs
  processing time for one operator
• Most underrated element in transfer projects
• Well documented tape 2-3
• Inhomogeneous collections, historical materials
  gt3 open ended
• Factory transfer cost intensive and not
  applicable to average heritage/memory
  institutions

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Preservation Target Formats and Systems
• Data and audio specific storage technology
• Digital mass storage systems (DMSS)
• Data tape types and formats
• Hard disk drives
• Small scale manual approaches to digital storage
• Optical disks CD/DVD recordables
• Magneto-optical disks

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Data and audio specific storage technology
• File formats to be preferred over audio streams
  (R-DAT, CD-DA)
• Digital mass storage systems
• Defines DMSS principles and surveys exemplar
  systems

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Data tape types and formats
• Surveys types and formats
• Obsolescence and technology cycles
• Automated vs manual retrieval
• Backup and migration software
• Costs

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Hard disk drives
• Reflects HHD issues in the light of decreasing
  prices
• Disk only storage, HHD monitoring and life
• SCSI vs ATA (IDE)
• Small scale manual approaches to digital storage
• Low cost entry to digital preservation possible
• Logistically demanding

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• Optical disks CD/DVD recordables
• Explains complexity of drive/blank/speed
  compatibility and its influence on recording
  quality
• Imperative selection of blanks by appropriate
  testing, and testing of every recorded disk
• Defines maximum End of Life error levels
• FBE lt 6, BLER average lt 10, BLER peak lt 50, E
  22 and E 32 0
• Discourages the use of CD/DVD recordables for
  institutions that cannot afford complex testing
• Important issue beyond audio archiving

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• IASA-TC 04 shortly to be published on the web
• http//www.iasa-web.org/
• Printed version later this year
• Upgrades on regular basis
• IASA TC invites your comments!

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IASA International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives
Technical Committee

• http//www.iasa-web.org/
• Thank you!