This document summarizes features and capabilities of the BBC Archive Search tool. It allows users to search the BBC archives using text or advanced criteria like date. Audio and video files can be instantly viewed with original metadata. Speech-to-text transcripts have been added, allowing for 85% accurate searches. New discoveries have been made by searching transcripts. Collections can be curated and shared. An upcoming public version called BBC Discover will provide access to over 10,000 Northern Ireland TV archive items from 1953-1976.

1. REWIND 06/11/2018
1
BBC REWIND
FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2018

2. Watch the trailer here: https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/sites/1943-berlin-blitz/
BBC Archive in Virtual Reality
Immersive VR experience built on a 1943 BBC Radio broadcast by war
correspondent Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and sound engineer Reg Pidsley.
Originally recorded on a plane during the bombing of Berlin it was one of the most
ambitious and dangerous reports made during WWII – but gave crucial insight into
the war to those listening at home.

3. BBC Archive on social media
Watch the video here: https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1050701929767165952
• BBC archive content is
published daily across social
media platforms
• Light-hearted, quirky,
positive clips appeal to
audiences
• BBC Archive is able to reach
younger and more diverse
audiences through social
media publication
• Huge audience figures have
been achieved by our small
editorial team in Belfast
• Instant access to and
publication of content made
possible by the BBC Archive
Search tool

4. Watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/299347080438329/
BBC Archive on social media
Huge audience figures have been achieved by channeling the power of nostalgia.
This video from 1971 about a children’s toy has had 16 million views!

5. Watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/1969-cameron-country-venice-the-vanishing-lady/694094160947586/
BBC Archive on social media
We’ve found that our audience is willing to watch longer videos of archive compared to other content.
This recently published video is over 7 minutes long, and has already had well over 100,000 views.

6. Introducing BBC Archive Search…

7. BBC Archive Search
Built at BBC Northern
Ireland in Belfast by a
small team of
developers led by
Mike Satterthwaite,
and guided by media
manager Rónán
Breathnach-Cashell
Data is held in a
Mongo database and
searched using
Elasticsearch
Archive Search is a
front end search tool
that sits across
various MAM systems
and databases across
the BBC

8. Users cans search
using a free text field,
as well as searching
by date and other
advanced options
We have enriched
our metadata using
Kaldi speech-to-text,
and trained the
system using our
own data – accuracy
is believed to be
around 85%
Playable video and
audio files can be
viewed instantly
alongside original
BBC archive
metadata
Users cans search
using a free text field,
as well as searching
by date and other
advanced options
Metadata and enrichment…

9. Our speech-to-text
transcripts have
timecode embedded,
so users can instantly
shuttle to the
selected point of a
programme
Discovered by one of
our users, this BBC
programme contains,
what we believe to
be, the earliest
known recording of
Californian band
The Grateful Dead
New discoveries…
Not referenced in any
of our original archive
metadata, this and
other discoveries
have been made
possible by speech-
to-text

10. Curation of collections…
BBC Archive Search
can also be used as a
curation tool
This feature can be
used to research and
gather archive
footage for
anniversaries,
obituaries and other
themes and events
Users can select a
group of assets and
save them in a
permanent
collection, which can
be shared and made
searchable by the
rest of the BBC

11. Coming
soon…
A brand new search
tool designed by the
BBC in Belfast - to be
released in early 2019
BBC Discover
The public will have
access to over 10,000
BBC Northern Ireland
TV archive items
From 1953-1976
Current digitisation
initiatives will fuel
publication of
BBC NI TV archive
from 1977 onwards
GPS location data
added to every asset

12. …“Mugwump”
Speech-to-text transcripts have opened up new possibilities for content creation…

13. …“Mugwump”
This video was researched, edited and published all within a couple of hours using the
BBC Archive Search tool and its speech-to-text transcripts.

14. Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRE316x4_cQ
And now a sneak preview…
This is not related to the Rewind project, so we can’t claim credit for it!
But it is something that the BBC are co-funding, and we thought you might be interested to
see it.
They Shall Not Grow Old [Peter Jackson, 2018]
Silent film footage from World War One has been painstakingly restored, turning black and white film into colour.