Digital Archiving

Any organisation that provides or uses AV content needs an archiving solution

Archives are our history – they need to be highly secure and last forever

We’ve been archiving large quantities of content archives since traditional videotapes were still of age! When organisations moved to file-based production workflows those files still needed to be archived, this time we used data tapes. Today we still build a lot of archives with data tapes and up to now, tape is still the most cost-effective and secure solution available.

 

Upon request, we can also use disc to archive your content. Disc archives have some advantages over tape in terms of access but over a long period of time, and considering that archives should last forever, it’s still a more expensive option.

 

Multiple copies stored in separate locations brings further peace of mind

The fact that tape is offline; i.e. securely stored in a library, rather than in a tape drive, means that it’s a very safe technology. If for some reason, there is an attack on your network, the hacker will be unable to reach your tape archive since it’s physically connected to nothing.

 

All our customers have a redundant system in place where we simultaneously write, at a minimum two copies, to their tape library. One copy is kept in the customer’s storage premise, the other copy is safeguarded in an external and highly secure location. Should one tape experience damage of any kind, we automatically fetch the clone and immediately write a new clone for that set.

 

Furthermore, we can migrate any existing tape archives you may have to a more recent tape technology – such as an older LTO format to a newer generation. We have all the necessary tools to take care of the complete migration in a safe environment and monitor the process as it happens.

 

Digitising old archives & generating automatic metadata

Many organisations want to be able to digitise their tape archives, manage them as files, while automatically extract the metadata and adding it to their Media Asset Management (MAM) system where it is then compiled together with the files captured from the tape. VP Media Solutions has developed software tools for this process. If you so wish, we can even add optional plugins that rely on artificial intelligence technology so that once the files are captured and input into the MAM system, it’s possible to have the addition of speech to text and facial or object recognition.

 

A smart & cost-effective bundle for smaller organisations

Compared to large broadcasting networks, smaller organisations (local studios, corporates, regional museums, public libraries) do not produce or consume very large quantities of media.  As such, we have developed a bespoke solution that bundles and integrates several technologies so that archiving historical AV content is affordable to all who need it. Get in touch if you would like to learn more about these smaller bundles.