Digital preservation of audio, video and film Available to Purchase

Digitisation is used for preservation of audiovisual material. This preservation work is a major producer of digital collections – which then need digital preservation for sustainability. EC Project Presto surveyed the holdings and status of ten major broadcast archives – a significant portion of total European broadcast archives, including some of the largest individual collections. The main findings are that approximately 75 per cent of this material is at risk or inaccessible and that the collections are growing at roughly four times the rate of current progress in preservation work. This paper gives further results of the project, and gives practical guidance for preservation of audiovisual material. Presto demonstrated the effectiveness of the “preservation factory” concept for major broadcast archives – a way to reduce cost while still maintaining or even increasing quality. There is now a new EC project, Presto‐space, which will make the preservation factory available to small and medium‐sized collections.