Inhouse ATT project with "anyway here" sound engineers of complete audio archive.
All metadata and BWF files are stored in ORF in a dedicated repository called "KOKO" - an extension of a production system that has grown over the years. A connection to KOKO for the large-scale digitization was crucial to achieve, to be able to cope with error-free communication of large data sets. Within KOKO, it is possible to launch (also in batches) the request for digitization to a dedicated XML file, which is organized in a tree structure containing all segments of one carrier (in case they exist).
The import to NOA jobDB and assigning the corresponding workflow depending on the carrier type is managed by a combination of NOA FolderScanner and NOA DBScripter, which prepare the work for digitizers in a completely automated process.
What is one hour of radio archive content worth without segmentation and correct metadata?
One of the reasons why the preservation task has been limited to a maximum output per year was the need for correctly annotated segments. While it can take you 2-3 years only to digitize 100.000 tapes, it will take you years to segment and annotate them accordingly. The ratio of 1:10 approximately between carriers (333.000) versus segments (2.6 million) speaks for itself.
The need for correct segmentation is a resource-intensive task - and so far AI has difficulties to identify different content structures on multi-program tapes. Let alone the clipping of movements in a symphony, or the delimitation of 2 hours of radio archive logging, which either requires intelligent EDL handling based on preexisting metadata, or intellectual annotation.
NOA, CEO
"Partnering with an experienced company has many advantages: apart from the shared knowledge of all our clients, which we contribute via an industrial workbench to our clients, we set up together the most efficient workflows, assign the highest quality gates, AND we can bring down the cost together with the client to just a few euros per hour."
A rather modest setup was chosen, as available resources were known to be scarce. Two studios (1/4" and DAT) were set up: one with a permanent dedicated ingest operator, one with changing technicians.
ORF realized that there were always 2-3 hours available in a week per technician, hence around 30 technicians were trained on the NOA system, so that - whenever they had free time - they could ingest an archival tape to the digital repository.
Onboarding of new technicians was very easy, as the system took care of many different quality aspects.
Excessive measures have been taken to examine each splice via a special tape analysis tool. The NOA Tape Light Barrier N6035 reveals a marker on splices, color changes, and loss of magnetic layer. So, ingest operators are able to review the facsimile carefully after digitization. In case of audible artifacts, the tapes have been respliced.
NOA's 7040 and R500 BLER analysis allows for unattended transfers, revealing problematic tape-head contacts in the digital domain. Sometimes a second ingest was performed, sometimes BLER just indicated a punch-in recording.
A constant check is performed on the end-to-end signal path - BitProof. This has several advantages: As each sample of the AD converter is counterchecked with a correct CRC against the written sound file, there is absolutely no question about the possibility of interstitial errors.
Even more, as the ingest systems - running under MS - are under constant patching, BitProof obsoletes the weekly validation of the signal path.
A specific NOA read mode was chosen for transferring all audio CDs: The so-called "Archive Mode". It reads each block up to 16 times, and only if 2 comparable blocks can be matched, it continues the readout.
Problematic CDs (those that took hours to deliver results) have been taken out of the loop and been polished by specific polishing machines - and in some cases, if this did not work anymore, the readout has been changed to an Alternate mode - a combination of Archive Mode, which, after a timeout, changes to Burst mode until the next track.
A second project was launched years later for the safeguarding of the vast CD collection sitting in eight regional stations. Given the fact that all regional stations were connected with each other in one Active Directory and the bandwidth between regional stations and Vienna was always acceptable for hi-res transfers, several "travel stations" were set up, which took care of transferring the local CD collections for several months in each regional station.
All travel stations communicated with the central jobDB in Vienna, having the permanent link set up to KOKO. So, students and cataloguers in the regionals could very easily set up concentrated work in high-throughput digitizations with the dedicated C2-approved NOA CD drives.
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