Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Audiovisual Preservation: Sustainability is Paramount

Audiovisual Preservation: Sustainability is Paramount. David Braught. Crawford Media Services. July 6, 2015.
   Many organizations want the most pristine, uncompressed, high quality files possible. That may seem to make sense, but that is usually unrealistic for most organizations. The storage costs to store the massive files can "lead to paralysis in your digital initiatives and to significant long-term data loss (owing to lack of funds for digitization and archival storage upkeep)." While this may be the best way for some, don't automatically assume there is only one right way of audiovisual digitization. There are many options, file types, and organizational factors.  An important part of this is to define your primary goal. The web site includes a chart that shows estimated information about a project:

File Type Bitrate (Mbps) Total Footprint for 500 Hours (Terabytes)
4K DPX (no audio)   9830 2,109.29 TB
2K DPX (no audio)   2400    514.98 TB
Uncompressed 10 Bit HD   1200    257.49 TB
Uncompressed 8 Bit HD     952    204.28 TB
Uncompressed 10 Bit SD     228      48.92 TB
Uncompressed 8 Bit SD     170      36.48 TB
Lossless Jpg2K 10 Bit HD     445      95.49 TB
Lossless Jpg2K 8 Bit HD     330      70.81 TB
Lossless Jpg2K 10 Bit SD       85      18.24 TB
Lossless Jpg2K 8 Bit SD       65      13.95 TB
DV25       31        6.65 TB

Storage costs are "neither cheap nor long term". You can't just put files on a hard drive and expect them to survive indefinitely. A long term solution requires redundant, archivally sound storage that is  migrated to newer storage every five years. "It does no one any good to ingest thousands of hours of 4K scans and then have to pull the plug on the storage fifteen years down the line. Sustainability should always be paramount."  Each institution has to decide what is the best option for them.

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