Transcript
Dance Preservation & Digitization Project:
Building a VHS digitizing station
Bay Area Video Coalition & Dance Heritage Coalition
Dance Preservation & Digitization Project
- 3 regional hubs (SF, NYC, DC)
- Formats
- Workflow - Archive or Dance company Hub Repository
- Case study: design and build of VHS station in Washington, DC.
Brief overview of digitization/ storage workflow
DPDP Digitizing Station in DC
Roles in projecto Project manager: basic overview design,
described needs, purchased and worked with local engineer to refurbish deck; mediation between admin and tech. In this case, chose deck model and brand, TBC.
o Video engineer: installation, training on monitor calibration and waveform & vectorscope, signal path documentation.
o Systems administrator, installing server software, advising on workstation workflow.
o Leadership, articulating vision, fundraising.
Preparation
• Resources at BAVC, history of digitization / preferred equipment already; knew what we needed.
• How did the station hardware fit into our digital preservation workflow?o Technicians creating SIPs acting as
“producers” in the OAIS frameworko Filesystem consistencyo Capture card and delivery format(s)
Station design• Finding decks for purchase: eBay, some engineers
o Professional: Sony SVO-5800; Panasonic AG-DS555P; JVC-BRS711U
o Consumer: Panasonic PV-V4021; Toshiba M785; Panasonic AG-2530P Mitsubishi-HSU500
• What are important components when looking for a deck? o BNC versus RCA o S-Video vs. Component vs. Composite o Balanced audio
• “Know what you don’t know”
This perspective.. Informs this decision
• Formats in the collection; the most need based on selection policies/ collection assessment
• Playback deck choice: which format?
• Large number of EP or LP recordings • Playback deck, consumer, professional or both?
• Need for uncompressed or specific target file format
• Choice of capture card.
• Need for multiple playback decks • Consider purchasing a rack; video switcher or patch bay
• Need to output multiple formats at once (versus transcoding post-digitization)
• Talk with engineer about video processor
• Need for adjustment of luminance and chrominance (highly recommended)
• Purchase and training on waveform & vectorscope, and time base corrector.
Working with engineers as an archivist
What should you ask of your engineer?
• Deck refurbishment or purchase
• Recommendationso Recommended workflow, inspection practices.
• Trainingo Waveform & vectorscopeo CRT monitor calibration
Training
• Detailed guidelines & equipment manuals
• In-person review and test tape(s)
• Waveform & vectorscope: a large focus
• Cleaning and deck maintenanceo When to outsource / when to clean in-house
• Looking for artifacts
• Metadata
• QCTools project; intention to make workflow and metadata open-source & easier
• A/V Artifact Atlas: http://preservation.bavc.org/artifactatlas/index.php/A/V_Artifact_Atlas
Example budget
Example signal path
Handout contents
- List of video engineers, largely sourced from Tim Vitale’s AIC list and BAVC, sample budget, sample wiring diagram, example decks BAVC has used or does use.
- Keep analog video engineers in business
- DIY digitization is possible, if not preferred, especially for VHS format.
laurens@bavc.org@laurensx
@bavcpreservewww.bavc.org/preservation
Bay Area Video Coalition & Dance Heritage Coalition
Thank you!
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