The production and broadcast process in digital format has evolved alongside technological progress and improvements in telecommunications, making a shift towards a networked world necessary.
Digital trends have made digitisation essential in documentation departments. This process has often proved advantageous, as it has helped solve several issues that media have faced throughout history.
Below, we briefly outline the reasons why digitisation of audiovisual archives may be necessary:
- Greater ease of preserving collections. Preserving audiovisual collections involves high costs due to the need to control facilities, location, temperature, etc., requiring maintenance under specific conditions in large physical spaces.
- Facilitates the distribution and socialisation of content. Digitised material is easier to distribute through new digital audiovisual platforms.
- New market niches. Digitising content enables access to new targeted market niches, especially in digital environments.
- Amortisation of collections. The real possibility of distributing content through digital channels creates a need to maximise the return on archival collections.
Audiovisual digitisation process
Both digitisation and digital preservation involve a series of steps that must be carefully planned to make the process as efficient as possible.
When designing a digitisation and preservation plan, several factors must be considered that affect project efficiency, budget and feasibility:
Time is a critical factor, as the durability of the media to be digitised is often unknown. A technical analysis of the situation is therefore required.
- Potential obsolescence of the hardware and software used.
- The frequency of copying and/or migration processes.
- The time required to complete the process.
The importance of audiovisual heritage
Digitising audiovisual heritage enables:
- Preservation of archives that combine image and sound.
- The use of archives as valuable cultural assets.
However, there are still photographic and audiovisual collections that have not yet been converted into new digital formats from their original media.
Audiovisual archives on obsolete media can have a second life. To achieve this, digitisation must be carried out according to the quality required by international standards for each type of material, and digital preservation measures must be implemented to ensure the longevity of the new digital format. This allows future generations to gain a better understanding of the past.
Artyplan Document, your audiovisual digitisation partner
At Artyplan Document, our expert advisors in digitisation will assess your project and provide the most efficient and viable solution to digitise your audiovisual and photographic archives.
