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Digital Preservation during a Global Emergency

The 6th Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India, co-organised by the Film Heritage Foundation and FIAF, will take place online from 2 to 19 September 2020. This lecture is scheduled on the 3rd from 18:00 to 19:00 IST (from 12:30 to 13:30 UTC).

Abstract

This one-hour lecture gives an overview on some aspects and requirements which need to be addressed before setting up a digital preservation facility.

It will not only focus on proven solutions and the new possibilities that modern technology offers to the archivist, but also on the general limitations which the archives have to face today and in the foreseeable future. On one hand, there is, of course, the sanitation emergency that the new coronavirus causes during the still worsening pandemic; on the other hand, we should never forget the even more dramatic climate emergency, which is currently less often in the news, but no less dangerous in the long term. The situation has certainly become much more complex on both levels during the last months, but quite possibly each and every individual can have more impact in improving things than ever before.

We need both low-energy and low-technology solutions that are sustainable in the long-term and clearly safer working environments than as we have had in the past. We are probably at the crossroads of decisions that really will determine the future of our audio-visual heritage, as well as the impact our profession can choose to have or have not in the ongoing radical global changes. The current period is indeed unprecedented, yet crucial for humanity! A Q&A will round up the lecture for 15 minutes.

Resources

  • The presentation’s slides (PDF, 1.8 MB).
  • The recording is available on Film Heritage Foundation’s Vimeo channel.

Presenter

Having graduated in both mathematics and computer science, Reto Kromer became involved in audio-visual conservation and restoration back in 1986. He has been running his own preservation company, AV Preservation by reto.ch, and lecturing at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in Donostia (San Sebastián). His current research includes colour spaces, look-up tables and codec programming and emulation. Previously he was head of preservation at the Cinémathèque suisse (the Swiss National Film Archive) as well as a lecturer at the University of Lausanne and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He served as an AMIA board member during two terms. His work has seen him honoured with an inaugural JTS Award.

Bibliography

Free and Open-Source Software

Media Players
Metadata Extraction
File Transformations
Quality Control
Policy Implementer, Checker, Reporter and Fixer
The Missing Piece of Software
Optical Sound Extraction
DCP Encoder (and Player)

Other Resources

2023-05-26