2009 Audiovisual digital preservation status report

This Technical Report is a product of the PrestoPRIME Project (D7.1.3.), the major project on digital preservation in the audiovisual sector in Europe.

The current status of audiovisual preservation as of January 2010 is described, as an update to the series of annual report on audiovisual preservation previously given in January 2005 to 20083 as products of the EUsponsored PrestoSpace project. The previous reports concentrated on digitisation, which remains a significant issue. This report will introduce the new problem of digital preservation, which arises from the results of digitisation. After presenting the new problem, the report will summarise current state-of-the-art in coping with the problem. The major conclusion is that there is significant digital library and digital preservation technology for file-based content, but:

• specific tools usually don’t work on professional audiovisual files;
• there is very little use of the general technology within broadcasting, though the situation is better in national audiovisual collections.

Preservation is about access. PrestoSpace always used4 the CCAAA definition5 of preservation:"Preservation is the totality of the steps necessary to ensure the permanent accessibility – forever - of an audiovisual document with the maximum integrity". This report will summarise the access issues for file-based audiovisual content. There are three points of significance:

• web technology solves the technical issues that have limited access to audiovisualarchives, and digitisation solves the logistical issues;
• formal online access, through digital libraries, does not have the tools to supporttime-based content;
• rights issues remain the major unsolved problem limiting public access to the archives of public service broadcasters and national audiovisual collections.

Finally, in each section of this report (digitisation, digital preservation, access) the role of the PrestoPRIME project will be presented.