As presented at the EBU Radio Archives Workshop in Geneva, 14 February 2019, discussing VIAA's model of coordinated digitisation and how it is applied to VRT's radio archives.
3. The Flemish Institute for
Archiving (VIAA) is the answer of
the Flanders region to the
challenges posed by
degralescence, digital
preservation and increasing
demand for access to our
audiovisual heritage.
13. the VIAA deal
professional
and efficient
digitization
sustainable
digital
preservation
a non-
exclusive right
to use the CP’s
content on it’s
own platforms
digitization archiving interaction
25. VRT radio archives vs. all other VIAA CP’s (ca.)
10000
29000
10000
95000
16000
160000
1500
4000
53000
10000
3000
71500
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
LACQUER DISKS
SHELLAC DISKS
VINYL DISKS
1/4" AUDIOTAPES
AUDIO CDR
TOTAL
VRT QUANTITIES DIGITISED OR TO DIGITISE BY VIAA
ALL OTHER VIAA CONTENT PARTNERS TOGETHER
27. VRT Radio archives vs. all other VIAA CP’s: all carrier types (ca.)
160000 129250
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
LACQUER DISKS
SHELLAC DISKS
VINYL DISKS
1/4" AUDIOTAPES
AUDIO CASSETTES
DAT
CD
AUDIO CDR
16 OTHER AUDIO FORMATS
TOTAL
VRT QUANTITIES DIGITISED OR TO DIGITISE BY VIAA
ALL OTHER VIAA CONTENT PARTNERS TOGETHER
29. VIAA’s digitisation of VRT radio archives carriers per year (ca.)
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
LACQUER DISKS SHELLAC DISKS VINYL DISKS 1/4" AUDIOTAPES AUDIO CDR
30. VIAA’s investments in VRT radio archives digitisation (ca.)
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
LACQUER DISKS SHELLAC DISKS VINYL DISKS
1/4" AUDIOTAPES AUDIO CDR LABOUR COST
31. Conclusions
1. VIAA has given the VRT radio archives a more
concrete, encompassing and successful digitisation
plan than VRT itself ever had.
2. VRT radio archives will be digitised 100% in 2014-
2021.
3. Digitisation will be done at a higher pace and lower
cost than VRT could have done on itself.
4. VIAA’s platforms provide the only direct connection
between VRT radio archive and wider audiences.
32. FIAT/IFTA
1. Global association of media archives: television for
sure, radio is equally welcome.
2. 65% of members are public broadcasters worldwide.
3. Exchanging knowledge in all domains of archiving:
preservation, media management, cataloging, use,
copyright, research, production, …
4. Seminars, conferences, publications, surveys, grants, …
Digitization, digital preservation and giving new target groups (centralized!) access to audiovisual heritage are a huge challenge worldwide, and it is a highly specialised and costly job. Briefly summarized: we need it good, we need it fast, and we need it cheap.
No tradition of charity / patronage / sponsorship / … : we depend on government money. Subsidy depends on the availability of money in the national budget (ministry of Culture and Media).
Our national audiovisual heritage is … almost everywhere! Scattered amongst libraries, archives, museums, broadcasters, universities, arts organisations, private collections, private companies, research centers, governmental bodies, … and these institutions almost never have the technical infrastructure, expertise or the money to cope with this.
In exchange for the first two services, we get a non-exclusive license to use the material (to the extent that the content partners are the rights holders themselves).
Digitization: we fund, initialize and coordinate digitization projects, which are all outsourced. We act as a pivot between our content partners and the digitization service providers.
Archiving: we provide digital preservation (e.g. sustainable storage) as a centralized service to all content providers for a very low fee (ca. 15% of the real cost).
Interaction: we provide access to the audiovisual heritage for four main target groups: the educational world, researchers, the general public through public libraries and our content partners themselves of course. They can always keep the same rights to access their materials as before their collaboration with VIAA.