NOA awarded "Margaretner Unternehmerpreis" for "Most Innovative Product and Service" in Vienna
December 2016
IASA Journal, No. 46
Securing Audio Transfer
May 2016
Sebastian Gabler
Digital transmission and storage of information is widely assumed to function free of unwanted alteration and corruption. Barring an error message, we usually assume digital information to be complete and authentic. Audio professionals however frequently report potential error conditions that often go unnotified by operators as they occur. Jargon words such as “drop-out”, “glitch”, or “click” were coined in that context. Often ambiguous, these terms refer to symptoms that may not be apprehended easily, but from all of which information loss, or information corruption, may be inferred. The article presents a solution that is both reliable and low-threshold for adoption and operation.
Quality Management for Preservation of Analogue and Digital Video Tape
May 2016
Sebastian Gabler
For transferring video tapes it is required to have a good understanding of which parameters in the process chain are critical to reproduction and digitisation, in order to provide accurate preservation copies. For a Video Tape Recorder, key extraction parameters are:
- Intact tape-head system
- Provision of an accurate time base
- Composite-to-component conversion (for composite recording systems)
- Correct signal levels
The need for efficient transfer processes is amplified by the announced obsolescence of the Beta system. Exact figures about functional VTRs and playable cassettes do not exist. Experience with precedent format migrations in Broadcast collections nevertheless allows for the assumption that it will not be possible to extract all holdings with the existing machines before the Beta VTR family is to be considered extinct. Typically, operating cost will rise exponentially towards the end of the usability cycle of Beta VTRs. Additionally, Beta migration projects tend to be huge—analogous to the format’s historical market share—which makes cost-efficiency and Quality Management important factors.
FKT Magazine 03/2015
Efficiency Without Robotics - Digitising 300.000 Hours of SD Video Material
March 2016
Christophe Kummer
The challenge of broadcasting archives in the coming years is certainly in the short period of time a migration of tape-based archive material is still possible, mostly driven by the discontinuation of the maintenance of suitable players and discontuniation of spare part production by some manufacturers. The article examines individual aspects of an archive mass migration, as typically performed by a client inhouse or by an upstream service provider by omission of complex mechanical robotics - while using standard tools and standard software for process mapping with optimized personnel expenditure. Some of the findings of ORF (300,000 hours), RTV Slovenia, and RTVS Slovakia are included in the article.
IASA Journal, No. 44
Broadcast Archives: Between Productivity and Preservation
January 2015
Christophe Kummer, Peter Kuhnle, Sebastian Gabler
File-based digital archiving has been in use in the AV sector for the past 20 years. Recommendations such as IASA-TC 04 for audio have helped give archivists a high awareness of quality when digitising archive material. The Open Archival Information System reference model provides assistance with the organisation and layout of long-term archiving. Specific requirements regarding the usability of an archive, however, present broadcast archives with more sophisticated requirements. In this article, the authors consider different aspects of the appetite for AV broadcast archives and the suitability of data formats in the AV sector from historical, current, and forward-looking perspectives.
JTS 2016, Joint Technical Symposium Singapore
Transfer quality controlled archive digitization approaches for large tape based repositories
March 2016
Christophe Kummer
How systematic preservation systems influence the work models and business procedures in large audio-video archive digitisations for broadcasters and national archives with the examples of México, Sweden and austrian broadcaster ORF. In the paper, an overview will be given on state-of-the-art methods used in the transfer of audio and video collections to digital repositories, specifically outlying innovative methods to secure transcription integrity by monitoring channel code parameters of the involved re-players, and providing end-end integrity checks of the transfer signal chain.
JTS 2016, Joint Technical Symposium Singapore
Fighting the Decay: Permanent Refreshment of Acetate Media
March 2016
Nadja Wallaszkovits
The paper briefly describes the mechanisms of acetate degradation as well as related ageing phenomena in audio-visual carrier materials, focusing on some not so well known facts about the chemical deterioration processes involved. Possible solutions are discussed and the recently developed restoration and preservation process is outlined, as well as various methods to verify the restoration success. Finally results are presented, covering successfully restored audio as well as motion picture film.
FKT Magazine 03/2015
Broadcast Archives at the Convergence Stage Between Radio and Television
March 2014
Christophe Kummer
The article describes the realization of a centralized media library for a radio and television station at two locations in Bratislava, with the resulting workflows for the mass-digitization of some 150,000 hours of video material, the integration of the prduction environment, and the resulting synergies in the use of central metadata and workflows.
FKT Magazine 03/2014
Broadcast Archives: Between Productivity and Preservation
March 2014
Christophe Kummer, Peter Kuhnle, Sebastian Gabler
File-based digital archiving has been in use in the AV sector for the past 20 years. Recommendations such as IASA-TC 04 for audio have helped give archivists a high awareness of quality when digitising archive material. The Open Archival Information System reference model provides assistance with the organisation and layout of long-term archiving. Specific requirements regarding the usability of an archive, however, present broadcast archives with more sophisticated requirements. In this article, the authors consider different aspects of the appetite for AV broadcast archives and the suitability of data formats in the AV sector from historical, current, and forward-looking perspectives.
JTS 2007, Joint Technical Symposium Toronto
Speech to Text meets archiving, curse or blessing?
July 2007
Christophe Kummer, Gerhard Backfried
The present paper examines general concepts behind automatic speech- and language processing technologies set against the requirements of audio archives. It is argued that current technologies in automatic speech recognition, text-analysis and speaker-technologies may be a good starting point to index speech from digitized archive audio material to create low-level descriptors for basic text mining. Together with semantic
annotations created the traditional way, the additional information may be the key to an extended archival mining approach.
24th Tonmeistertagung - VDT International Conference, Leipzig
Workflow- and Quality Management of Audio-Visual Archives
November 2006
Sebastian Gabler, Peter Kuhnle
Digital Media Objects are becoming the dominating content in media orientated libraries and archives, especially in the Broadcast environment. This paper is presenting an organized method to acquire Digital Audio Objects, both of analogue and digital origin, explaining how they could become an Asset and how to preserve them over an extended life cycle.
Mercur Award 2006 for R20 Audio Watermarking Study
20.1.2006
NOA has gathered the Mercur award for the R2O Right to Owner Audio Watermarking study which was deployed upon a research project within the Vienna Creative Industries Call throughout 2004 - 2006.
Significant knowledge increase within the company together with remarkable publications have led to an award amongst 20 austrian industry players.
AES 2005, Watermarking of Archive Recordings
2005, May 28-31, Barcelona, Spain
Daniel Stocker, Christophe Kummer
Narrow bandwidth audio is known to be one tough subject of watermarking when it comes to data density and transparency at the same time. Audio archives possessing rich selection of vintage material tend to license their assets without considering protection of any kind. In the presented paper we show how R2O watermarking technology succeeds providing an optimal solution in such environments.
IBC 2004, R2O Audio watermarking
September 2004, Amsterdam
Daniel Stocker, Christophe Kummer
In this paper we present a complex and versatile digital audio watermarking method “R2O” that was designed exclusively to meet the high quality requirements of music production and audio archives. R2O is a time-domain key-based watermark built upon linear signal transformations and a special scrambling procedure. We also pronounce the importance of watermark security and show how we integrated key-distribution issues into the watermarking engine.
Mercur 2002 Award for NOA N6000 System
4.12.2002
NOA gathered a Mercur award for the N6000 system as the example of an excellent innovation in technology N6000 audio archiving system. The Mercur award is donated to companies from a jury of 5 independent national representatives from technical university as well as the chamber of commerce. The technical innovation and the commercial aspect of the development are honored, thus testifying austrian products international robustness and visionary thinking. The NOA workflow system was honored to be unique in the world besides the excellent techical quality of the product.